“Tam Lin”

Description

Janet goes to Carterhaugh to pull flowers. She meets Tam Lin, who makes her sleep with him. She finds herself pregnant, and demands Tam Lin marry her. But to do so, she must rescue him from thralldom to the Elven queen. With difficulty, she does so.

Notes

Carterhaugh, also mentioned as the site of magic in "The Wee Wee Man," "is a plain at the confluence of the Ettrick and Yarrow in Selkirkshire" (Scott).

The idea of gaining a lover who is changing shape has ancient roots. We find it in Ovid's "Metamorphoses," where Peleus (the father of Achilles) has the problem of coupling with his wife Thetis.

The problem was, Thetis was very attractive, and a lot of the Gods (including Zeus and Poseidon) wanted her for themselves. But there was that prophecy that her son would be greater than his father. (This is the prophecy that finally got Prometheus free of his torture, because he knew who was involved and Zeus didn't).

Once the gods knew that Thetis was the dangerous party, they decided to wed her off to a mortal so she could have a son and they could get back to the serious business of hitting on her. They chose Peleus, and held a great marriage feast (it was at that feast that Eris threw out the Apple of Discord, causing the fight between Aphrodite, Athena, and Hera which led to the Judgment of Paris, and hence to the abduction of Helen and the Trojan War).

The gods could marry Thetis off; they couldn't make her like it. Peleus found himself in the interesting position of having to locate and, in effect, capture his wife. Given help from the gods, he found Thetis in a cave and attempted to couple with her. To defeat him, she turned into a bird, a tree, and a tigress. The latter scared him off, but eventually he caught her while asleep (Metamorphoses XI.225ff.).

Dixon quotes a possible mention of this song from Wedderburn's _Complaynt of Scotland_: He refers once to a dance of "thom of lyn," and elsewhere to the "tayl of yong tamlane." But we cannot prove that either of these is this piece, even if it's the same story. Indeed, Dixon hints that the references might be to "Tom o' the Linn," which appears to be the song we index as "Brian O'Lynn (Tom Boleyn)." - RBW

Cross references

• cf. "The Seven Virgins (The Leaves of Life)" (tune)

Recordings

• Anne Briggs, "Young Tambling" (Briggs2, Briggs3)
• A. L. Lloyd, "Tamlyn (Young Tambling)" (on Lloyd3)

References

1. Child 39, "Tam Lin" (15 texts)
2. Bronson 39, "Tam Lin" (4 versions plus 1 in addenda)
3. Dixon II, pp. 11-20, "Tam-a-Line, the Elfin Knicht" (1 text)
4. Scarborough-SongCatcher, pp. 250-254, "Tam Lane" (1 text; tune on p. 422) {Bronson's #4}
5. Leach, pp. 136-141, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
6. OBB 2, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
7. Friedman, p. 41, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
8. PBB 23, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
9. Gummere, pp. 283-289+360, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
10. Hodgart, p. 129, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
11. DBuchan 27, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
12. Tunney-SongsThunder, pp. 163-169, "Tamlin" (1 text)
13. Darling-NAS, pp. 28-31, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
14. DT 39, TAMLIN1* TAMLIN2* TAMLIN3
15. ADDITIONAL: Iona & Peter Opie, The Oxford Book of Narrative Verse, pp. 32-37, "Tam Lin" (1 text)
16. Roud #35
17. BI, C039