Tam Lin

Tam (or Tamas) Lin (also called Tamlane, Tamlin, Tomlin, Tam Lien, Tam-a-Line, or Tam Lane) is the hero of a legendary ballad originating from the Scottish Borders. The story revolves around the rescue of Tam Lin by his true love from the Queen of the Fairies. While this ballad is specific to Scotland, the motif of capturing a person by holding him through all forms of transformation is found throughout Europe in folktales.[1]

The story has been adapted into various stories, songs and films.

Contents

Synopsis

Most variants begin with the warning that Tam Lin collects either a possession or the virginity of any maidens who pass through the forest of Carterhaugh. A young maiden, usually called Janet or Margaret, comes to Carterhaugh and plucks a double rose, whereupon Tam appears and asks why she is in Carterhaugh without his command and has taken what is his. She states that she owns Carterhaugh, because her father has given it to her.

In most variants, she then goes home and discovers that she is pregnant; some variants pick up the story at this point. When an old knight taxes her with it, she announces that she will not declare him her baby's father, that her lover is an elf and that she loves him. She returns to Carterhaugh. In some variants, her brother has told her that an herb growing there will induce an abortion. In all, she picks something, whether the herb or the same roses as when they first met. Tam reappears, enraged, and forbids her to abort.

She asks him whether he was ever human, either after that reappearance, or in some variants, immediately after their first meeting resulted in her seduction. He reveals 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 pay a teind, a tithe to Hell, of one of their people, and Tam fears he will become that tithe on that night (Hallowe'en). He is to ride as part of a company of knights, and Janet will recognise him by the white horse upon which he is riding. He warns her that, when she catches him, the fairies will attempt to make her drop him by turning him into all manner of beasts (see Proteus), but that he will do her no harm, and when he is finally turned into a burning coal she is to throw him into a well, whereupon he will reappear as a naked man and she should hide him. Janet does as she is asked, and wins her knight. The Queen of the Fairies is not best pleased, but acknowledges her claim.

In different variations, Tam Lin is reportedly the grandson of The Laird of Roxburgh, the Laird of Foulis, the Earl of Forbes or the Earl of Murray. His name also varies between versions (Tam Lin being the most common) as Tom Line, Tomlin, Young Tambling, and Tam-a-line.

Versions

The first recorded version of the song appears in the 1549 book "The Complaynt of Scotland".

There have been several interpretations of the Tam Lin story:

Motifs

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.[3]

In some variants, "Hind Etin" has verses identical to this for the first meeting between the hero and heroine.[4]

Adaptations

Prose

Theatre

Music

Songs

The following bands and singers have recorded musical versions, all called "Tam Lin" unless otherwise stated:

There are also versions which change the original story. "Tam Lyn retold" by Benjamin Zephaniah & Eliza Carthy (on the 2007 album The Imagined Village) retells the story with the girl meeting a man in a club and having a one night stand. 6 months later she finds him to say she's pregnant and finds out he's an immigrant without a valid visa and has a court case the following day. She attends the court and sees him go though various transformations before becoming himself: a kind peaceful person. The judge sees this and lets him become a legal citizen, free to bring up his child with his wife. "Discovery" by Three Weird Sisters hints at a darker Tam Lin with ulterior motives for his seduction of the girl.

Other musical uses

As well as these versions, the name has also been used as the stage name of a New York City-based singer-songwriter, an LP by Frankie Armstrong, Brian Pearson, Blowzabella and Jon Gillaspie, and for the title of an Irish reel.

Film

Other

See also

References

  1. ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 336-7, Dover Publications, New York 1965
  2. ^ Francis James Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, "Tam Lin"
  3. ^ a b c Jacobs, Joseph; Batten, John D. (1894). "Tamlane". More English Fairy Tales (2nd ed.). London: David Nutt. pp. 159–62 & notes: 238. ISBN 037001023X. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/More_English_Fairy_Tales/Tamlane. 
  4. ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 340, Dover Publications, New York 1965
  5. ^ a b [1]
  6. ^ Irvine, Alex (2008). "The Books of Faerie". In Dougall, Alastair. The Vertigo Encyclopedia. New York: Dorling Kindersley. pp. 36–37. ISBN 0-7566-4122-5. OCLC 213309015 

External links