A 'mystic message to the world': Henry Jenner, W.Y. Evans-Wentz and the fairy faith in 'Celtic' Cornwall. (1st May 2011)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Phillips, Carl
• Is Part Of: Cornish studies. Volume 19:Number 1(2011)
• Page Start: 123
• Page End: 139
• Publication Date: 2011-05-01
• DOI: 10.1386/corn.19.1.123_1
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2053-9363

Abstract

This article follows on from Sharon Lowenna's recent and revealing discussion of the political and religious foundations of the Celtic-Cornish Revival, in which she concludes that 'the dangers of hagiographising Jenner as fons et origo are to allow the eclipsing of less dominating figures of the Revival through misplaced reverence. It is healthy to view Jenner in the round'. This paper, then, is written in the context of my own postgraduate research project, and seeks to contribute to the widening contemporary understandings of the complex interconnections between individuals and agencies through which Jenner's 'Celtic' Cornwall continues to unfold, thereby further decentring Jenner as 'fons et origo' of the Celtic-Cornish Revival. Amongst Jenner's work on his 1909 retirement to Hale was his writing an introduction to the chapter on Cornwall in a book by W. Y. Evans-Wentz, an American folklorist, called The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries. This article is written in three parts, the first of which outlines a brief biography of Evans-Wentz and discusses the intellectual and political environments through which The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries emerged, arguing that it represents an intervention in wider debates between contested versions of the Celtic. In addition, the Jenner Papers collection at the Royal Institution of Cornwall contains a series of correspondence between Jenner and Evans-Wentz relating to the writing of Jenner's introduction, and of the book as a whole. The second part of this paper, then, uses the correspondence to unpack the dimensions of these contested versions of the Celtic, arguing that it reveals some of the complexities and contradictions at the heart of Jenner's Cornwall.