Editing Andrew Lang (section)

== Scholarship ==

=== Folklore and anthropology ===
[[File:Rumpelstiltskin.jpg|thumb|"[[Rumpelstiltskin]]", by [[Henry Justice Ford]] from Lang's ''Fairy Tales'']]

Lang is now chiefly known for his publications on [[folklore]], [[mythology]], and [[religion]]. The interest in folklore was from early life; he read [[John Ferguson McLennan]] before coming to Oxford, and then was influenced by [[E. B. Tylor]].<ref>[[John Wyon Burrow]], ''Evolution and Society: a study in Victorian social theory'' (1966), p. 237; [https://books.google.com/books?id=OUM4AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA237 Google Books].</ref>

The earliest of his publications is ''Custom and Myth'' (1884). In ''[[s:Myth, Ritual, and Religion (Volume 1).djvu|Myth, Ritual and Religion]]'' (1887) he explained the "irrational" elements of mythology as survivals from more primitive forms. Lang's ''Making of Religion'' was heavily influenced by the 18th-century idea of the "[[noble savage]]": in it, he maintained the existence of high spiritual ideas among so-called "savage" races, drawing parallels with the contemporary interest in occult phenomena in England.<ref name="EB1911"/> His ''[[The Blue Fairy Book|Blue Fairy Book]]'' (1889) was an illustrated edition of [[fairy tale]]s that has become a classic. This was followed by many other collections of fairy tales, collectively known as [[Andrew Lang's Fairy Books]] despite most of the work for them being done by his wife [[Leonora Blanche Alleyne]] and a team of assistants.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Day|first=Andrea|date=2017-09-19|title="Almost wholly the work of Mrs. Lang": Nora Lang, Literary Labour, and the Fairy Books|journal=Women's Writing|volume=26|issue=4|pages=400–420|url=https://www.growkudos.com/publications/10.1080%252F09699082.2017.1371938|doi=10.1080/09699082.2017.1371938|s2cid=164414996|url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OwTHBQAAQBAJ&q=Lang&pg=PT161|title=The Role of Translators in Children's Literature: Invisible Storytellers|last=Lathey|first=Gillian|date=2010-09-13|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781136925740|language=en}}</ref> In the preface of the Lilac Fairy Book he credits his wife with translating and transcribing most of the stories in the collections.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3454 |title=The Lilac Fairy Book by Andrew Lang|via=Project Gutenberg|date=9 February 2009 |access-date=16 January 2014}}</ref> Lang examined the origins of [[totemism]] in ''Social Origins'' (1903).

=== Psychical research ===
Lang was one of the founders of "[[Parapsychology|psychical research]]" and his other writings on [[anthropology]] include ''The Book of Dreams and Ghosts'' (1897), ''Magic and Religion'' (1901) and ''The Secret of the Totem'' (1905).<ref name="EB1911"/> He served as president of the [[Society for Psychical Research]] in 1911.<ref>[[Ivor Grattan-Guinness|Grattan-Guinness, Ivor]]. (1982). ''Psychical Research: A Guide to Its History, Principles and Practices: In Celebration of 100 Years of the Society for Psychical Research''. Aquarian Press. p. 123. {{ISBN|0-85030-316-8}}</ref>

Lang extensively cited nineteenth- and twentieth-century European [[Spiritualism (movement)|spiritualism]] to challenge the idea of his teacher, Tylor, that belief in spirits and [[animism]] were inherently irrational. Lang used Tylor's work and his own psychical research in an effort to posit an anthropological critique of [[materialism]].<ref>{{Cite book | last = Josephson-Storm | first = Jason | title = The Myth of Disenchantment: Magic, Modernity, and the Birth of the Human Sciences | location = Chicago | publisher = University of Chicago Press | date = 2017 |page = 101 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=xZ5yDgAAQBAJ | isbn = 978-0-226-40336-6 }}</ref> Andrew Lang fiercely debated with his Folklore Society colleague Edward Clodd over 'Psycho-folklore,' a strand of the discipline which aimed to connect folklore with psychical research.<ref>Bihet, Francesca (2019) Late-Victorian Folklore Studies and Fairy-Lore. In: Betwixt and Between, 18–19 May 2019, Museum of Witchcraft and Magic, Boscastle. http://eprints.chi.ac.uk/4685/</ref>

