Fairy Romance-Part 2
Fairy lore has an abundance of stories of attractive men and women either abducted or choosing to live among the fae, often as the consort of a fairy man or woman. One of the best known tales is the Scottish ballad Thomas the Rhymer. The ballad relates how Thomas, a young man relaxing in the forest, meets a lovely woman astride a white horse. He at first addresses her as the “Queen of Heaven” but she corrects him, identifying herself as the “queen of fair elfland.” They kiss, and Thomas agrees to serve her for seven years. The queen shows Thomas three paths: a narrow and thorny one she calls “the path of righteousness”; a broad and lovely “path to wickedness”; and a green path to fairyland. The queen warns Thomas while he remains with her to eat only the food and drink she herself gives him. She also cautions him never to speak of what he sees in her realm. At the end of his seven years of service, she feeds him an apple which gives him “the tongue that can never lie.”
Many scholars identify another ballad, Tam Lin, as the sequel to Thomas the Rhymer. This ballad offers a much darker view of both fairy culture and the man taken by the fairies. The story begins by forbidding young women to enter the woods of Caterhaugh because a man named Tam Lin has accosted other young women in the woods and taken “Either their rings, or green mantles, or else their maidenhead.” One young woman, Janet, picks a rose in this wood, which causes Tam Lin to appear. Later, Janet returns home and the first signs of her pregnancy appear. She tells her family the father is not human. She returns to Caterhaugh and speaks with Tam Lin, who tells her he is human, but has been abducted and taken as consort by the Fairy Queen and lived among the fae for several years. During that time, he has witnessed the fairies sacrifice one of their humans each Halloween as a tithe to hell. Tam Lin fears this year the fairies may choose him for that role. He instructs Janet on how to rescue him so he can marry her and raise their child. She will see him riding a white horse in procession with the fairies, and must pull him from the horse. Fairy magic will cause him to transform into different beasts, but she must keep hold of him as this happens. Finally, he will become a flaming brand, and then she must toss him into a well. When he emerges from the well in human form, dripping wet, Janet has to toss a green mantle over him and then he will be released from the fairies. Janet completes this magical task, much to the anger of the fairy queen.
A real historical person, Thomas Learmouth, is often identified as the protagonist of both of these ballads. He was known as both Thomas the Rhymer and True Thomas. He lived in the thirteenth century and earned renown for truthfulness, his poetry, and his accurate prophecies.
