Tam Lin

I left the story of Tam Lin to a seperate post so as to not make each post too long. Of all the fairy abduction tales, this is the one closest to Thomas the Rhymer, so much so that some people see it a a variant of the same story. Personally, I wouldn't go that far, but there are a lot of similarities.

For a start, the earliest form of Tam Lin that we have is a Scottish border ballad, like the Ballad of Thomas the Rhymer quoted here (and also set to music by British folk revivalists in the 1970s - in this case, Fairport Convention). It takes place in the same part of Scotland, it also features the Fairy Queen as the abductor, and the name Tam is a variant on Thomas.

In this story, we don't hear how Tam is abducted, aside from a brief reference - the story is focused instead on his rescue. It is told from the point of view of a young Scottish noblewoman named Janet who is warned, along with other women, to avoid the woods of Carterhaugh because Tam Lin lurks there and is after their maidenhood. Janet willfully ignores the warning, goes for a walk in the woods, meets Tam Lin by the well (where else) and duly gives up her maidenhead. Like Thomas, she doesn't appear to be at all reluctant and the ballad appears to imply that she went there for that very purpose.

In the inevitable sequel, she becomes pregnant, and on her father's noticing this and asking her to identify the father, she tells her tale. It seems that the father would perhaps be sceptical about this, thinking she is covering for some man of the household. Be that as it may, she goes back to the well (yes indeed) to find Tam Lin and tell him this latest development.

Up to this point, it is not clear who Tam Lin is - is he human, or fey? His answer is that he is human, but a captive of the Queen of the Fairies and unable to leave. There is a further problem. As mentioned in an earlier post the fairies are required to make a regular sacrifice to the Devil. This is about to fall due, and Tam fears it will be him. In the manner of other rescue stories, he then outlines a magical procedure by which Janet can rescue him. In this case, it involves intercepting the fairy troop as it rides out at Halloween, pulling him from his horse, and holding on tight no matter what happens. As with other rescues, it is perilous. In order to avoid losing her captive, the fairy queen changes his shape repeatedly - a lion, a snake, a burning brand - to try and get her to let go. However, the queen finally admits defeat, although with dire threats, Tam is free, and the pair marry - presumably to live happily ever after.

This story represents an altogether more sinister tale than Thomas's - more in keeping with the general tenor of stories about relations between humans and fairies. Tam can indeed live among fairies and be the lover of the fairy queen, but he is never out of danger - he is at the Queen's mercy, and she is not particularly merciful.

"If I had known, Tam Lin," she says
"That you were up to no good
I'd have taken out your green eyes
And put in eyes of wood."

"If I had known, Tam Lin," she says
"You would have always been alone.
For I'd have taken out your mortal heart
And put in a heart of stone."

The other striking thing about this story is how Tam is changed. It is impossible to tell if he is human or fairy. In many ways he acts like a fairy. When Janet comes to his well and picks the rose, he acts by a mysterious iron law like a fairy would, so that her intercourse with him has a kind of magical inevitability. He rides with the fairies and rivals them for beauty. He provokes fear amongst humans. Yet for all that he is still human and has no lasting place in the fairy realm. He may be the Queen's lover, but she will inevitably cast him aside. As long as he has his eyes of flesh and his mortal heart, he can never be fully hers and will only be fulfilled through love with a human woman.

Abducted by fairies

There are plenty of stories about being abducted by fairies. This is hardly an exhaustive list but let me tell you about a two types.

The first is the idea of the changeling. A human child will be stolen by fairies, and they will leave one of their own in its place. The fairies' motive, as always, is not really clear. Often children abducted in this way (they may be adult children) are introspective dreamers and hence perhaps attractive to the fairies and ripe for abduction. Generally the parents will think that this is their own child but its behaviour will perplex them. In one story I read, the replacement child never spoke, but ate and drank insatiably. The new child was a horrible burden, where the old one was a blessing.

