Editing Tam Lin (section)

==History==
The story of '''Tam Lin''' [təm˧˧:ləŋ˧˧] revolves around the rescue of Tam Lin by his true love from the [[Queen of the Fairies]]. The motif of winning a person (or subduing an enemy) by holding him through all forms of [[Transformation chase|transformation]] is found throughout Europe in [[Folklore|folktale]]s.<ref name=Child>{{cite book|chapter-url=https://archive.org/stream/englishscottishp02chil#page/334/mode/2up|editor-last=Child|editor-first=Francis James|chapter=Tam Lin|title=English and Scottish Popular Ballads|volume=I Part 2|pages=335–358|publisher=[[Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|Houghton Mifflin and Company]]|location=Boston|year=1890|access-date=2017-11-19}}</ref><ref name=Sacred>{{cite web|url=https://archive.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch039.htm|title=Tam Lin|work=The English and Scottish Popular Ballads|publisher=[[Internet Sacred Text Archive]]|year=2011|access-date=2017-11-19}}</ref>

The story has been adapted into numerous stories, songs, and films. It is also associated with a [[Reel (dance)|reel]] of the same name, which is also known as the ''Glasgow Reel''.

Tam Lin is listed as the [[List of the Child Ballads|39th]] [[Child Ballads|Child Ballad]] and [[List of folk songs by Roud number|number 35]] in the [[Roud Folk Song Index]].
===Synopsis===
[[File:Carterhaugh.jpg|thumb|[[Carterhaugh]], near the confluence of the [[Yarrow Water]] and the [[Ettrick Water]]<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Carterhaugh|date=2005|editor-first1=J.|editor-last1=Ayto|editor-first2=I|editor-last2=Crofton|editor-first3=P.|editor-last3=Cavill|title=Brewer's Britain and Ireland|publisher=Chambers Harrap}}</ref>|left|261x261px]]Most variants begin with the warning that Tam Lin collects either a possession or the [[virginity]] of any maiden who passes through the forest of [[Carterhaugh]]. When a young woman, usually called Janet or Margaret, goes to Carterhaugh and plucks a double rose, Tam appears and asks her why she has come without his leave and taken what is his. She states that she owns Carterhaugh because her father has given it to her.<ref name=Fresno>{{cite web|url=http://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/C039.html|last1=Waltz|first1=Robert B.|last2=Engle|first2=David G.|title=Tam Lin|work=Folklore The Traditional Ballad Index: An Annotated Bibliography of the Folk Songs of the English-Speaking World|publisher=[[California State University, Fresno]]|year=2012|access-date=2017-11-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201033318/http://www.fresnostate.edu/folklore/ballads/C039.html|archive-date=1 December 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In most variants, Janet then goes home and discovers that she is pregnant; some variants pick up the story at this point.  When asked about her condition, she declares that her baby's father is an [[elf]] whom she will not forsake. In some versions, she is informed of a herb that will induce abortion; in all the variants, when she returns to Carterhaugh and picks a plant, either the same roses as on her earlier visit or the herb, Tam reappears and challenges her action.<ref name=Child />

She asks him whether he was ever human, either after that reappearance or, in some versions, immediately after their first meeting resulted in her pregnancy. Tam Lin reveals that, though he was once a mortal man, he was imprisoned in Carterhaugh by the Queen of Faeries after she kidnapped him by catching him when he fell from his horse.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tam-lin.org/|title=What is Tam Lin?|last=Achland|first=A.|date=1997|website=Tam Lin Baladry|access-date=20 November 2023}}</ref> He goes on to tell Janet that the fairies give one of their people as a [[teind]] ([[tithe]]) to [[Hell]]  at midnight on every seventh [[Halloween|Hallowe'en]]. He asks Janet for her help in freeing him, and receives her agreement; he then instructs her to come to the forest at the time of the tithe, during which he'll be in the company of numerous faerie knights -- he tells her that she'll recognize him by his white horse. Janet must pull him down from his horse, thus making her the one to "catch" him this time, and hold him tightly: he warns her that the fairies will attempt to make her drop him by [[Transformation chase|turning him]] into all manner of beasts (see [[Proteus]]), but states that none of these forms will actually cause her harm. Tam Lin will eventually take the shape of burning coal; when this occurs, Janet is to throw him into a well, whereupon he will reappear as a naked mortal man whom Janet must hide. She does as she is asked and wins her knight; though her success angers the Queen of Faeries, the latter accepts her defeat.<ref name=Child /><ref name=Fresno />

