Edwin Sidney Hartland (1848-1927) was an English author and Folklorist. He was a president of the Folklore Society. His works include: English Fairy and Other Folk Tales (1890), The Science of Fairytales: An Enquiry into the Fairy Mythology (1891), County Folklore: Gloucestershire (1892), The Legend of Perseus: A Study of Tradition in Story, Custom and Belief (3 Vols., 1894-6), Primitive Paternity: The Myth of Supernatural Birth in Relation to the History of the Family (2 vols., 1909), Ritual and Belief: Studies in the History of Religion (1914) and Primitive Society: The Beginnings of the Family and the Reckoning of Descent (1921).