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Song, Folk Music and Folk Customs
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Nick Caffrey
Nick Caffrey has taken a particular interest in ballads, and several songs have appeared in the Folk Leads magazine which are to be reproduced here online.
Song, Folk Music and Folk Customs
Page 1 of 4
Nick Caffrey has taken a particular interest in ballads, and several songs have appeared in the Folk Leads magazine which are to be reproduced here online.
Traditional ballad of the supernatural
Tam Lin is transformed into frightening beasts.
Janet must hold him tight to free him. Nick Caffrey explains!
Janet wrestles with Tam Lin to bring him back to human form ...
THE CURSE OF THE ELPHIN QUEEN makes Tam Lin a prisoner and only at Hallowe’en can he be freed. He transforms into frightening beasts! To free Tam Lin, Janet must hold him tight in her arms
THIS BALLAD MUST BE THE EPITOME OF THE CLASSIC BRITISH BALLAD with its tale of seduction, elfin magic, rescue and final curses from an angry Elfin Queen.
The heroine Lady Janet wanders off to the woods near Carterhaugh despite the warnings that it is ‘a sinister place for maidens’ As she plucks a rose from a bush Tam Lin appears and seduces her and then disappears before she is able to find his name. Later she is discovered to be pregnant and returns to the wood to either rid herself of the child or find the father.
Tam Lin appears again and explains that he was once a mortal but has been abducted into the land of fairy. He has lived there for seven years but the time has come for him to pay a ‘tiend to hell’. It is Hallowe’en and probably his final chance to escape. He persuades Janet to go down to the Miles Cross at midnight to await the elfin procession.
Among the elfin knights she will find Tam Lin seated on a white horse; she must pull him from the horse and cling to him despite the many transformations into frightening beasts.
Once Tam Lin assumes human form she washes him in well water, or milk, covers him with her green mantle having won him back from the elfin court.
The washing of his body in well water (or milk) is an ancient counter spell; it washes away the enchantment with an earthy element. (Drawing by Graeme Miles)
When Janet arrives at Carterhaugh she finds Tam Lin’s horse tethered at the well. A haugh is a piece of low ground near to a flowing stream. Water has often been associated with the fairy folk and wells and streams are places of enchantment. The horse symbolises the earthly connection to the ‘other side’ and is a link to Tam Lin.
Janet summons Tam Lin by the plucking of the flower, a rose; there are strong beliefs that the breaking of tree boughs, stripping of bark and plucking of flowers can summon the tree-spirits. Frazer gives numerous examples throughout Europe of tree worship and ritualism that link into this ancient belief. The rose is a symbol of passion, romance and seduction and is still used to indicate courtship and love. It might also be symbolic of Janet’s maidenhead; she does not seem to resist Tam Lin’s seduction.
Janet is seduced and becomes pregnant - unfortunately there is no indication of the time of year when this happens - although the rose is in bloom. The only indication of time is Halloween when she returns to Carterhaugh to either summon Tam Lin or to kill the ‘bonnie babe’ when she plucks the rose once again.
1
O I forbid you, maidens a’,
That wear gowd on your hair,
To come or gae by Carterhaugh,
For young Tam Lin is there.
2
There's nane that gaes by Carterhaugh
But they leave him a wad,
Either their rings, or green mantles,
Or else their maidenhead.
Large music notation (pdf) and lyrics
The shape-changing of Tam Lin’s body as Janet attempts to pull him back into the human world is quite a common theme in other European tales.
The washing of his body in well water, or milk, is an ancient counter spell.
It washes away the enchantment with an earthy element. Child points out the importance of this ritual, which is often missing from later versions of the ballad.