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Tam Lin

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Tamas "Tam" Lin (also called Tamlane, Tamlin, Tam Lien, Tam-a-Line, Tam Lane, or True Thomas) is the hero of a Borders legend about fairies and mortal men. While this ballad is unique to Scotland, the motif of capturing a person by holding him through all forms of transformation is found throughout Europe in folktales.[1]

"Tamas" is the Scots form of Thomas, and "Tam Lin" may therefore be a variation of Thomas Learmont, who was also known as "True Thomas".

Synopsis

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 or Margaret, came to Carterhaugh and plucked a double rose, 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 teind, 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.

Versions

There have been several interpretations of the Tam Lin story:

  • Francis James Child collected fourteen variants in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads,[2] but the summary of Child Ballad 39A is considered to be the earliest[citation needed] (Another Child ballad, Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane has no connection with this ballad except for the similarity of the heroes' names.)
  • Joseph Jacobs included a variant, "Tamlane", in More English Fairy Tales.[3]

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.[4]

In some variants, "Hind Etin" has verses identical to this for the first meeting between the hero and heroine.[5]

Modern retellings

Prose


Theatre

Music

Tam Lin is also the name of an Irish reel.

  • Tam Lyn retold (song) 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 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.

Film

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.
  • In the Vertigo comic book series The Books of Magic, The Names of Magic and The Books of Faerie, Tamlin is the father of the protagonist Timothy Hunter, potentially the greatest sorcerer in the world. In The Books of Faerie: The Widow's Tale, the story of Tamlin's romance with Queen Titania of Faerie is revealed.
  • In The House of the Scorpion, a novel by Nancy Farmer, Tam Lin is the bodyguard of the protagonist, the clone of Matteo Alacr??n.
  • The multi-faceted novel Red Shift by Alan Garner can be read as a subtle reworking of the ballad .
  • In the fantasy novel The Battle of Evernight by Cecilia Dart-Thornton, the story of Tam Lin is told as the story of Tamlain Conmor.
  • The novel Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones, is a version of Tam Lin in which Tam Lin's captivity lasts into the 21st century

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. ^ Joseph Jacobs, ed. More English Fairy Tales. "Tamlane" New York: G. P Putnam's Sons, 1894.
  4. ^ Joseph Jacobs, ed. More English Fairy Tales. "Tamlane" Jacobs' Notes and References New York: G. P Putnam's Sons, 1894.
  5. ^ Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v 1, p 340, Dover Publications, New York 1965

See also

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