=== Classical scholarship ===
{{see also|English translations of Homer#Lang}}
He collaborated with [[Samuel Henry Butcher|S.&nbsp;H. Butcher]] in a prose translation (1879) of [[Homer]]'s ''[[Odyssey]]'', and with [[Ernest Myers (author)|E. Myers]] and [[Walter Leaf]] in a prose version (1883) of the ''[[Iliad]]'', both still noted for their archaic but attractive style. He was a [[Homeric scholarship|Homeric scholar]] of conservative views.<ref name="EB1911"/> Other works include ''Homer and the Study of Greek'' found in ''Essays in Little'' (1891); ''Homer and the Epic'' (1893); a prose translation of ''The Homeric Hymns'' (1899), with literary and mythological essays in which he draws parallels between Greek myths and other mythologies; ''Homer and His Age'' (1906); and "Homer and Anthropology" (1908).<ref>Andrew Lang, "Homer and Anthropology," in ''Homer and the Classics: Six Lectures Delivered before the University of Oxford by Arthur J. Evans, Andrew Lang, Gilbert Murray, F.B. Jevons, J.L. Myres, and W. Warde Fowler,'' ed. R.R. Marett, 44-65 (Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1908).</ref>

=== Historian ===
[[File:Portrait of Andrew Lang.jpg|thumb|right|Andrew Lang at work]]
Lang's writings on Scottish history are characterised by a scholarly care for detail, a piquant literary style, and a gift for disentangling complicated questions. ''The Mystery of Mary Stuart'' (1901) was a consideration of the fresh light thrown on [[Mary, Queen of Scots]], by the Lennox manuscripts in the University Library, [[university of Cambridge|Cambridge]], approving of her and criticising her accusers.<ref name="EB1911"/>

He also wrote monographs on ''The Portraits and Jewels of Mary Stuart'' (1906) and ''[[James VI of Scotland|James VI]] and the Gowrie Mystery'' (1902). The somewhat unfavourable view of [[John Knox]] presented in his book ''John Knox and the Reformation'' (1905) aroused considerable controversy. He gave new information about the continental career of the [[Charles Edward Stuart|Young Pretender]] in ''Pickle the Spy'' (1897), an account of [[Alastair Ruadh MacDonnell]], whom he identified with Pickle, a notorious Hanoverian spy. This was followed by ''The Companions of Pickle'' (1898) and a monograph on Prince Charles Edward (1900). In 1900 he began a ''History of Scotland from the Roman Occupation'' (1900). ''The Valet's Tragedy'' (1903), which takes its title from an essay on [[Alexandre Dumas, père|Dumas]]'s ''[[The Vicomte de Bragelonne|Man in the Iron Mask]]'', collects twelve papers on historical mysteries, and ''A Monk of Fife'' (1896) is a fictitious narrative purporting to be written by a young Scot in France in 1429–1431.<ref name="EB1911"/>

=== Other writings ===
Lang's earliest publication was a volume of metrical experiments, ''The Ballads and Lyrics of Old France'' (1872), and this was followed at intervals by other volumes of dainty verse: ''Ballades in Blue China'' (1880, enlarged edition, 1888); ''Ballads and Verses Vain'' (1884), selected by Mr [[Henry Austin Dobson|Austin Dobson]]; ''Rhymes à la Mode'' (1884); ''Grass of Parnassus'' (1888); ''Ban and Arrière Ban'' (1894); and ''New Collected Rhymes'' (1905).<ref name="EB1911"/> His 1890 collection, ''Old Friends: Essays in Epistolary Parody'', contains letters combining characters from different sources, in what is now known as a [[Crossover (fiction)|crossover]], including one based on [[Jane Austen]]'s ''[[Northanger Abbey]]'' and [[Charlotte Brontë]]'s ''[[Jane Eyre]]''—an early example of a published derivative work based on Austen.<ref>{{cite book |author=Sarah Glosson |title=Performing Jane: A Cultural History of Jane Austen Fandom |publisher=[[Louisiana State University Press]] |year=2020 |pages=49–51 |isbn=9780807173350}} [[Project MUSE]] [https://muse.jhu.edu/book/76001 76001]</ref>

Lang was active as a journalist in various ways, ranging from sparkling "leaders" for the ''Daily News'' to miscellaneous articles for the ''Morning Post'', and for many years he was literary editor of ''[[Longman's Magazine]]''; no critic was in more request, whether for occasional articles and introductions to new editions or as editor of dainty reprints.<ref name="EB1911"/>

He edited ''The Poems and Songs of [[Robert Burns]]'' (1896), and was responsible for the ''Life and Letters'' (1897) of [[John Gibson Lockhart|JG Lockhart]], and ''The Life, Letters and Diaries'' (1890) of [[Stafford Henry Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh|Sir Stafford Northcote, 1st Earl of Iddesleigh]]. Lang discussed literary subjects with the same humour and acidity that marked his criticism of fellow folklorists, in ''Books and Bookmen'' (1886), ''Letters to Dead Authors'' (1886), ''Letters on Literature'' (1889), etc.<ref name="EB1911"/>