Tam Lin in Prose
Below is an exploration of Tam Lin as book or play, that is, the influence of the Ballad in other story telling formats. If you are looking for reference books on Tam Lin, focused on scholarly examination or written records of versions, please see the Tam Lin reference list instead. If you are looking for Tam Lin influenced stories outside of traditional published works, please see the transformative works section, which covers artwork, fanfic, and movies.
Organization of the list
Books are sorted chronologically by first printing, and by author last name where multiple records exist for a given year. This is both because of my interest in seeing how the stories have changed over the years, and to make it easier for readers to learn when new stories have come out. Word count given for electronic texts with no page numbers available.
Terms used in the list
Attempts to classify target age group have been made for available records. In addition to the terms presumed to already be familiar to readers (children's lit, YA, literature, adult), the following terms are applied to give additional details on stories:
- Fantasy setting - story is set an an unspecified time pre-Industrial Revolution. May contain some references to specific places, but is not intended to represent a particular placement in history. Much more likely to have Fairies and Elves as an accepted aspect of the universe and contain fantastical elements as an accepted part of the world building.
- Historical setting - story has been set in a particular period significantly before the publication date of the book, including references and placement details integral to the story. Frequently regards Fairies and Elves as folklore, regardless of whether or not they exist in-universe.
- Modern fantasy setting - story is set at or near future to story publication, but the world is one where fantastical elements are an accepted part of the world building.
- Modern setting - story is set more or less congruent to story publication. Fairies and Elves regarded as folklore, regardless of whether or not they exist in-universe.
Because book retellings vary greatly in how they incorporate Tam Lin into the story, this website uses the following to classify the stories, when known:
- Significant quotes or references - the story includes characters quoting the ballad or making significant mention of the ballad, but the story is not primarily Tam Lin related.
- Thematic elements or tropes - the story contains significant themes from Tam Lin, such as rescuing a lover from faeries on Halloween or holding onto a person through transformations to recapture them, but the story is not presented as primarily Tam Lin related. Tam Lin may exist as a known story in-universe.
- Tam Lin AU. - The story is primarily a Tam Lin retelling, but with significant alteration to the tale, such as a modern setting, or replacement of significant parts of the story with new elements.
- Traditional Tam Lin retelling - the story is primarily Tam Lin based, and retains traditional elements without major alteration
These are approximations. Any one book may fall on the border between classifications- if, for example, the story contains significant references to Tam Lin and quoting of verses, but also reenacts the ballad as the overall theme of the work, it may be listed with more than one designation. A story may likewise be set in Scotland and provide specific names for the families involved in the story, but without sufficient detail to indicate an intended period in history, it will likely still be judged to be a fantasy setting. Since a good number of the stories involve the revelation of the existence of Faeries, more emphasis has been placed on how widespread the belief in faeries is in-universe than whether or not they exist in the first place.
Spoilers abound. Accuracy of inclusion of any record for which details have not been reported is uncertain. I have attempted to limit this list to books where the connections to Tam Lin are intentional, although some borderline cases may be present. Read at your own risk.
For additional reviews of these books, check out the list at GoodReads
Books Involving Tam Lin
- Scott, Sir Walter. Alice Brand., in The Lady of the Lake. 1810
- genre: fantasy lit, poem
- type: Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 27 verses. Fantasy setting. Alice Brand and her lover Richard are living in the woods as outlaws. During a battle over Alice, Richard had slain Alice's brother Ethert, and the pair now must make due in the woods to avoid the authorities. Meanwhile, the Elfin King plots against them, angered by the fact that they cut down trees under his protection and that they wear green, the faeries' color. The Elfin King sends one of his minions to curse the pair in retribution, choosing one who was once a mortal as he'd be immune to the sign of the cross. The minion goes forth and threatens Richard, saying Richard cannot banish him because Richard's hands are sinful from slaying Alice's brother. Alice instead steps forward and, being sinless herself, commands the monster to reveal who he is. The monster reveals that he was a mortal man injured in an immoral fight, leaving him at the mercy of the faeries, but he can be freed if a woman would bless him three times. Alice does so, and the monster transforms into her brother. Joyous, the trio return to their home.
- availability: on site
- purchase: Amazon
- Lang, Andrew. The Gold of Fairnilee. Bristol: Arrowsmith, 1888.
