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Title: Tamlane (aka Tam Lin)
Author: Anonymous
Type: Border Myths
Genre: Supernatural, Traditional
Plot Summary: According to this popular Borders myth, Tam was a young man (or boy) who, whenever he met a maiden passing through the Forest of Carterhaugh, demanded either some possession of her virginity. One day he accosted Janet and berated her for plucking roses without his permission. She denied requiring any such permission since she owned the forest. Later she found herself pregnant, and in love with the father, Tam, whom she mistook for an elf. She returned to the forest where Tam told his story: he was no elf but a mortal who, after falling from his horse, had been rescued and carried away by the Queen of Elfland for her amorous amusement. This very night he was to be sent to Hell as part of the fairy realm's tithe to the Devil which was paid every 7 years. Later that night, Janet hid by the Miles Cross (no longer there but near Bowhill) to effect a rescue. As Tam and the fairy train rode past, she seized him and tried to escape. The fairy folk metamorphosed Tam into a variety of forms, culminating in a red-hot coal. Janet dropped him into a well from which he emerged naked and free.
The earliest known ballad telling the Tamlane myth is in F. J. Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads. For more recent versions see John Buchan 'Grey Weather' and Janet McNaughton.
SITEMAP | LINKS | TERMS & CONDITIONS | © Edinburgh Film Focus 2009
Home | Title detail page
Title: Tamlane (aka Tam Lin)
Author: Anonymous
Type: Border Myths
Genre: Supernatural, Traditional
Plot Summary: According to this popular Borders myth, Tam was a young man (or boy) who, whenever he met a maiden passing through the Forest of Carterhaugh, demanded either some possession of her virginity. One day he accosted Janet and berated her for plucking roses without his permission. She denied requiring any such permission since she owned the forest. Later she found herself pregnant, and in love with the father, Tam, whom she mistook for an elf. She returned to the forest where Tam told his story: he was no elf but a mortal who, after falling from his horse, had been rescued and carried away by the Queen of Elfland for her amorous amusement. This very night he was to be sent to Hell as part of the fairy realm's tithe to the Devil which was paid every 7 years. Later that night, Janet hid by the Miles Cross (no longer there but near Bowhill) to effect a rescue. As Tam and the fairy train rode past, she seized him and tried to escape. The fairy folk metamorphosed Tam into a variety of forms, culminating in a red-hot coal. Janet dropped him into a well from which he emerged naked and free.
The earliest known ballad telling the Tamlane myth is in F. J. Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads. For more recent versions see John Buchan 'Grey Weather' and Janet McNaughton.
SITEMAP | LINKS | TERMS & CONDITIONS | © Edinburgh Film Focus 2009