Keightley, Thomas
Keightley, Thomas (1789–1872),Irish author of The Fairy Mythology (1828). He had earlier contributed much material to Thomas Croker's Fairy Legends of the South of Ireland (1825). While Croker gathered tales, Keightley compared them; his book is among the most significant studies of comparative folklore written in the first half of the 19th century. Often re‐published, it was enjoyed for its lively retellings of fairy tales ranging from the Persian to the Danish and valued for its faithful acknowledgment of sources. In Tales and Popular Fictions (1834), Keightley showed his indebtedness to the Grimms' theory that the source of lore was primitive Gotho‐Germanic religion.
Carole Silver
Bibliography
Dorson, Richard M., The British Folklorists (1968).
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