The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea

Summary

When the narrator was a child, his mother died and his father remarried an evil woman. She transforms the boy into a lowly worm (serpent or dragon) to live by a tree, and turns his sister into a fish. Every Saturday the two siblings may interact, but otherwise they live as beasts, and the son kills knights who come to fight him. When his father appears, he tells her what has happened to his children. The father confronts the stepmother, who lies and says the children are well, and elsewhere. The stepmother turns the son back into a human, but the daughter refuses to be touched by magic again, and presumably remains a fish. The father has the stepmother burned at the stake.

The opening stanzas of the ballad resemble some of the background sometimes cited by Tam Lin when confessing how he came to live with the Faeries- delivered at the age of seven by an evil stepmother.

The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea

1. ‘I WAS but seven year auld
   When my mither she did die;
   My father married the ae warst woman
   The warld did ever see.
2. ‘For she has made me the laily worm,
   That lies at the fit o the tree,
   An my sister Masery she’s made
   The machrel of the sea.
3. ‘An every Saturday at noon
   The machrel comes to me,
   An she takes my laily head
   An lays it on her knee,
   She kaims it wi a siller kaim,
   An washes’t in the sea.
4. ‘Seven knights hae I slain,
   Sin I lay at the fit of the tree,
   An ye war na my ain father,
   The eight ane ye should be.’
5. ‘Sing on your song, ye laily worm,
   That ye did sing to me:’
   ‘I never sung that song but what
   I would it sing to thee.
6. ‘I was but seven year auld,
   When my mither she did die;
   My father married the ae warst woman
   The warld did ever see.
7. ‘For she changed me to the laily worm,
   That lies at the fit o the tree,
   And my sister Masery
   To the machrel of the sea.
8. ‘And every Saturday at noon
   The machrel comes to me,
   An she takes my laily head
   An lays it on her knee,
   An kames it wi a siller kame,
   An washes it i the sea.
9. ‘Seven knights hae I slain,
   Sin I lay at the fit o the tree,
   An ye war na my ain father,
   The eighth ane ye shoud be.’
10. He sent for his lady,
    As fast as send could he:
    ‘Whar is my son that ye sent frae me,
    And my daughter, Lady Masery?’
11. ‘Your son is at our king’s court,
    Serving for meat an fee,
    An your daughter’s at our queen’s court,
    . . . . . ’
12. ‘Ye lie, ye ill woman,
    Sae loud as I hear ye lie;
    My son’s the laily worm,
    That lies at the fit o the tree,
    And my daughter, Lady Masery,
    Is the machrel of the sea!’
13. She has tane a siller wan,
    An gien him strokes three,
    And he has started up the bravest knight
    That ever your eyes did see.
14. She has taen a small horn,
    An loud an shrill blew she,
    An a’ the fish came her untill
    But the proud machrel of the sea:
    ‘Ye shapeit me ance an unseemly shape,
    An ye’s never mare shape me.’
15. He has sent to the wood
    For whins and for hawthorn,
    An he has taen that gay lady,
    An there he did her burn.

Similarities

1. A young man is unwillingly transformed by a woman who has power over him
2. The young man is considered a danger while captive
3. The young many is captive for some time
4. The rescue of the young man is dependent upon his ability to tell his story to a loved one
5. The rescue requires the loved one to confront the woman with power over the captive
6. The young many is freed at the end.

Analysis

This bears a strong resemblance to Allison Gross, in the imagery of a lowly worm tied to a tree, though it also shares an opening verse with Kemp Owyne, and is closer to both these tales than to Tam Lin directly. Child noted that the ballad was badly fragmented, including incomplete verses and (inferred) missing verses. It is absent faeries, sacrifice, or lovers.

Version Notes

Added to site: November 2014