Thomas Crofton Croker

Croker, Thomas Crofton (1798–1854), Irish antiquary and one of the first systematic chroniclers of Irish folklore. His rambles in southern Ireland collecting songs and legends of the people resulted in the anonymous publication in 1826 of the first volume of Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland. A second and third series under Croker's name appeared in 1828, and an edition of the whole, from which Croker excluded tales collected by his friends, was issued in 1834. Frequently reprinted throughout the rest of the century, illustrated by artists including Daniel Maclise and George Cruikshank, Fairy Legends is a significant contribution to the development of British folklore studies since its materials were collected in the field. The Brothers Grimm quickly translated the first volume into German (it was also translated into French) and offered Croker their work on Irish and Scottish fairies and their long essay ‘On the Nature of the Elves’ for his third volume, which concentrated on Welsh and surviving English fairy legends. Although later accused of being excessively literary and of adding humour to the Irish materials, Croker presented a large audience with authentic traditional legends. Noting that supernatural beliefs survived in Ireland, he made such figures as the Phooka, the Cluricaune (leprechaun) and the Banshee important. Croker also arranged and edited Legends of the Lakes (1829), tales of Killarney collected by R. Adolphus Lynch, and was an impetus behind Thomas Keightley's Fairy Mythology (1828), a work which grew from Keightley's collaboration on Fairy Legends.

Bibliography

• Dorson, Richard M., The British Folklorists: A History (1968).
• Fitzsimons, Eileen, ‘Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm's Irische Elfenmärchen: A Comparison of the Translation with the English Original, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland by T. Crofton Croker’ (Diss., University of Chicago, 1978).
• Kamenetsky, Christa, “‘The Irish Fairy Legends and the Brothers Grimm’”, in Priscilla Ord (ed.), The Child and the Story: An Exploration of Narrative Forms (1983).

— Carole Silver

Croker, Thomas Crofton (1798-1854), folklorist. Born in Cork, the son of a British officer, he was educated locally. Early antiquarian interests took him rambling through Munster. His first publication was an article in the Morning Post (1815) describing a caoineadh heard in Gougane Barra in 1813. In 1818 John Wilson Croker arranged an Admiralty clerkship for him in London. A tour in 1821 informed Researches in the South of Ireland, Illustrative of the Scenery, Architectural Remains, and the Manners and Superstitions of the Peasantry (1824). Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1825) is regarded as the first significant collection of Irish folk narrative. Collections of folk songs were Popular Songs of Ireland (1839), Historical Songs of Ireland (1841), and The Keen in the South of Ireland (1844).

Thomas Crofton Croker (15 January 1798 – 8 August 1854) was an Irish antiquary, born at Cork. For some years, he held a position in the Admiralty, where his distant relative, John Wilson Croker, was his superior^[1].

Funerary monument, Brompton Cemetery, London

Croker devoted himself largely to the collection of ancient Irish poetry and Irish folklore. He assisted in founding the Percy Society and the Camden Society. He and his wife's testimonies about funereal customs, particularly the tradition of keening the deceased are among the earlist and most significant contributions to the understanding of the Irish language lament and the accompanying traditions. His work South of Ireland went six editions, it was translated into German by the Brothers Grimm.

Croker died in 1854 and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.[1]

T.F. Dillon Croker FSA, FRGS, was his son and only child^[2].

Works

• Researches in the South of Ireland (1824),
• Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1825-27),
• Popular Songs of Ireland (1837),
• Daniel O'Rourke (1829),
• Barney Mahoney (1832).

References

1. ^ N. C. Hultin (1987). "Belief and Interpretation in T. Crofton Croker's Legends of the Lakes". Folklore. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0015-587X(1987)98%3A1%3C65%3ABAIITC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-B. 
2. ^ "Thomas Crofton Croker (obituary)". The Gentleman's Magazine. 1854. http://books.google.com/books?id=emP3OluYQeUC. 

This article incorporates public domain text from: Cousin, John William (1910). A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London, J. M. Dent & sons; New York, E. P. Dutton.

External links

• Archival material relating to Thomas Crofton Croker listed at the UK National Register of Archives

Persondata
NAME	Croker, Thomas Crofton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Irish antiquary
DATE OF BIRTH	15 January 1798
PLACE OF BIRTH	Cork City, County Cork, Ireland
DATE OF DEATH	8 August 1854
PLACE OF DEATH

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