For 
thesecondcircle
About two weeks ago, Venecia asked her friendslist to write about favorite fairy tales. Not surprisingly, since the retelling of which is the basis for my in-progress novel, my favorite fairy tale is Tam Lin. It was initially Scottish ballad, but has been used in several novels and novellas, as well as set to music-- Pamela Dean set it in a liberal arts college, with Tam Lin as a classics major. Holly Black wove the tale (among others) into her novel, Tithe. Bits and pieces of the tale filter into Elizabeth Hand's Mortal Love. Diana Wynne Jones' Fire and Hemlock and Elizabeth Marie Pope's The Perilous Gard (which I have still yet to read!) also tell the tale. In addition, the Mediaeval Baebes recorded a haunting, atmospheric telling.
The basic story of Tam Lin is this: Janet is the daughter of a noble lord who warns her not to go into Carterhaugh wood, which is at the edge of their property. She's headstrong and feisty, so she dons her green mantle and rides to the wood, where she sees a briar of beautiful wild roses. When she leans over to pick a rose, a man steps out of the forest. He says:
Janet says that the land is her family's, and she has no need to ask his permission to pluck a rose. There, in the wood, they make love, and she returns home to find that she is pregnant. Back at the castle, there is an old knight who recognizes Janet's sickness, and offers to marry her to save her shame. She insists that she will find the child's true father, an elven knight. Tam Lin is actually a mortal man, but she does not know that at this point.
She rides back to Carterhaugh and there finds Tam Lin, who explains that he cannot leave the wood. He is the captive of the Faerie Queen, and on Samhain night, he will be sacrificed.
At that point, the only way that Janet can save her babydaddy is to lie in wait at the crossroads as the Faerie procession rides by. When she sees Tam Lin, she must pull him from his horse, throw her arms around him, and hold him to her breast for 21 heartbeats. In that time, the faeries will change him-- he will be a bat, a serpent, a block of ice, scalding hot as a red brand. She must hold fast, for if she lets go before the time is up, he will be lost. Janet takes up the challenge and frees him. The Faerie Queen has the final word:
The version I remember was the first version that I read, from a Childcraft book of collected myths and legends. I think, at one point years ago, I typed up the Childcraft version and sent it in, but never head back from the webmaster. Actually, I can't remember if that version acknowledged Tam and Janet had slept together or that she was pregnant, but it's such an intrinsic part of the story that I couldn't leave it out of the overview. My young adult novel also omits this part, as it is an adapted retelling.
Now I know that there are more versions of the ballad than I can count, as is common with orally-transmitted ballads. If you're curious, TamLin.Org has the most extensive collection of versions. At any rate, there are versions that are much, much darker-- versions in which Tam Lin and Janet have nonconsensual sex as a penalty for stealing the rose, versions in which Janet returns to Carterhaugh not to find Tam, but to find yarrow with which to abort her child. In some versions, Janet is specifically warned not to go to Carterhaugh because Tam Lin exacts the maidenhead from all maids who pass through the wood.
Regardless, I think the thing that attracts me so much to this tale, and has attracted me since I was young, is that here, the hero does not save a damsel in distress. The damsel saves the hero. Also, Janet is very headstrong, determined, and she will not let any man tell her what to do. She will similarly not settle to appear 'proper' in society when it is not what is in her heart. Of course, there are all sorts of literary metaphors and symbols that make my English Major heart go pitter-pat, but that's mostly just an added bonus.
The basic story of Tam Lin is this: Janet is the daughter of a noble lord who warns her not to go into Carterhaugh wood, which is at the edge of their property. She's headstrong and feisty, so she dons her green mantle and rides to the wood, where she sees a briar of beautiful wild roses. When she leans over to pick a rose, a man steps out of the forest. He says:
"Why plucks thou the rose Janet,
And why breaks thou the tree?
Or why come ye to Carterhaugh
Without asking leave of me?"
Janet says that the land is her family's, and she has no need to ask his permission to pluck a rose. There, in the wood, they make love, and she returns home to find that she is pregnant. Back at the castle, there is an old knight who recognizes Janet's sickness, and offers to marry her to save her shame. She insists that she will find the child's true father, an elven knight. Tam Lin is actually a mortal man, but she does not know that at this point.
She rides back to Carterhaugh and there finds Tam Lin, who explains that he cannot leave the wood. He is the captive of the Faerie Queen, and on Samhain night, he will be sacrificed.
"But aye, at every seven years,
They pay the tiend to hell,
And I'm so fair and full of flesh,
I fear `twill be mysel'."
At that point, the only way that Janet can save her babydaddy is to lie in wait at the crossroads as the Faerie procession rides by. When she sees Tam Lin, she must pull him from his horse, throw her arms around him, and hold him to her breast for 21 heartbeats. In that time, the faeries will change him-- he will be a bat, a serpent, a block of ice, scalding hot as a red brand. She must hold fast, for if she lets go before the time is up, he will be lost. Janet takes up the challenge and frees him. The Faerie Queen has the final word:
"But had I known Tam-Lin, she says
What now this night I see,
I would have taken thy two grey eyes,
And turned thee to a tree.
Oh had I known, Tam-Lin, she says
Before ye came from home,
I would ta'en your heart o' flesh,
Put in a heart o' stone."
The version I remember was the first version that I read, from a Childcraft book of collected myths and legends. I think, at one point years ago, I typed up the Childcraft version and sent it in, but never head back from the webmaster. Actually, I can't remember if that version acknowledged Tam and Janet had slept together or that she was pregnant, but it's such an intrinsic part of the story that I couldn't leave it out of the overview. My young adult novel also omits this part, as it is an adapted retelling.
Now I know that there are more versions of the ballad than I can count, as is common with orally-transmitted ballads. If you're curious, TamLin.Org has the most extensive collection of versions. At any rate, there are versions that are much, much darker-- versions in which Tam Lin and Janet have nonconsensual sex as a penalty for stealing the rose, versions in which Janet returns to Carterhaugh not to find Tam, but to find yarrow with which to abort her child. In some versions, Janet is specifically warned not to go to Carterhaugh because Tam Lin exacts the maidenhead from all maids who pass through the wood.
Regardless, I think the thing that attracts me so much to this tale, and has attracted me since I was young, is that here, the hero does not save a damsel in distress. The damsel saves the hero. Also, Janet is very headstrong, determined, and she will not let any man tell her what to do. She will similarly not settle to appear 'proper' in society when it is not what is in her heart. Of course, there are all sorts of literary metaphors and symbols that make my English Major heart go pitter-pat, but that's mostly just an added bonus.