Scott, Sir Walter
Scott, Sir Walter (1771–1832),novelist, poet, and essayist of the romantic period, concerned with Scottish Border legends and traditions throughout his lifetime. His Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802–3) was a collection of folk and literary ballads in three volumes and contained his important early essay ‘The Fairies of Popular Superstition’. While the elfin people play a role in his poetry, notably in ‘The Lay of the Last Minstrel’, they and their lore are featured even more prominently in his novels. The Monastery (1820) discusses the nature of elemental spirits and presents a fairy‐sylph in the form of the White Lady of Avenel. A fairy changeling appears in Peveril of the Peak (1822), and a Rumpelstiltskin‐like supernatural dwarf in The Pirate (1822). Discussions of fairy lore permeate other novels.
Scott's most important contribution, however, is to...
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