Emily Lyle (born 19 December 1932 in

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

) is a Scottish ballad scholar and senior research fellow in the School of Celtic and Scottish Studies at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

Biography

Emily Lyle grew up in

Kilbarchan Kilbarchan (; ) is a village and civil parish in central Renfrewshire, in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is almost contiguous with Johnstone, about 5 miles or 8 km west of the centre of Paisley. The village's name means "cell (chape ...

Renfrewshire Renfrewshire () (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. Renfrewshire is located in the west central Lowlands. It borders East Renfrewshire, Glasgow, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire, and lies on the southern ba ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. She studied English language and literature at the

University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

(MA 1954), followed by an education course at the

University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow (abbreviated as ''Glas.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals; ) is a Public university, public research university in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded by papal bull in , it is the List of oldest universities in continuous ...

(Diploma in Education, 1955). For six years she taught English in secondary schools in Britain and New Zealand before she was appointed as a lecturer in English at Ripon College of Education in Yorkshire (1961–65). While employed as a senior lecturer in English at Neville’s Cross College in Durham (1965–68), she wrote her doctoral dissertation "A Study of Thomas the Rhymer and Tam Lin in Literature and Tradition" (1967) at the Institute of Folk-Life Studies at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

. Moving away from the teaching of English literature, she soon established herself in the field of Scottish studies.

Academic career

In 1976-77, she went to Australia as a visiting fellow at the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

. There she collected oral material from those with Scottish connections, some of which is included in the CD “Chokit on a Tattie” (focusing on children’s songs and rhymes), and in a forthcoming issue of the journal ''Tocher''. In 1977, Lyle donated copies of her tape recordings to the

National Library of Australia The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...

. The work she did as a Fellow of the Radcliffe Institute of

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1974-75 gave her increased visibility as a ballad scholar and led to many more visits to Harvard, including an appointment at the

Center for the Study of World Religions Harvard Divinity School (HDS) is one of the constituent schools of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school's mission is to educate its students either in the academic study of religion or for leadership roles in religion, gov ...

in 1995. She was appointed as a research fellow at the

School of Scottish Studies A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of ...

of the

from 1970 to 1995 and as a lecturer from 1995 to 1998. In 1978 she was visiting professor of folklore at the

University of California at Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the Ca ...

; from 1979-1982 she was a visiting lecturer in folklife studies at the

University of Stirling The University of Stirling (abbreviated as Stir or Shruiglea, in post-nominals; ) is a public university in Stirling, Scotland, founded by a royal charter in 1967. It is located in the Central Belt of Scotland, built within the walled Airth ...

from 1979 to 1982. Since 1998 she has been an honorary fellow in the School of Celtic and Scottish Studies at Edinburgh.

Traditional Cosmology Society

Honours

* The Folklore Society’s Coote Lake Research Medal (1987) *The Royal Society of Edinburgh's Henry Duncan Prize Lecture awarded for contributions to Scottish culture (1997) *Fellow of the

Association for Scottish Literary Studies The Association for Scottish Literary Studies (ASLS) is a Scottish educational charitable organization, charity, founded in 1970 to promote and support the teaching, study and writing of Scottish literature. Its founding members included the Sco ...

*Honorary Life Member of the Traditional Music and Song Association of Scotland *The

Saltire Society The Saltire Society is a membership organisation which aims to promote the understanding of the culture and heritage of Scotland, founded in 1936. The society organises lectures and publishes pamphlets, and presents a series of awards in the fiel ...

/ National Library of Scotland's Research Book of the Year Prize for 2003, jointly with Katherine Campbell, for Volume 8 of ''The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection'' *Recipient of the

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

''Emily Lyle: The Persistent Scholar'' *The Hamish Henderson Award for Services to Traditional Music at the

Scots Trad Music Awards The Scots Trad Music Awards or Na Trads were founded in 2003 by Simon Thoumire to celebrate Scotland's traditional music in all its forms and create a high profile opportunity to bring the music and music industry into the spotlight of media an ...

, 2013.

Selected publications

Books

*''Andrew Crawfurd’s Collection of Ballads and Songs'', ed. 2 vols. Edinburgh: Scottish Text Society, 1975, 1996. *''Ballad Studies'', ed. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer Ltd., Folklore Society Mistletoe Series; and Rowman and Littlefield, Totowa, N.J., 1976. *''The Greig-Duncan Folk Song Collection'', ed. with others. 8 vols. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, and Edinburgh: Mercat Press, 1981-2002. *''Scottish Ballads'', ed. Edinburgh: Canongate, 1994; Barnes and Noble, New York, 1995. *''The Song Repertoire of Amelia and Jane Harris'', ed. jointly with Anne Dhu McLucas and Kaye McAlpine. Edinburgh: Scottish Text Society, 2002. *''Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition''. B•A•S•E (Ballads and Songs – Engagements) 1. Trier: WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2007. *''Ten Gods: A New Approach to Defining the Mythological Structures of the Indo-Europeans''. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishers, 2012. *''Robert Burns and the Discovery and Re-Creation of Scottish Song'' (joint with Katherine Campbell). Glasgow: Musica Scotica Trust Publications. Forthcoming, 2013.

Articles

*"Songs from South-West Scotland, 1825-1830: Motherwell's Personal Records in Relation to Records in Crawfurd’s Collection." ''Singing the Nations: Herder's Legacy''. Eds. Dace Bula and Sigrid Rieuwerts. B•A•S•I•S (Ballads and Songs – International Studies) 4. Trier: WVT Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2008. 188-98. *"The Gest of Robyn Hode" (text and headnote). ''The Chepman and Millar Prints''. Ed. Sally Mapstone. Edinburgh: National Library of Scotland and Scottish Text Society, 2008. DVD. *and Katherine Campbell. "The Perfect Fusion of Words and Music: The Achievement of Robert Burns." ''Musica Scotica: 800 Years of Scottish Music. Proceedings from the 2005 and 2006 Conferences''. Ed. Kenneth Elliott, et al. Glasgow: Musica Scotica Trust Publications, 2008. 19-27. *"Three Notes on 'King Orphius'." ''Scottish Literary Review'' 1 (2009): 51-68. *"Robert Burns: Man with a Mission." ''The Folklore Historian'' 26 (2009): 3-18. *"The Tale of the Bold Braband in The Complaynt of Scotland." ''Review of Scottish Culture'' 22 (2010): 196-201. *"'Robin Hood in Barnsdale Stood': A New Window on the Gest and Its Precursors." ''Child’s Children: Ballad Study and Its Legacies ed. Joseph Harris and Barbara Hillers''. B•A•S•I•S (Ballads and Songs – International Studies). Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2012. 71-96. *"Genre: Ballad." ''The Edinburgh Companion to Scottish Traditional Literatures''. Eds. Sarah M. Dunnigan and Suzanne Gilbert. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press (forthcoming).

References

External links

* https://web.archive.org/web/20131007215246/http://www.folklore-society.com/awards/cootelake.asp * http://www.nla.gov.au/media-releases/scottish-gaelic-scholar-receives-national-folk-fellowship *https://projects.handsupfortrad.scot/hall-of-fame/dr-emily-lyle/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Lyle, Emily Living people 1932 births Scottish ballads Academics of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of the University of St Andrews Alumni of the University of Glasgow Academics of the University of Leeds Celtic studies scholars Harvard University faculty People from Renfrewshire Scottish women academics