Editing Andrew Lang (section)

=== 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).