Used to notify Affilinet's system of a creative view. The VG Wort cookie helps determine the likelihood of our texts being copied and ensures that authors and publishers are compensated for legal claims. If you do not allow these cookies, visits to this website will not be shared with advertising partners and will not contribute to targeted advertising on other websites. The Briggs family, originally from Yorkshire, had built up a fortune in the 18th and 19th centuries … For this a 2-click solution is used, which means that no data is sent to YouTube before you decide to start playback by clicking on the preview. Years later, Briggs combined and expanded the glossaries of fairies that she had appended to her earlier books in her delightful and very popular A Dictionary of Fairies, published in 1976. IP addresses are only processed in anonymous form. Elfriede Golke, geb. This memory of Katharine Briggs, by a friend from her student days at Oxford University, goes to the heart of her life’s work. He piped faster and faster, so that they danced on, whether they wanted to or not. ________________.“Katharine Briggs,” in Carmen Blacker and Hilda Ellis Davidson, eds., Women and Tradition: a Neglected Group of Folklorists (Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press, 2000). I should be most grateful if any members who know of unpublished tales, or variants of tales, would be so kind as to put me on the track of them.”. Reissued as Fairy Lore and Legends (New York: Pantheon Books and Toronto: Random House of Canada Ltd), Abbey Lubbers, Banshees and Boggarts: a Who’s Who of Fairies (Harmondsworth: Kestrel Books, 1979). [The fairies] haunt ‘grove and green, fountain clear and spangled starlit sheen’; they rest among flowers; they can be visible or invisible at will; small as they are, distance is nothing to them….the whole island tingles with them, an enchantment at once natural and remote. Illustrated by John Ward. Briggs is well known today for an ambitious project that she began in the 1960s, to collect and publish all the native British folk-tales in English she could find. In 1971 she published her masterpiece, the four-volume A Dictionary of Folk-Tales in the English Language. Katharine Briggs was awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1952. Avakian, Tanya B. Their cries and shrieks and curses were heard during the night, but in the morning nothing was to be seen of them but the three rings of stone. Katharine … Kostenlose Spenden durch Online-Einkäufe...Unterstützen Sie uns mitIhrem Online-Einkaufohne Extrakosten, On our webiste we make use of cookies. in each play in which Shakespeare mentioned the fairies he turned a slightly different light upon them. Briggs had a variety of sources to work with. Gradually Katharine Briggs’ health declined. English), how many search results you wish to have shown per page (e.g. Also, a few years earlier, although the Briggs family was Unitarian, she decided to become a member of the Church of England, possibly attracted by its sacramental and mystical aspects. Briggs, on the other hand, did not want her work to lose sight of the stories “as stories.” She made use of such resources as the archives at the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh and collections at Leeds University. This site uses cookies to deliver our services, improve performance, for analytics, and (if not signed in) for advertising. In 1941, Briggs surprised her family and friends by joining the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, where for a while she worked as a medical orderly. It was as if Briggs had discovered a rare new world of inexhaustible riches.” One reviewer advised that libraries “ought to buy at least two copies of this entrancing work – one could be locked away when the other is stolen. The Folio Society, Most Editions | First Published | Most Recent. Email address specified when posting a comment and you chose to save your info. In 1969 she was awarded a Doctorate in Literature from Oxford, a source of great satisfaction to her. Biography. They went on two-week tours around England and Scotland to perform their plays, as well as mimes and ballads, in village halls. She wooed you with a tale. The local harper played for them until nearly midnight, and then reminded them that it would soon be Sunday. Dictionary of British Folk-tales in the English Language: Part B: Folk Legends, An Encyclopedia of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies, and Other Supernatural Creatures, A dictionary of British folk-tales in the English language, A geographical notebook of the British Isles. He strongly influenced all three and, in Katharine’s case, shaped her creative imagination and her enthusiasm for traditional tales, ballads, and poems. Katharine Briggs was born in Hampstead, London, in 1898. Part A was republished in 2011 as Folk Tales of Britain and is described by British writer Phillip Pullman in its introduction as “the fullest and the most authoritative collection of British folktales that exists.” The source and, where possible, motif reference for each story are given. Katharine Mary Briggs, author of An Encyclopedia of Fairies, on LibraryThing. As she expressed it, “Twenty people know Cinderella and Rumpelstiltzkin and Bluebeard for one that knows Tattercoats and Tom Tit Tot and Mr. Fox.” In 1958 Briggs published a letter in the London Folklore Society’s journal Folklore stating her intention to undertake such a collection and requesting input from readers: “I am setting to work on a Dictionary of British Folktales, and have already received some valuable material from members of the Society. If you do not