Edwin Sidney Hartland (1848-1927) was an author of works on folklore.
Edwin Sidney Hartland's works include anthologies of tales, and theories on anthropology and mythology with an ethnological perspective. He believed that the assembling and study of persistent and widespread folklore provided a scientific insight into custom and belief. Hartland was president of the Folklore Society, 1899-1901, and contributed to its journal Folk-Lore; his earlier contributions included a dispute with Andrew Lang.
Hartland was born in Islington, eventually making his career as a solicitor in Swansea. His father, E. J. Hartland, was a congregational minister. Throughout his life he served in many judicial positions and on public committees in Swansea and at Gloucester, and took a particular interest in education.
Edwin Sidney Hartland's partial Bibliography:
- Ritual and Belief; Studies in the History of Religion - Mythology and folktales; their relation and interpretation - Primitive paternity; the myth of supernatural birth in relation to the history of the family - The Science of Fairy Tales An Inquiry into Fairy Mythology - Primitive society, the beginnings of the family & the reckoning of descent - The science of fairy tales; an inquiry into fairy mythology - The legend of Perseus; a study of tradition in story, custom and belief - English fairy and other folk tales - The evolution of kinship; an African study - The legend of St. Kenelm - The archaeology of tradition : an address to a meeting of the members of the Society held at Gloucester, 9th March, 1904 - Primitive Society - The Matrilineate Again - County Folk-lore - Popular Studies in Mythology, Romance & Folklore
