David MacRitchie

David MacRitchie
Born	16 April 1851(1851-04-16) Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K.
Died	14 January 1925 (73) Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K.
Alma mater	Edinburgh Southern Academy; Edinburgh Institute; University of Edinburgh
Affiliations	Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (Fellow); Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (Fellow); An Comunn Gàidhealach; Celtic Union; Society of Antiquaries; Philosophical Institution; Scottish Anthropological and Folklore Society; etc., etc.

David MacRitchie (Gaelic: Daibhidh MacRuiseart; April 16, 1851 - January 14, 1925), was a Scottish antiquarian and folklorist, being a co-founder of the Gypsy Lore Society, vice-president (1917-1920) of the Council of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, a treasurer (1922-1925) of the Scottish Anthropological and Folklore Society, a member of the Celtic Union and the Philosophical Institution, and a trustee for John Abercromby, 5th Baron Abercromby's archaeology endowment to the University of Edinburgh. He is most well-known today for his promotion of Fairy Euhemerism (or the Pygmy Theory), a hypothesis which holds that the fairy lore of Britain originated from historical memory of Neolithic aborigines that preceded the Celtic presence in the British Isles.

Selected Bibliography

• MacRitchie, David (1884), Ancient and Modern Britons, a Retrospect, London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., https://archive.org/details/ancientandmodernbritons 
• MacRitchie, David (1886), Accounts of the Gypsies of India, London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001261654 
• MacRitchies, David (1896), "Mediaeval 'Glamour' and Its Antidotes", American Antiquarian 18 (2) 
• MacRitchie, David (Aug. 1889), "The Finn-men of Britain (I)", Archaeological Review 4 (1): 1-26, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044099907412&view=1up&seq=17 
• MacRitchie, David (Sep. 1889), "The Finn-men of Britain (II)", Archaeological Review 4 (2): 107-129, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044099907412&view=1up&seq=133 
• MacRitchie, David (Oct. 1889), "British Dwarves", Archaeological Review 4 (3): 184-207, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044099907412&view=1up&seq=218 
• MacRitchie, David (Jan. 1890), "Earth-Houses and their Inhabitants", Archaeological Review 4 (6): 393-421, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044099907412&view=1up&seq=456 
• MacRitchie, David (1890), The Testimony of Tradition, London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.277401 
• MacRitchie, David (1892), The Aïnos, London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/002046177 
• MacRitchie, David (1892), The Underground Life, Edinburgh: Privately printed 
• MacRitchie, David (1893), Fians, Fairies and Picts, London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001277210 
• MacRitchie, David (1894), Scottish Gypsies under the Stewarts, Edinburgh: David Douglas, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001261646 
• MacRitchie, David (1892), Pygmies in Northern Scotland, Edinburgh 
• MacRitchie, David (Oct. 1895), "Some Hebridean Antiquities", The Reliquary & Illustrated Archaeologist 1: 200-215, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015073196670&view=1up&seq=216 
• MacRitchie, David (1898), The Northern Trolls, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001880793  — "Read 11th July 1893, at the International Folk-Lore Congress, Chicago."
• MacRitchie, David (Jan. 1900), "Memories of the Picts", Scottish Antiquary, or, Northern Notes and Queries (Edinburgh) 14 (55): 121-139, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=umn.319510028050145&view=1up&seq=139 
• MacRitchie, David (Feb. 1900), "Fairy Mounds (I)", The Antiquary 36 (243): 52-56, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn4dqa&view=1up&seq=68 
• MacRitchie, David (Mar. 1900), "Fairy Mounds (II)", The Antiquary 36 (244): 70-74, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn4dqa&view=1up&seq=90 
• MacRitchie, David (Mar. 1900), "Underground Dwellings", Scottish Notes and Queries (Aberdeen) 1 (9): 137-139, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015028190208&view=1up&seq=159 
• MacRitchie, David (Jan. 1901), "Modern Views of the Picts", The Monthly Review (London): 131-48 
• MacRitchie, David, The Language of the Highland Cairds 
• MacRitchie, David (1901), Shelta, the Caird's Language, Inverness: Gaelic Society of Inverness  — "from the Transactions of the Gaelic Society, Inverness, 1899-1901"
• MacRitchie, David (1902), Hints of Evolution in Tradition  — "Read before the British Association, 1901."
• MacRitchie, David (1907), Celtic Civilization, https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000289160  — "Reprinted from the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, Vol. xxvi., 1904-1907."
• MacRitchie, David (1909), "An Arctic Voyager of 1653", Scottish Geographical Magazine 25: 393-403, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000066970293&view=1up&seq=419 
• MacRitchie, David (15 Oct. 1909), "A New Solution of the Fairy Problem", The Celtic Review 6: 160-76, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101076201969&view=1up&seq=172 
• MacRitchie, David (15 Jan. 1910), "Druids and Mound-Dwellers", The Celtic Review 6: 257-272, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101076201969&view=1up&seq=269 
• MacRitchie, David (July 1915), "Great and Little Britain", The Dunedin Magazine 
• MacRitchie, David (1915), "The Celtic Numerals of Strathclyde", Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 49 
• MacRitchie, David (1917), The Dùns of the North, Edinburgh: Gordon Wilson 
• MacRitchie, David (1920), The Savages of Gaelic Tradition, Inverness: Northern Counties Newspaper Co., https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001880526 
• MacRitchie, David (June 1924), "The Aborigines of Shetland and Orkney", The Scots Magazine  — "whom he identifies in the persons called 'Finnmen' with the Eskimos."

Reading

• Westaway, Jonathan (11 Nov. 2020), The Orkney Finnmen Legends: From Early Modern Science to Modern Myth, publicdomainreview.org, https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/the-orkney-finnmen-legends/