- genre: fantasy lit
- type: Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 14.5k words. Historical setting. When Randal and Jean are children, they go out searching for a local wishing well, and Randal disappears. Many years later, Jean goes to the well again, set near the river Yarrow, and plucks roses. A dwarf appears, and she makes the sign of the cross at it, and it transforms into a full grown Randal, who reveals he had been taken away by the Fairy Queen. Later, he uses a bottle of ointment he had kept from his time with the Fairies to find a lost treasure.
- availability: online at Project Gutenberg
- purchase: Amazon
Jacobs, Jospeh. Tamlane. in More English Fairy Tales. 1894
- genre: children's lit
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: 1K words. Fantasy setting. Tamlane and Burd Janet were friends as children, and engaged, but he disappears before tehy can be married. Some time after, Janet wanders to Carterhaugh and finds him. She asks what happened to him, and he explains how he was taken by the fairies and how she can save him. She goes to Miles Cross on Halloween to save him, and wins him back again. Contains several ballad verses at the end.
- availability: online at Sacred Texts
- purchase: Amazon
Tappan, Eva March. Tamlane. in Old Ballads in Prose. 1901.
- genre: children's lit
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: Pages 69-78. Fantasy setting. Janet defies her old nurse and goes out on the moor at midnight to scatter hemp seeds to summon her true love. She meets Tamlane, who declares himself her long-lost true love, who could only try to find her on Halloween night. He instructs her about how he was abducted and how to save him. She follows the instructions and brings him home.
- availability: available at archive.org.
- purchase: Amazon
Macleod, Mary. The Young Tamlane. in A Book of Ballad Stories. 1906
- genre: children's lit
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: Pages 56-64. Fantasy setting. Places the ballad "at the time of William Wallace", has Tam Lin as a wee wee man who casts a spell over Janet to make her pale and wan once she's home again. She return to Carterhaugh, questions him about life among the Faeries, and then rescues him at the mirk and midnight hour.
- availability: available at google books.
- purchase: Amazon
MacGregor, Mary. Stories from the Ballads. 1908.
- genre: children's lit
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: Pages 1-15. Fantasy setting. Tamlane was stolen away as a young child, and now lives as a wee elf in Carterhaugh. When young Janet is forbidden to go to the woods, she goes to the woods and meets him, and he weaves a spell of love around her. She returns some time later to question him, and, after hearing his tale, agrees to free him. She rescues him from the wee folk on Halloween.
- availability: available onsite.
- purchase: Amazon
-
Outhwaite, Ida Rentoul. Young Tam Lyn. in Little Book of Elves and Fairies. 1916
- genre: Children's lit.
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: Pages 52-55. Fantasy setting. Short prose retelling with ballad verses interspersed. Two illustrations included, do no appear to be directly related to the ballad.
- purchase: Amazon
- Pyle, Katharine. Tamlane: A Story from an Old Scotch Ballad. in Wonder Tales from Many Lands. 1920.
- genre: children's lit
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: Pages 97-102. Fantasy setting. Fair Janet hears an elfin horn blowing, and goes to the woods to seek the source, meeting Tamlane. They fall in love and get engaged to each other, and she vows to free him so he can return home. She captures him from the fairie troop and brings him home.
- availability: available onsite.
- purchase: Amazon
Myers, John Myers. Silverlock. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1949.
- genre: fantasy lit
- type: Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 361 pages. Fantasy setting. Main character Shandon travels through various fantasy settings, meeting a variety of characters from literature and folklore, after being shipwrecked in a place called The Commonwealth of Letters. Tamlane story occurs in latter part of chapter 19 and 20. Shandon comes across a woman weeping in the woods, a heavily pregnant Janet. She explains that the father of the child would marry her if he could, but she has to break the spell that binds him. She asks the Shandon to meet her that night at Mile's Cross for support, where he witnesses her make a circle on the ground with holy water, and then pull Tamlane from his floating horse as the enchanters transform him. Janet rescues Tamlane and then departs with him, leaving Shandon to be carried off (not unwillingly) by the female leader of the wizards.
- purchase: Amazon
- Picard, Barbara Leonie The Faun and the Woodcutter's Daughter ., 1951
- genre: children's lit.
- type:
- notes: 235 pages. not yet reviewed.
- purchase: Amazon
- Sutcliff, Rosemary. The Armourer's House. 1951
- genre: children's lit.
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed.
- purchase: Amazon
- Wilson, Barbara Ker. Scottish Folk-Tales and Legends. Oxford University Press 1954
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed.