allow these cookies, some portions of our website may be less friendly and easy to use, forcing you to enter content or set your preferences on each visit. When the war ended, Briggs went back to Burford and, as if to make up for lost time, immersed herself in her studies. Nine Lives: The Folklore of Cats by Briggs, Katharine Mary and a great selection of related books, art and collectibles available now at AbeBooks.com. They were very merry, however, and one of them cried out that they would go on dancing even if they had to get the Devil himself to play. After graduating, she entered university at Oxford’s Lady Margaret Hall, which had begun to accept women students in 1878 (although they were not permitted to take degrees until 1920). She and her daughters decided to purchase a house in the Cotswolds, in England not far from Oxford. She has been able to show how much interest the writers of all ranks…took in elaborating these ideas….This study could have made dull reading, but the author has handled it with a good deal of literary skill, especially as she has never failed to show the impact of these ideas on the literature of the age.”, As an example of her lively prose, commenting on the size of fairies in Shakespeare’s plays, Briggs notes that. A security cookie used to identify the user and prevent Cross Site Request Forgery attacks. Briggs also became involved with the Brownies and Girl Guides, who gave her further opportunities to hone her storytelling ability. And stolen it will be, or ought to be….It is very difficult to spend a few minutes with it. Then she sent the two girls up the hill, to look for a calf that had strayed. You may allow or decline any category. After his death, Katharine considered herself the man of the family, helping her mother and looking after her two younger sisters. She also had a serious auto accident in 1958, which would be followed by two more accidents in later years, leaving her lame but still able to get around with a cane, and undaunted in spirit. Also published as An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Fairies (New York: Pantheon Books). The sisters – all of whom were good actors – formed the Summer Players. Not that she herself believed there really were fairies. Katharine Mary Briggs was born in 1898 in Hampstead, London, the eldest daughter of Ernest and Mary Briggs. Here she puts her knowledge of English Boggart, bogies and fairyfolk to good … Find This Book These cookies allow us measure how visitors use our website, which pages are popular, and what our traffic sources are. Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the website to function properly. American folklorist Stith Thompson, in a review of The Anatomy of Puck, stated, “Dr. But his health was poor – he had a heart condition that prevented him from taking part in strenuous activity. The Aarne-Thompson tale type and motif indices of international tales were available and extremely useful for scholars, but some found the entries too abstract and “skeletal,” remote from the tales themselves. However, 1939 was the start of the second world war, and the sisters had their hands full working with refugees who were sent to Dalbeathie, and performing other tasks related to the war. In 1956 her mother died. Now there was a wild man, a kind of hermit up Weem Hill, and he met the lady and promised to kill her stepdaughter, but the two girls were always together. She did well; while there, she was glad to have opportunities to act in plays. Below there is an overview of all cookies used on this website. Q. Much as they loved Dalbeathie – the magnificent house and idyllic natural surroundings – the Briggs sisters were rather isolated there. Typically used for form or error message returns. Her mother, nee Mary Harris Baldwin, attended Oberlin College. Katharine Mary Briggs: | |Katharine Mary Briggs| (8 November 1898 – 15 October 1980) was a British folklorist... World Heritage Encyclopedia, the aggregation of the largest online encyclopedias available, … Illustrated by Yvonne Gilbert, Nine Lives: Cats in Folklore (New York: Pantheon Books, 1980). Katharine Briggs was born in Hampstead, London in 1898, and was the eldest of three sisters. Michaelis-Jena, Ruth. Katharine Mary Briggs noted that a third distinction might be needed for "domesticated fairies" who live in human households (see household spirit Seelie and Unseelie Etymology. Briggs was independently wealthy all her life, but she never had any desire to lead a life of leisure. The information is aggregated and anonymous, and cannot be used to identify you. 1986. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact. As an established authority on folk-tales, and on the relations of beliefs in fairies and other supernatural beings with English literature, she was more than up to the task. They wanted to enable individuals to grow … Summing up Briggs’ life and accomplishments, Hilda Davidson wrote. Katharine returned to Dalbeathie and settled down to a creative life there rather than seeking a remunerative post elsewhere. Registers a unique ID that is used to generate statistical data on how the visitor uses the website. 