Illustration by John D. Batten for Tamlane in More English Fairy Tales, 1894

A month or so ago I ran a piece which showed how folk music has been the way in which stories have been told and handed down through the ages. Often these were true stories, and the songs became the way in which the news was passed along before the days of the media that we know now. But many of these stories were fictional, and they often involved elements of superstition, fairies and mythical beings – they were a gullible lot back then, a bit like a Numpty Trumpty audience, only less insane. One of these stories has been the subject of many songs down the years and several of these have been recorded in recent times (i.e. in the past fifty years or so) and have become favourites of mine. I thought I’d tell you the story and play you some of my favourites.

Tam Lin (and many variants of the name) is a character in a ballad originating from the Scottish Borders. It is also associated with a reel of the same name, also known as the Glasgow Reel. The story revolves around the rescue of Tam Lin by his true love from the Queen of the Fairies. The motif of winning a person by holding him through all forms of transformation is found throughout Europe in many folk tales, so this one is ploughing a well-worked field. It is quite a long story so bear with me. This is how Wikipedia tells it:

“Most variants begin with the warning that Tam Lin collects either a possession or the virginity of any maiden who passes through the forest of Carterhaugh. When a young woman, usually called Janet or Margaret, goes to Carterhaugh and plucks a double rose, Tam appears and asks her why she has come without his leave and taken what is his. She states that she owns Carterhaugh because her father has given it to her.

Janet then goes home and discovers that she is pregnant; some variants pick up the story at this point. When asked about her condition, she declares that her baby’s father is an elf whom she will not forsake. In some versions, she is informed of a herb that will induce abortion; in all the variants, when she returns to Carterhaugh and picks a plant, either the same roses as on her earlier visit or the herb, Tam reappears and challenges her action.

She asks him whether he was ever human, either after that reappearance or, in some versions, immediately after their first meeting resulted in her pregnancy. Tam Lin reveals that, though he was once a mortal man, he was imprisoned in Carterhaugh by the Queen of Faeries after she kidnapped him by catching him when he fell from his horse. He goes on to tell Janet that the fairies give one of their people as a teind (tithe) to Hell at midnight on every seventh Hallowe’en. He asks Janet for her help in freeing him, and receives her agreement; he then instructs her to come to the forest at the time of the tithe, during which he’ll be in the company of numerous faerie knights — he tells her that she’ll recognize him by his white horse. Janet must pull him down from his horse, thus making her the one to “catch” him this time, and hold him tightly: he warns her that the fairies will attempt to make her drop him by turning him into all manner of beasts, but states that none of these forms will actually cause her harm. Tam Lin will eventually take the shape of burning coal; when this occurs, Janet is to throw him into a well, whereupon he will reappear as a naked mortal man whom Janet must hide. She does as she is asked and wins her knight; though her success angers the Queen of Faeries, the latter accepts her defeat.

In different variations, Tam Lin is reportedly the grandson of the Laird of Roxburgh, the Laird of Foulis, the Earl of Forbes, or the Earl of Murray. His name also varies between versions (Tam Lin being the most common) as Tom Line, Tomlin, Young Tambling, Tam-a-line and Tamlane.”

The Ballad of Tam Lin dates back to at least 1549, and has regularly featured in song and ballad collections since then: it seems to have been particularly popular in Victorian times – they also liked their fairy stories! It has also featured in, or been the inspiration for, a great number of poems and novels.

Still with me? Then let’s get on to some music. The first version I knew of this was by Fairport Convention, who included it on their legendary Liege And Lief album back in December 1969 – the one which really began the English folk-rock tradition. In keeping with the story it is a long track, but they really go for the drama with it. There are several fairly recent live versions on YouTube but, for obvious reasons, they all lack the fabulous voice of Sandy Denny, so I’m going with the original recording:

Shortly after Fairport Convention recorded the song the story became the basis of a British horror movie, Tam-Lin, released in 1970, directed by Roddy McDowall and starring Ava Gardner and Ian McShane, before he morphed into Lovejoy. The title song for the movie was recorded by another of my favourite bands, Pentangle, who took a more gentle approach to it. You get two for the price of one with this, firstly the actual song and then a more theatrical version from the movie, with sound effects:

The movie updated the story and transplanted it into the 1960s. I haven’t seen it but I’m not sure that I really want to anyway: The Radio Times Guide to Film rated it two stars out of five, saying: “although interminably slow and hilariously pretentious at times, its aura of faded Swinging Sixties decadence is interesting.” That doesn’t really fit with my more traditional view of the story, but Pentangle did their usual superb job with the music, and Jacqui McShee has a voice to treasure alongside Sandy Denny’s.

Not to be outdone in the friendly rivalry stakes the other main band of the English folk-rock movement, Steeleye Span, also recorded a version of the song. This hasn’t been on any of their studio albums, but was on the live album Tonight’s The Night…Live which came out in September 1992. According to Wikipedia, the most experimental piece in their show was their version of Tam Lin, which they describe as being Fairport Convention’s signature tune. I think that is highly debatable! To find a new approach to the story, Peter Knight, Steeleye’s fiddler, traced it to Bulgarian folklore, combining three of their folk songs to create a new version. This was a mammoth effort, coming in at over ten minutes, but it created a truly epic feel for the story. This performance is from a live DVD which came out in 2004:

Epic, or what! that was Steeleye’s 35th anniversary tour, which I didn’t catch, but I was there for the 40th and 45th series of shows!

I’m closing with a much more recent treatment of the song – by recent I mean ‘four days ago.’ You may recall that I have featured the German pagan folk band Faun several times, and they recorded the song for their album Pagan, which came out in 2022. That version was in German but they have very obligingly re-recorded it in English, and have made a new video for it. This is absolutely gorgeous:

So there you have it. Four takes in music which are as varied as the iterations of the fairy story which they are retelling. As I have said before, one of the things which has always driven my love of folk music is the variation it brings, even when the subject matter is broadly the same. And beware if you come across a guy riding a white horse: you never know…