Tam Lin

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Tam Lin is the hero of a Scottish Borders' legend about fairies and mortal men (one of several "Thomases" in myth, such as True Thomas also known as Thomas the Rhymer).

There are many versions of the Tam Lin story; Francis James Child collected fourteen variants in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, but the summary of Child Ballad 39A is considered to be the earliest.[citation needed]

Joseph Jacobs included a variant, Tamlane, in More English Fairy Tales.

Another Child ballad, Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane, on the other hand, has no connection with this ballad except for the similarity of the heroes' names.

Modern renditions of the ballad have been recorded the British folk rock groups Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span, the British experimental/folk group Current 93, the mediaeval-oriented group The Mediæval Bæbes, the Philadelphia area folk rock group Broadside Electric, and others. Tam Lin is also the name of a New York City-based singer-songwriter whose name is taken from this ballad.

Tam Lin is also the name of an Irish reel.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Most variants begin with the warning that Tam Lin collected either a possession, or the virginity of any maidens who passed through the forest of Carterhaugh. A young maiden, usually called Janet, came to Carterhaugh and plucked two roses, whereupon Tam appeared and asked why she was in Carterhaugh without his command and had taken what was his. She stated that she owned Carterhaugh, as her father had given it to her.

In most variants, she then went home, and discovered she was pregnant; some variants pick up the story at this point. When an old knight taxed her with it, she announced that she would not declare him her baby's father, that her lover was an elf and that she loved him. She returned to Carterhaugh; in some variants, her brother had told her that a herb growing there would induce an abortion. In all, she picked something, whether the herb or the same roses as when they first meet. Tam reappeared, enraged and forbidding her to harm the child.

She asked him whether he was ever human, either after that reappearance, or in some variants, immediately after their first meeting resulted in her seduction. He revealed that he was a mortal man, who, after falling from his horse, was rescued and captured by the Queen of the Fairies. Every seven years the fairies paid a tithe to Hell of one of their people, and Tam feared he would become that tithe on that night (Hallowe'en). He was to ride as part of a company of knights, and Janet would recognise him by the white horse upon which he was riding. He warned her that, when she caught him, the fairies would attempt to make her drop him by turning him into all manner of beasts (see Proteus), but that he would do her no harm, and when he was finally turned into a burning coal she was to throw him into a well, whereupon he would reappear as a naked man and she should hide him. Janet did as she was asked, and won her knight. The Queen of the Fairies was not best pleased, but acknowledged her claim.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Commentary

Child took the threat to take out Tam Lin's eyes as a common folklore precaution against mortals who could see fairies, in the tales of fairy ointment. Joseph Jacobs interpreted it as rather a reversal of the usual practice; the Queen of Faerie would have kept him from seeing the human woman who rescued him.

[edit] See also

[edit] Modern retellings

[edit] Prose

[edit] Theatre

  • Tam Lin by N. G. McClernan

[edit] Musical

[edit] Film

[edit] Other

  • Tam-Lin, a Closet drama written by Elaine Lee and illustrated by Charles Vess, in The Book of Ballads and Sagas, Vess's collection of adaptations of traditional songs, mostly into comics form.
  • In Carolyn Parkhurst's novel The Dogs of Babel, a section of Tam Lin plays a pivotal role in the story. In it the narrator, Paul Iverson, discovers that his recently deceased wife left an encrypted message to him in their bookshelf, quoting Tam Lin.
  • In the Vertigo comic book, Fables, Tam Lin died in the defense of the last stronghold of the fables against the forces of the Adversary. He is claimed to be the knight loved by the queen of the faeries, who had a reputation of a scoundrel, but gave up his chance of freedom to his page.

[edit] References

  • Joseph Jacobs, ed. More English Fairy Tales. New York: G. P Putnam's Sons, 1894.

[edit] External links

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