50. day of death on 15 October, 2020, “She had a way with a story that put me in mind of the powers of story-tellers in earlier ages and simpler conditions. The book is as informative as Puck and, written more for a popular audience, even more engaging, with chapters on hobgoblins and imps, fairy midwives and changelings, fairy wives and lovers, and more. On the contrary, she always worked hard at whatever she was involved in, and distinguished herself in several fields – folklore, literary scholarship, dramatic work. Katharine Mary Briggs – Famous Folklorist. All three books are readable, in-depth, generously footnoted studies of fairy and related beliefs, describing them in detail and quoting many instances of their various uses by poets and dramatists. These cookies are used for the purpose of targeted advertising. Speaking and reading, “Folk Tales of Britain: Narratives - The Folio Society,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6VE6TwIBQ8, The Personnel of Fairyland (Oxford, England: Alden Press, 1953), Hobberdy Dick (London: Eyre and Spottiswood, 1955), The Anatomy of Puck: an examination of fairy beliefs among Shakespeare’s contemporaries and successors (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1957, Pale Hecate’s Team: an examination of the Beliefs on Witchcraft and Magic among Shakespeare’s Contemporaries and his Immediate Successors (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1962), Kate Crackernuts (Oxford: Alden Press, 1963), Folktales of England (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul,1965), The Fairies in English Tradition and Literature (Chicago: the University of Chicago Press, and London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1967), A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales in the English Language (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, four vols., 1970-71), The Folklore of the Cotswolds (London: Batsford, 1974), A Dictionary of Fairies: Hobgoblins, Brownies, Bogies and other Supernatural Creatures (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1976). Most widely held works by Katharine Mary Briggs An encyclopedia of fairies : hobgoblins, brownies, bogies, and other supernatural creatures by Katharine Mary Briggs (Book) 16 editions published … Amply illustrated, the book includes not only descriptions of all sorts of fairies – banshees, brownies, goblins, will o’ the wisps, and many more – but also discussions of human interactions with fairies, including ways to protect against fairies (such as turning one’s clothes inside out), their fondness for (and tendency to steal) human children and nursing mothers, and spells to obtain power over fairies. Hobberdy Dick (1955) is about a hobgoblin who has lived for hundreds of years as an invisible guardian in the home of generations of a family sympathetic to fairies, but who runs into trouble when the house is sold to a family of Puritans who equate fairies with devils. This helps us improve how our website works and make it easier for all visitors to find what they are looking for. Other chapters concern practitioners of magic, mermaids and monsters, and spiritual beings such as angels. Throughout her life – in creative childhood games, in amateur dramatics, in scholarly studies of folk and fairy lore, in many books and articles for academic as well as general readers and for children, and in her four-volume collection of tales – her passion shone through. Katharine Briggs was born in Hampstead, London, the eldest of three surviving daughters of Ernest Edward Briggs… Eisler, 10. day of death: Gabriele Meyer- Dennewitz, Saves responses to Consent requests for non-logged in visitors. And she could browse in her father’s extensive library and read in the works of several well known folklorists, which “coloured my taste in Folk Narrative for the rest of my life.” Also significant for her later skill as a storyteller were the sisters’ governesses, who helped develop their charges’ ability to memorize by having them read or listen to stories and then repeat aloud what they had heard. During her several years there she wrote three more books, including one on the folklore of cats, having been a cat-lover all her life. Katharine Cook Briggs was born on January 3, 1875 in Ingham County, MI, to a family who promoted education for women as well as men. Winifred, who was inclined more to the arts, acquired a printing press and printed short plays her sisters wrote. In 1953 Briggs published The Personnel of Fairyland, a collection of stories, simply told, about native British fairies for people to tell to children. › Find signed collectible books by 'Katharine Mary Briggs' Anatomy Of Puck:Briggs V 1 (Katharine Briggs: Collected Works) ISBN 9780415291484 (978-0-415-29148-4) Hardcover, Routledge, 2002. For the first time, she met people from social backgrounds other than her own of privilege and wealth. Sadly, however, Ernest lived there for only two years, for he died of his heart affliction in 1913. In Ireland the fairy beliefs are still part of the normal texture of life; in the Highlands and Islands the traditions continue. Katharine Mary Briggs estimated Net Worth, Biography, Age, Height, Dating, Relationship Records, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below. Briggs was independently wealthy all her … They built a large house, which they called Dalbeathie House after an earlier building on the site. In 1963 she published another children’s book, Kate Crackernuts, and became involved with the Folklore Society of the UK, later being elected as its president in 1967. They are nature fairies, ‘elves of hills, brooks, standing lakes, and groves.’ They seem hardly indigenous to the uninhabited island….In fact they are the nature fairies of an agricultural country with villages within earshot, Warwickshire for instance [the county of Shakespeare’s birth]…. The videos are then integrated using YouTube's extended data protection mode. … They had to find ways to amuse themselves. The Vanishing People: Fairy Lore and Legends – Katharine Mary Briggs. When she was fourteen, Katharine Briggs went to a boarding school in Edinburgh.