The Secret Commonwealth and the Fairy Belief Complex

These matters are discussed, as the contents of the text are systematically examined against the background of Celtic folklore and other seventeenth-century works that concerned themselves with fairies and the supernatural. This body of magico-religious beliefs, thus contextualized, is then interpreted to determine its importance and meaning in Early Modern Highland culture.

The introduction consists of a description of the seventeenth-century intellectual climate, the author, and the texts' form, content, and publishing history. This is followed by a copy of the manuscript. The body of the thesis contextualizes the information in the manuscript typologically to derive an implicit context amid similar cultural expressions. The conclusion will re-examine some historical concerns before demonstrating that these fairy beliefs constituted a coherent, if amorphous, belief complex concerned with the nature of the spiritual, social, and physical worlds.

This idea will be explored phenomenologically to define the belief complex itself from the information gathered thus far, and then examined in the light of current academic views regarding 'survivals' and 'syncretism.' This is intended to draw the reader toward an understanding of this fairy belief complex and the position it holds in the Early Modern Highland culture.