Tam Lin

 

We're approaching Midsummer and there are a number of curious stories about fairies. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a famous play by William Shakespeare and it's set in ancient Greece, with the plot of fairies. There are oral folk stories about fairies, and one of them is a love story. This is a story about Tam Lin/Tamlayne (or Tamlin), as mentioned in the Medieval 39th Child Ballad folk story from England and Scotland.

In the enchanting woods of Carterhaugh, where there is an old well and a figure of Tam Lin, a young handsome knight who was often seen there riding a milk white horse. He waited for maidens to travel through the woods alone, so that he could ask for a gift in exchange to letting them continue walking through the woods. If they couldn't offer him anything of value like that, he would instead have his way with them. It was then he encountered a beautiful young woman named Janet, who went there to pick a rose. On this encounter, Tam Lin appeared to her and asked for a gift so that he would let her pass. She told him that she was the daughter of the Earl, who owned the land itself, so it was her place. It's also believed that she fell in love with him, because she let him close to her. Days after Janet returned home, it was soon discovered that she was pregnant. 

She told her father that the man who caused her pregnancy was an "elf knight". Janet went back to Carterhaugh to locate herbs to cause a miscarriage. Again she plucked a rose and Tam Lin appeared. He knew of her intentions to find a poison so she would miscarry, and asked her why she planned to do this. Janet asked him where he came from and who was he really. Tam Lin said he used to be a mortal man, who once fell off his horse and was soon discovered by the Fairy Queen, who took him into her realm, which is beautiful and magical but every seven years they have to pay a tiend to Hell, so the fairy folk will journey there and pass Miles Cross to get to Hell, and Janet can help Tam Lin during then when the fairy folk visit Hell. 

That night came and Janet saw the milk white horse, where she joined him and had to grab hold of his hand, then he became a number of creatures. Eventually he turned into a naked man, and she covered him with a green mantle to hide him. However the Fairy Queen was aware of this and angrily said that she regretted not removing Tam Lin's eyes. Janet and Tam Lin returned to the mortal realm and lived happily every after.

For more info visit Tam Lin Balladry: https://tam-lin.org/

She Wolf Night