Summary
May Margery travels to Carterhaugh to pluck roses at Tam Lin's well. By the fall, her father notices that she seems to be pregnant. She says that the father of the child is no man, but one of the eflan grey, and praises his horse. She then travels to Carterhaugh to pluck herbs to enduce miscarriage, when Tam Lin appears. He pleased for the child and she asks him about his heritage. He tells her that he is a mortal man captured by the queen of fairies, and fears he is soon to be sacrificed to hell. He instructs her how to save him if she is brave enough. She must wait at Miles Cross and drag him from his milk-white horse as the fairy troop passes by. He will transform into a variety of creatures, and she must hold him until he takes the shape of a naked man, when she must cover him with her mantle. She does all of this, and the Queen of fairies cries out that she should have replaced his eyes with ones of wood.
Tam Lin
- May Margery sat in her castle tower
a-sewing her silken seam
she looked out from her high window
and she saw the leaves growing green - Out and down to Carterhaugh
she's walked without repose
Till she at Tam Lin's enchanted well
and she's pulled the double rose - In early fall her father dear
he spoke both meek and mild
"Alas, May Margery," he said
I fear that you go with child - If I go with child, Father
myself I bear the blame
there is no lord about your hall
to give the babe his name - If my love were an earthly knight
as he is an elfin grey
I would not give my own heart's love
to none but him away - the steed that my true love rides on
is lighter than the wind
with silver is he shod before
with burning gold behind - When she rode back to Carterhaugh
she gathered herbs to find
the four which by their roots run deep
might end her baby's time - She had not pulled the deadly herb
an herb but only four
till up then started young Tam Lin
crying "Lady, pull no more." - May Margery you pulled the double rose
among the groves so green
why now you've come to kill the babe
that we gat us between? - Tell me, tell me Tam Lin, she cried
if you be humankind
Or spirit from a darker place
than I can hold in mind? - Oh I was born of mortal flesh
as human as you be
until from my horse one dayI fell one day
and the fairy queen caught me - pleasant is the fairy land
but an eerie tale to tell
at the end of seven years
they must pay a tithe to hell - Oh yes pleasant is the fairy land
stranger still to tell
I'm so fair and full of flesh
I fear that the tithe is myself - But tonight is Halloween lady
and the dawn is hallow's day
and I have but one chance if you be brave
and do as I now say - All at the mirk and the midnight hour
the fairy folk will ride
they that would their true loves win
to Mile's cross must abide - oh first let pass the coal black horse
and then let pass the brown
but quickly run to the milk-white steed
and pull the rider down - And they'll turn me to a bear so grim
and then to a lion bold
but hold me fast and fear me not
as you shall love your child - and they'll turn me in your arms
to a red hot bar of iron
but hold me fast and fear me not
and I'll do to you no harm - and then I'll be your own true-love
I'll be turned to a naked knight
but wrap me in your green mantle
and hold me out of sight - gloomy gloomy was the night
and eerie was the way
as Margery in her green mantle
to miles cross found her way - and first she let the black pass by
then she let the brown
but quickly ran to the milk white steed
and pulled the rider down - So well she minded what he did say
that young Tam Lin she did win
she wrapped him in her green mantle
they safely loved within - Till they heard the Fairy Queen cry out
angry then was she
"You have taken away the fairest knight
in all of my company" - And had I known Tam Lin" she cried
what now this night I should
I'd have taken away your two grey eyes
I'd have put in two of wood"
Video
Version Notes
Added to site: October 1999