In this type of story a wise outsider - a neighbour, local elder, or some similar figure - will diagnose the problem, and propose a solution. This may involve something drastic, like throwing the imposter in the fire, or something odd, like surrounding the changeling with eggshells full of water. After getting rid of the imposter they need to recover their own child from fairy custody - this might involve finding their home under the hill, and using an iron implement to prevent the fairies from closing the door until the captive is released. The fiaries are likely to give in a make the deal before daybreak to avoid being trapped in the sunlight. (Note the fairy powerlessness against iron which is a repeated motif of fairy tales). Such a rescue is not without risk - the rescuer may be struck dumb, or the fairies may attempt to imprison him too.

There is a obvious mental illness link here, with a slightly "strange" child turning into someone who seems a complete stranger. Magical rituals took the place of treatment. I'm glad we're not expected to throw mentally ill people into the fire these days but the idea that courageous devotion can bring them back still strikes a chord.

The second type of story is that of the revenge abduction. In one instance, a piper claims to surpass the fairies in musical ability and challenges them by entering their cave playing his pipes. He is condemned to wander in their caverns forever playing the same tune. This is of course a moral tale - don't boast! In other tales, the crime is simply being too curious - humans will try to find where fairies live, trace their home under the hillside, and find themselves trapped. Some types of fairies (like nixies, for instance) seem intent on entrapment, dragging unsuspecting young men down to their watery homes where they either drown, or live a life of underwater slavery.

Of these stories, Thomas's is somewhere between the changeling story (he is ripe for abduction but there is no replacement) and the story of the curious person who is trapped (instead of seeking the fairies home, he asks the Queen for a kiss). As in either of these tales, he is not entirely a victim - he contributes to his own fate, and to some extent embraces his visit as an adventure rather than being simply whisked off despite himself. This curiosity and goodwill seems to be what eventually allows him to return - his admiration for the Queen earns her protection, and she guides him through the perils of the land to ensure that he does not become trapped.

The Topography of Elf-land

A quick word about geography, or topography, if these words can really be used about an imaginary place. When Thomas was abducted, where did he go?

When the Queen shows him the three (or five) roads, these are apparently metaphorical - in the same way Jesus used the image in the first place as a metaphor for our life choices. Yet straight after this, they travel on one of them, the one to Elf-land, the Queen's realm.

The geography of elf-land is not entirely consistent in the various folk-tales, but it does have some common elements, and I think these can be traced back to the pre-Christian mythology which seems to be the source or inspiration for many of these tales. In many of these stories, the earth that we live on is known as "middle earth", the term later used (quite differently) by Tolkien for the land in which the Lord of the Rings takes place. This suggests that the earth is between two things - the underworld, and the sky or over-world.

These two places should not be confused with the Christian heaven and hell - the underworld is not a place of torture, nor is the overworld a place of bliss. They are simply different places, with different inhabitants and different laws. In one of the stories in the Mabinogion, the Lord of the Underworld swaps places with the Lord of middle-earth, and rules it so well that the middle-earth lord can only get his kingdom back by trickery.

Other stories suggest that the fairies or elves are inhabitants of the underworld (while the sky is inhabited by various flying creatures and by the stars, which are creatures of another kind). For instance, fairies are often shown to be living in caves, or under hills, and people who stray into their realm are shown as wandering aimlessly through underground passages. (Fairies only grow wings in later literary creations).

This topography explains two things - their fear of light (since they live underground they would be photophobic), and their nearness to humans (they live just beneath us, out of sight but not far away). It also explains the most typical places they emerge - from caves, beside wells, at freshwater springs - places of contact between the underworld and the surface.

This would suggest, then, that Thomas, instead of being taken over the hills to the south (towards England) was taken under them - through a natural or a magical entrance - into the underworld. If the Huntly Stream is the place of meeting, he could in fact have been taken upstream to the source on the hillside and then followed it underground. I'm not sure that the actual Huntly Stream goes underground, but the water has to come from somewhere!!