Editing Tam Lin (section)

===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).]]