In different variations, Tam Lin is reportedly the grandson of the Laird of [[Roxburgh]], the Laird of [[Foulis Castle|Foulis]], the [[Lord Forbes|Earl]] of [[Castle Forbes|Forbes]], or the [[Earl of Moray|Earl of Murray]]. His name also varies between versions (Tam Lin being the most common) as Tom Line, Tomlin, Young Tambling, Tam-a-line and Tamlane.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/balladsweirdwond00choprich#page/n115/mode/2up|last=Chope|first=R.P.|title=Tamlane|work=Ballads Weird and Wonderful|pages=53–60|publisher=Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.|year=1911|access-date=2017-11-19}}</ref><ref name= JacobsMore />
[[File:Tam Lin opening verses.png|thumb|409x409px|[[Robert Burns]]' Tam Lin, printed in [[James Johnson (engraver)|James Johnson]]'s ''[[Scots Musical Museum]]'' (1796).]]

===Early versions===
The ballad dates to at least as early as 1549 (the publication date of ''[[The Complaynt of Scotland]]'' that mentions "The Tayl of the [[Yogh|Ȝ]]ong Tamlene" ('The Tale of the Young Tamelene') among a long list of medieval romances).<ref name=Child /><ref>The Complaynt of Scotland, c. vi., ed. J. A. H. Murray, E.E.T.S., p.68 (excerpted in: {{cite book|last=Ker|first=W. P.|author-link=William Paton Ker|title=Epic and romance: essays on medieval literature|publisher=Macmillan|year=1922|url=https://archive.org/details/KerEpicAndRomance1922|page=[https://archive.org/details/KerEpicAndRomance1922/page/n418 389]}})</ref> [[Michael Drayton]]'s narrative poem ''Nimphidia'' (1627) includes a character called Tomalin who is a vassal and kinsman of [[Oberon]], King of the Fairies. [[Robert Burns]] wrote a version of Tam Lin based on older versions of the ballad, which was printed in [[James Johnson (engraver)|James Johnson]]'s ''[[Scots Musical Museum]]'' (1796).<ref>{{Cite web|title=BBC - Robert Burns - Tam Lin|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/robertburns/works/tam_lin/|access-date=2021-03-09|website=BBC|language=en-GB}}</ref>

The story featured in several nineteenth century books of fairy tales under different titles :
* "Elphin Irving, the Fairies' Cupbearer" in ''Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry'' by [[Allan Cunningham (author)|Allan Cunningham]] (1822){{NoteTag|{{wikisource-inline|Traditional Tales of the English and Scottish Peasantry/Elphin Irving, the Fairies' Cupbearer|Elphin Irving, the Fairies' Cupbearer|single=true}}}}
* "Wild Robin" in ''Little Prudy's Fairy Book'' by [[Rebecca Sophia Clarke|Sophie May]] (1866).{{NoteTag|{{wikisource-inline|Fairy Book (Clarke)/Wild Robin|Wild Robin|single=true}}}}
* "Tamlane" in ''More English Fairy Tales'' by [[Joseph Jacobs]] (1893).

[[Francis James Child]] collected fourteen traditional variants in ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads'' in the nineteenth century.<ref name="Child" /> (Another Child ballad, ''[[Burd Ellen and Young Tamlane]]'', has no connection with this ballad except for the similarity of the heroes' names.)

===Motifs===
Child took the threat to take out Tam Lin's eyes as a common [[Scottish folklore|folklore]] precaution against mortals who could see fairies, in the tales of [[fairy ointment]]. [[Joseph Jacobs]] interpreted it as rather a reversal of the usual practice; the Queen of Faeries would have kept him from seeing the human woman who rescued him.<ref name="JacobsMore" />

In some variants, "[[Hind Etin]]" has verses identical to this for the first meeting between the hero and the heroine.<ref name="Child" />{{rp|340}}