Folk Tradition and Folk Medicine in Scotland. The Writings of David Rorie

Abstract

David Rorie (1867-1946) is known to generations of Scots worldwide as a songwriter and poet. But his extensive work as a pioneer in the science of folklore and folk medicine has only recently been recognized. A country doctor in Scotland and Northern England - most famously at Cults in Aberdeenshire - Rorie was also a founder member of the Folklore Society and an Edinburgh MD in Folk Medicine. He transformed research in folk culture and folk medicine from anecdotal to scientific, ranging, widely over all areas of folk belief and custom. His astute analyses of the lives, customs and beliefs of his fellow men, always tempered with sympathy and wit, brought him recognition as Britain's premier medical folklorist. This book is a collection of the best of Rorie's work in folk culture and folk medicine, in a perceptive introduction he put Rorie's pioneering achievements into a modern perspective.