Tam Lin Balladry

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Tam Lin's Ride

Source: Batya "The Toon" Wittenberg

Pretext Title

  1. Faerie Court's riding, on Hallownight
    Horses of black and brown, horses of white
    And in their train rides one human knight
    Nowhere to run and no one to fight
  2. Tamlin, O Tamlin, pray, what do you dream?
    Are you a faerie knight servin' the queen?
    Are you a plain man, lady by your side?
    Where will you be at the end of this ride?
  3. Her hair was wild and her eyes cast a spell
    She caught you up when from your horse you fell
    She took you with her, in Faerieland to dwell
    But then the time came to pay the tithe to hell
  4. Tamlin, O Tamlin, pray, what do you dream?
    Are you a faerie knight servin' the queen?
    Are you a plain man, lady by your side?
    Where will you be at the end of this ride?
  5. Green-kirtled Janet, of plain mortal birth,
    Your only chance to break free of this curse
    Your child within her, and you know what that's worth
    That baby's all that holds you to this earth
  6. Tamlin, O Tamlin, pray, what do you dream?
    Are you a faerie knight servin' the queen?
    Are you a plain man, lady by your side?
    Where will you be at the end of this ride?
  7. You did her wrong, when you took her in the fern --
    Why should your fate be aught of her concern?
    You know now in your gut she never will return;
    The baby's gone, and she's left you to burn....
  8. Tamlin, O Tamlin, pray, what do you dream?
    Are you a faerie knight dyin' for your queen?
    Are you a plain man, Janet by your side?
    Which will you be at the end of this ride?

Notes

The following creation is a filk song created by Batya Wittenberg, to the tune of "Black Davy's Ride" by Cynthia McQuillen. Batya provides the following commentary on Tam Lin as the inspiration for this piece:

This one came out of Current 93's rendition of the Tam Lin ballad, one of the Margaret variants (as opposed to the earlier Janet ones). In this particular version, when Margaret comes upon Tamlin in the woods, he doesn't waste much time arguing with her: "And he took her by the milk-white hand, / And by the grass-green sleeve; / He pulled her down at the foot o' the bush, / He never once asked her leave." And as in most of the versions, when she's carrying his child, he asks her to come and save his life. After hearing that one, I started wondering why she would bother.

For more of Batya's work, see her Filk page.