Tam Lin, the Stolen Knight

Magical transformation legends abound in the lore of many cultures, yet the tale of the elfin knight Tam Lin is uniquely, deliciously Scottish. The rendition below is based on several versions of this renowned folk ballad, one of 305 collected by Harvard Professor Francis James Child during his nineteenth century tour of the British Isles. Scottish the tale may be, but Tam Lin loosely inspired my soon-to-be-released young adult novel,  Glancing Through the Glimmer, uniquely, deliciously Irish.

 TAM LIN

Retold by Pat McDermott

Long ago, in the Scottish Borders, the people whispered of harm befalling young women who passed through the wood called Carterhaugh. This land belonged to Janet, the daughter of the Earl of March. The rumors of violence in her beloved forest enraged her—especially when her father forbade her and the maidens of his court to venture near Carterhaugh.

Undaunted, Janet called for her horse. She braided her yellow hair, tucked up her green petticoat, and galloped off to Carterhaugh to gather flowers for her gowns. She had cut only two red roses when an angry young man appeared before her.

“I am Tam Lin,” he said in a dusky voice. “Who gave you leave to pluck my roses?”

Janet raised her chin. “Your roses? These lands were part of my mother’s dowry. They are mine now. I’ll come and go as I please and ask leave of no one.”

Tam Lin seized Janet and had his will of her. He vanished as quickly as he’d appeared, leaving her deflowered and bewildered. She returned home hoping no one would learn of her folly, but as summer turned to autumn, her waist began to swell.

One of her father’s elderly knights offered to marry her, saying her father wished to keep her from shame. “I’ll marry no old man,” she said, “nor name any among you the father of my child.”

Yet Janet wondered what she would do. On a fine autumn morning, she returned to Carterhaugh seeking her fairy lover. The roses were nearly gone, and so, it seemed, was Tam Lin. When she knelt to pick the last pink rose, she caught a whiff of mint. Lurking nearby were the small round leaves of pennyroyal, a herb women used to dispense with unwanted babes. Janet sadly forsook the pink rose and bent to pluck the herb.

“Would you kill the babe we got between us, Janet?”

Both relieved and afraid, she rose and confronted Tam Lin. ”What sort of child would I bear, and his father of the fairy ilk?”

“I was sired by a mortal knight and born of a mortal lady, as were you, Janet. Some years ago, as I hunted nearby, an unearthly drowsiness came over me. The Queen of Fairies caught me when I fell from my horse. She keeps me under her spell, and though I want for nothing, I long to return to the home and lands that are rightfully mine.”

“You can never leave?”

He shook his head. “Worse is to come, I fear. Every seven years, the fairies must pay a tithe to hell. The tithe is due tonight, and I suspect it will be me.”

Janet’s heart beat in her throat. The child within her leapt. “Can nothing save you?”

“Mayhap. Tonight is Halloween, and the fairy folk ride. They will pass Miles Cross at the murk of midnight. If you bide there, you can win me from them.”

“I will come,” she said, “but how will I know you among them? What am I to do?”

“Wait by the stream and watch. The knights on black steeds will pass first, then the ladies and the Queen of Fairies on their brown mares. I will ride the milk-white steed that follows. They give me that honor, for I was an earthly knight. You must pull me from my steed. Can you do that, and you with child?”

Janet swallowed hard and looked him in the eye. “I can if it will deliver you from them.”

His fleeting smile turned to a worried frown. “You will hear them shout that Tam Lin is away. They will wield great magic to recapture me. Be brave and remember: I am your baby’s father.”

“You will say so to more than me, Tam Lin. What kind of magic?”

Again, he smiled, this time with a gleam of hope. “They will turn me in your arms to many fearsome creatures, but for the love of our child, hold me fast and fear me not. When at last they turn me to a burning coal, throw me into the stream at once. I will come to you a naked knight. Hide me in your mantle, and all will be well.”

Tam Lin melted into the air.

That night, when the moon rose, Janet stole from her father’s hall and rode to Miles Cross as fast as she dared. Clouds rolled in and covered the moon and stars, and she waited alone in the darkness. Hours passed. She nearly lost hope.

Then the tinkle of bridles rang in the distance, and the moon broke free of the clouds. Casting a terrible light of their own, the fairy folk rode toward her.

Fearsome knights pranced by on black steeds that breathed fire. Ladies on brown mares with jewels on their reins came next. When the milk-white steed appeared, Janet grabbed the rider’s leg and wrenched him from the horse.

“He’s away!” cried the fairies. “Tam Lin is away!”

The man in Janet’s arms became a fierce wolf. She screamed, but she held him fast. He changed to a hissing snake, and she thought she would faint. A lion came next, but she never let go. When Tam Lin turned to a burning coal, she flung him into the stream.

He came to her, as he said he would, a naked knight. She cloaked him in her mantle.

The Queen of Fairies cursed the woman who’d stolen her earthly knight. “Had I known you would leave us, Tam Lin,” she cried, “I would have put out your eyes long ago, that you never could tell what you saw in my realm.”

The fairies vanished. Tam Lin kissed Janet, and she brought him to her father’s hall.

("Tam Lin" originally appeared on Celtic Queens)