This week one of the greatest and most magical of the Scottish border ballads, Child 39. It’s quite long, so I give just the more dramatic second half; the whole is readily available online, though versions may differ. The plot is this: young Janet is forbidden by her father to go anywhere near Carterhaugh, which is the haunt of the notorious Tam Lin, a knight who has been abducted by the fairy court and who is known for seducing young maidens. Being a typical teenager she promptly hoists her skirt up a little above her knee (they wore them longer in those days) and scuttles off to Carterhaugh as fast as she can go, where she meets Tam Lin and predictably comes back pregnant. Scorning her father’s attempts to marry her off respectably to someone else, she goes back to Carterhaugh and tells Tam Lin that he’s going to be a daddy so what about it? Tam Lin says OK but first you have got to release me from the fairy spell, and that’s not going to be easy… This is where our extract begins.

I think one reason why this ballad still resonates so powerfully is that so many today face in their own way the prospect of holding fast to a loved one throughout a series of transformations, whether caused by age or illness or dementia, though sadly, unlike in the ballad, there is for them no happy ending in prospect.

The ballad has been covered by numerous folk artists, perhaps most notably by Fairport Convention on their seminal 1969 album ‘Liege and Lief’.

From ‘Tam Lin’

‘Just at the mirk and midnight hour
The elfin folk will ride
And they that would their true love win
At Miles Cross, they must bide.’

‘But how shall I thee ken, Tam Lin
And how shall I thee know?
Among so many unearthly knights
The like I never saw?’

‘Oh, first let by the black, black steed
And then let by the brown
But haste ye to the milk white steed
And pull the rider down

For I’ll be on the milk white steed
With a gold star in my crown
Because I was an earthly knight
They gave me that renown

And they will turn me in your arms
Into a beast so wild
But hold me fast and fear me not
I’m the father of your child

And they’ll change me in your arms
Into the red hot iron
But hold me fast and fear me not
I’ll do you no harm

They’ll turn me in your arms, my love
Into an awful snake
But hold me fast and fear me not
For I’m to be your mate

At last they’ll turn me in your arms
Into the melting lead
Then throw me into clear well water
And throw me in with speed

And then I’ll be your own true love
I’ll turn a naked knight
Cover me with your green mantle
And cover me out of sight

My right hand will be gloved, Janet,
My left hand will be bare
Cocked up shall my helmet be
No doubt I shall be there.’

Gloomy, gloomy was the night
And eerie was the way
When Janet in her green mantle
To Miles Cross she did gae

About the middle of the night
She heard the bridles ring
Janet was as glad of that
As any mortal thing

First went by the black, black steed
And then went by the brown
But quickly she ran to the milk-white steed
And pulled the rider down

And thunder rolled across the sky
And the stars they burned like day
And out then spoke the Queen of the Fairies
Crying young Tam Lin’s away

They turned him to a bear so bold
Then to a lion wild
She held him fast and feared him not
He was the father of her child

And then they turned him in her arms
Into iron like hot fire
She held him fast and feared him not
He was her heart’s desire

They turned him, changed him in her arms
Into a hissing snake
She held him fast and feared him not
He was to be her mate

At last they turned him in her arms
Into the molten lead
She threw him into clear well water
And threw him in with speed

And then he turned a naked knight
She young Tam Lin did win
She covered him with her green mantle
As blithe’s a bird in spring

Out then spoke the Queen of the Fairies
Out of a bush of broom
‘She that has gotten young Tamlin
Has gotten a stately groom’

Out then spoke the Queen of the Fairies
And angry queen was she
‘Shame betide her ill-starred face
And an ill death may she die’

Out then spoke the Queen of Fairies
Out of a bush of rye
‘She has gotten the fairest knight
In all my company

If what I’d see this night, Tam Lin
Last night I’d understood
I’d have torn out thy two grey eyes
And put in two of wood

If what I see this night, Tam Lin
Last night I’d only known
I’d have taken out your heart of flesh
Put in a heart of stone

If I’d but half the wit yestreen
That I have bought today
I’d have paid my tithe seven times to Hell
E’er you’d been won away’

Anon