Tam Lin Balladry

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The King's Daughter Jane

Comparison Source: The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 1882-1898 by Francis James Child.

Child Ballad Number: 52

cites: A a. 'The King's Dochter Lady Jane,' Motherwell's MS., p.657. b. 'Lady Jean,' Motherwell's Minstrelsy, Appendix, p.xxi. B Motherwell's MS., p. 275; the first six lines in Motherwell's Minstrelsy, p. 189f. C ' Castle Ha's Daughter,' Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, I, 241. D 'Bold Burnet's Daughter.' a Buchan's MSS, I, 120 b The same, II, 141.

Summary

The King's youngest Daughter, Jane, is sitting in her bower one day when she is overcome with the urge to gather nuts from the King's forest. She goes to the forest to do so when a forester appears, and commands her not to pick nuts in the forest without his permission. Jane asserts that she does not need his permission, at which point the forester rapes her. Jane says that he will pay dearly for raping the king's daughter, at which point the forester reveals that he is the king's son. He had been at sea for many years and so did not recognize Jane as his sister. Jane ends the tale by hoping she dies soon after bearing the babe they have conceived.

The King's Daughter Jane

  1. Queen Jane sat at her window one day
    A sewing a silken seam
    She looked out at the merry green woods
    And saw the green nut tree
    And saw the green nut tree
  2. She dropped her thimble at her heal
    And her needle at her toe
    And away she ran to the merry green woods
    To gather nuts and so
    To gather nuts and so
  3. She scarce had reached the merry green woods
    Scarce had pulled nuts two or three
    When a proud forester came striding by
    Saying, "Fair maid, let those be"
    Saying, "Fair maid, let those be"
  4. "Why do you pull the nuts," he said
    "And why do you break the tree?
    And why do you come to this merry green wood
    Without the leave of me?
    Without the leave of me?"
  5. "Oh, I will pull the nuts," she said
    "And I will break the tree
    And I will come to this merry green wood
    I'll ask no leave of thee
    I'll ask no leave of thee"
  6. He took her by the middle so small
    And he gently laid her down
    And when he took what he longed for
    He raised her from the ground
    He raised her from the ground
  7. "Oh woe to you, proud forester
    And an ill death may yours be
    Since I am the King's youngest daughter," she cried
    "You will pay for wronging me
    You will pay for wronging me"
  8. "If you're the King's youngest daughter," he said
    "Then I'm his eldest son
    And woe unto this unhappy hour
    And the wrong that I have done
    And the wrong that I have done"
  9. "The very first time I came from sea
    Jane you were unborn
    And I wish my gallant ship had sunk
    And I'd been left forlorn
    And I'd been left forlorn"
  10. "The very next time I came from sea
    You were on your nurse's knee
    And the very next time I came from sea
    You were in this wood with me
    You were in this wood with me"
  11. "I wish I ne'er had seen your face
    Or that you had ne'er seen mine
    That we ne'er had met in this merry green wood
    And this wrong could be undone
    And this wrong could be undone"
  12. "I wish to God my babe was born
    And on it's nurse's knee
    And as for me, I was dead and gone
    And the green grass growing over me
    And the green grass growing over me"

Similarities

  • A young woman is sitting in her bower and longs to be in the woods
  • She travels to the woods as fast as she can go
  • She takes items from the woods
  • She meets a young man who confronts her about her actions
  • The young man has sex with the woman.

Analysis

The King's daughter Jane shares several verses the ballad of Tam Lin. The opening stanzas especially bear a strong resemblance to the same verses in versions such as Child's 39D, or Digital Traditions version. The overall story most closely resembles Child's 39L, which makes up the first 13 stanzas of the version on these pages compiled from Child's notes. However, the overall message of the tale is terribly different, being not about love and rescue but of incest and the consequences of rash action. The theme of taking a too-near relative as a lover under misleading circumstances is not an unusual one, and can be seen in tales from Oedipus to Morded in the story of King Arthur.

Story Notes

Other stories that often include similar opening verses:

  • "The Bonny Hind" (Child Ballad 50), in which a young woman meets a man in the woods, he rapes her, and when they learn they are both children of the local lords, she kills herself. Her brother buries her body and then mourns over the 'bonny hind' he has buried.
  • "Hind Etin" (Child Ballad 41), where the King's daughter travels to the woods, harvests nuts, and gets carried off by a forester for seven years. In that tale, she bears him seven children, and the eldest eventually travels back to the King to reunite father and daughter, and ask pardon for his own father.

Added to site: December 1997