In the late-Romantic period of the early nineteenth century, folk collectors were often careful to attest to the authenticity of their materials; but these claims are frequently undermined by clear evidence of editorial intervention which, from a modern-day perspective, makes such collections problematic. The Grimms' Kinder- und Hausmärchen (Tales for Children and Household) of 1812–15 is perhaps the most famous example of how reshaping and refashioning may be imposed for a diversity of reasons, which may be moral, intellectual or spiritual in nature and implication. The character of such refashioning – a kind of metamorphosis – can in itself be interesting and revealing. In collections of materials relating to supernatural subjects, the work of transformation is especially suggestive. The memorialising impulse speaks of the desire to preserve a particular worldview, one which is inevitably endangered but still perceives the possibilities of the magical in the mundane. Moreover, the survival of belief, although ‘transformed’ by the process of collecting and printing, also attests to the survival of a culture.

In Scotland, the recording of what might be termed an ‘enchanted past’ shared with other European collecting practice of the period the desire to preserve aspects of traditional culture which were of both national and regional significance.