Background
Sir William Alexander Craigie was born at Dundee, Scotland, on August 13, 1867.
( In 1931, Sir William Craigie gave the Alexander Lecture...)
In 1931, Sir William Craigie gave the Alexander Lectures in English at the University of Toronto entitled The Northern Element in English Literature with a focus on proving the existence of a Northern literary culture, comparing English literature with Northern literature, especially that of the Scottish and Scandinavians. The book is divided into four lectures.
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(The native religion of the ancient Scandinavians was in i...)
The native religion of the ancient Scandinavians was in its main features only a special form of that common to all the Germanic peoples, and this again was only a particular development of primitive beliefs and practices characteristic of the whole Aryan race. It is impossible to say how far back in time the special Germanic and Scandinavian developments of this religion may go, and of their earlier stages we have absolutely no knowledge beyond what may be doubtfully reached by the methods of comparison and inference. Even of the later stages our information is much more scanty than might be expected. Among the Goths, the southern Germans, and the Anglo-Saxons in Britain, paganism gave way to Christianity at so early a period, that very few details relating to it have been recorded by the civil or religious historians of these peoples; they were indeed more inclined to suppress than perpetuate any lingering knowledge of this kind. The absence of such information is a great bar to the proper understanding of many points in Scandinavian religion, which, instead of being thus illuminated from without, has continually been forced to throw light on the heathen worship of the other Teutonic peoples.
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(Scandinavian countries have been rich in tradition and fo...)
Scandinavian countries have been rich in tradition and folk-lore. The memories of theN orthern peoples were long, and their beliefs inclined to the mysterious and the marvellous. When saga-writing began in Iceland in the 12th century, it rested upon a mass of traditional lore, which comprised not merely genealogy and history, but also an element of the supernatural. This had often permeated the original fact to such an extent as to render its historic basis doubtful, but at the same time it made the legend more impressive, more picturesque, and less easily forgotten. The same spirit is manifest throughout all the centuries. Scandinavian folk-lore covers a period of fully a thousand years, changing to some extent with the rise of a new faith and the growth of new ideas, yet remaining the same in its inmost nature. For this reason it is one that must always be of great interest and value to the student of popular beliefs. When we consider that the science of folk-lore owes more toG reat Britain than to any other country, it is remarkable that so little has yet been done to bring the traditional beliefs of Scandinavia before the professed student or the more general reader. (Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.) About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology. Forgotten Books' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the aged text. Read books online for free at www.forgottenbooks.org
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Sir William Alexander Craigie was born at Dundee, Scotland, on August 13, 1867.
After attending the West End Academy at Dundee, he studied from 1883 to 1888 at St. Andrews University, where he received his master's degree in Classics and philosophy in 1889.
He pursued the same course of study at Oxford from 1889 to 1892 as Bible clerk at Oriel College, obtaining a bachelor's degree in 1893 and a master's degree in 1902.
From 1892 to 1893 he studied Scandinavian languages at Copenhagen and then returned to St. Andrews University as lecturer in Latin from 1893 to 1897.
Craigie left St. Andrews in 1897 to work on the Oxford English Dictionary, of which he was joint editor from 1901 until the enterprise was closed with the publication of the Supplement in 1933. The Supplement was prepared by him in collaboration with C. T. Onions. From 1905 to 1916 he was also lecturer in Scandinavian languages at the Taylor Institution in Oxford; from 1916 to 1925, he was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. In 1925 he accepted a call as professor of English to the University of Chicago, becoming emeritus in 1936, but he afterward lectured at other universities including the University of Glasgow in 1949. He also continued work, with James R. Hulbert, on A Dictionary of American English on Historical Principles (4 vols. , 1938 - 1944). Craigie's other publications include his editions of Scottish texts, namely, Bellenden's Scots translation (1553) of Livy's History of Rome (1901 - 1903), The Maitland Folio Manuscript (1919 - 1927), The Maitland Quarto Manuscript (1920), The Asloan Manuscript (1923 - 1925), and The actis and deidis of Schir William Wallace (1939); and works on Scandinavian subjects for English and American students, such as Scandinavian Folk-Lore (1896), Religion of Ancient Scandinavia (1906), Skotlands Rímur(1908), The Icelandic Sagas (1913), Easy Readings in Old Icelandic (1924), The Art of Poetry in Iceland (1937), and Sýnisbók íslenzkrai rímma (3 vols. , 1952). Before his death, which occurred in Watlington, Oxfordshire, on September 2, 1957, Sir William was working on a dictionary of the older Scottish tongue and on an Icelandic-English dictionary.
( In 1931, Sir William Craigie gave the Alexander Lecture...)
(The native religion of the ancient Scandinavians was in i...)
(Scandinavian countries have been rich in tradition and fo...)
William married to Jessie Kinmond Hutchen of Dundee.