Walter Traill Dennison

Walter Traill Dennison (1825–1894) was a farmer and folklorist. He was a native of the Orkney island of Sanday, in Scotland, where he collected local folk tales and other antiquities.

Portrait of Walter Traill Dennison

Biography

Dennison published folk stories in the Orcadian dialect under the title The Orcadian Sketch-Book.^[1] Other works by Dennison were published in periodicals such as Peace's Almanac and the Scottish Antiquary.^[2][3] Dennison was a member of the Free Kirk before founding his own church in Orkney, "Dennison's Kirk."^[4] The anonymously published Sanday Revival Hymns, written for "the members and adherents of the Sanday Free Church Station by one of their deacons," are generally attributed to Dennison.^[5][6]

Married with one daughter, he died on 3 September 1894 after a short illness.^[7] Some of the historic artifacts he collected were sold to the antiquarian James Walls Cursiter, whose collection was acquired by the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery.^[8]

Reception

I have heard a hundred times more about mermaids from the lips of Orkney peasants than I ever saw in books. I do not mention this in any spirit of controversy. Folk-tales may vary in different locations; and I only profess to give, as far as I can, a correct rendering of the beliefs in my own locality.

— Walter Traill Dennison^[9]

Andrew Jennings credited Dennison with having "romanticised and systematised" Orcadian folklore but having nonetheless managed to transmit authentic traditions from the Orcadian peasantry.^[10] According to Simon Hall, Dennison "relied almost exclusively on the peasantry of his native island for the raw materials of his literary work."^[11] The Orcadian folklorist and antiquarian Ernest Marwick considered that Dennison bridged the gap between the social classes and that he had an "affinity with the common people".^[12] Marwick hesitated to call Dennison's stories "folk tales," characterizing them as popular tales from "cottars and fishermen...turned into English for the benefit of the wider public."^[13]

Selected publications

• Dennison, Walter Traill (1861). Sanday Revival Hymns. Edinburgh.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• Dennison, Walter Traill (1880). The Orcadian Sketch-Book. Kirkwall: William Peace & Son.
• Dennison, Walter Traill (1904). Clouston, J. Storer (ed.). Orcadian Sketches. Kirkwall: William Peace & Son.