- purchase: Amazon
Heyer, Georgtte. Venetia. William Heinemann 1958
- genre: literature
- type: Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 336 pages. Historical setting, 1818. Venetia Lanyon has been quietly running a country estate for several years since the death of her father. When Damerel, a renowned rake, returns to his adjoining estate she is warned to avoid him. They meet when she is plucking raspberries from his land and he confronts her, kissing her in the interaction. Damerel's reputation was ruined when he ran off with an older woman, years before, and his history is now mysterious. Venetia and he become friends, particularly after he takes care of her injured brother, but find that her family and society disapproves of the match. She goes to London, and there learns some family secrets that send her back to Damerel on a late night journey to settle their relationship. Connection to Tam Lin is not overt, and may be tenuous.
- related resource: For a different opinion on the connections, see Abebooks forum discussion on the topic
- purchase: Amazon
- Picard, Barbara Leonie Hero Tales from the British Isles., 1963
- genre: children's lit.
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed.
- purchase: Amazon
Moray, Ann. The Young Tamlin. in A fair stream of silver: love tales from Celtic lore. William Morrow & Company, New York, 1965
- genre: Literature
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: Pages 47-57. Fantasy setting. Janet is the willful daughter of the earl of Dunbar, and forbidden to go to Carterhaugh. She composes poems based on her dreams of longing for the woods, and finally meets Tam Lin, and they are lovers. When she returns later to tell him of her pregnancy, she learns he has been sending her the dreams, for they knew each other when they were children. He instructs her how to rescue him, which she does. The story contains a small additional note on their child growing to fame and bravery.
- purchase: Amazon
Davies, Anthea. Tam Lin. in A White Horse with Wings. New York: Macmillan, 1968.
- genre: Young reader
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: pages 34-47. Fantasy setting. Illustrations by Brigette Bryan. The king calls all the maidens of his castle together and forbids them to go to Carterhaugh. Janet, his daughter, travels there anyway in search of Tam Lin. She falls in love with him, and when she returns home, is sad and downcast. She argues with her father's knights when they say she has lost her heart to someone, and then returns to Carterhaugh to tell Tam Lin their love can be no more. He informs her he is to be sacrificed to hell, and asks her to save him. She travels to the crossroads that night, taking shelter behind a stone cross, and pulls him from his horse as the troops pass by.
- purchase: Amazon
Rundle, Anne. Tamlane. London: Hutchinson, 1970.
- genre: YA
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: 119 pages. Fantasy setting. Seonaid was born on Halloween and has the second sight, which may be why she finds the talisman in Carterhaugh woods and meets Tamlane, who seems ghostly and strange. At that Halloween's festivities, her brother, Luthais, falls to his death from the castle tower, beginning a war between local families. In the months that follow, Seonaid seeks out Tamlane and works to unravel the mysteries in her world, from her mysterious cousin Murgunn's secrets to the identity of the masked revealers, and how to rescue her lover from his captivity.
- purchase: Amazon
Storr, Catherine. Thursday. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
- genre: YA fantasy lit.
- type: Thematic elements or tropes, Tam Lin AU
- notes: 274 pages. Modern setting. Bee is recovering from a long illness when her friend Thursday goes missing. When she finds him again, he's behaving oddly and distant, and may be mentally ill. An old woman tells Bee that he's been stolen away by the fairies, and to recapture him, she has to hold on to him and reclaim him. On midsummer's night she meets him in an abandoned lot, and holds onto him through the night. The story is not explicit about how many of the events are magical and how many are only allegorical.
- purchase: Amazon
Ipcar, Dahlov Zorach. The Queen of Spells. New York: Viking Press, 1973.
- genre: YA fantasy lit
- type: Tam Lin AU.
- notes: 145 pages. Historical setting, 1876 and years following. Janet has been intrigued by the abandoned Linn place down the road, and by the odd local man, Tam Lin, who claims to be a knight of the green world and has trouble keeping track of time. Janet must cross magical borders and unravel deceptions by an enchanted circus to rescue Tam Lin, and find him under a variety of disguises.
- purchase: Amazon
Garner, Alan. Red Shift. New York: MacMillan, 1973.
- genre: fantasy lit
- type: Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 191 pages. Modern and historical settings. Interwoven narratives set in 1970s England, the English Civil War, and the Roman occupation follow several couples, the latter two during periods of warfare and violence, with connecting threads of visions, astronomy, a neolithic axe head, and visits to the location of Mow Cop. Tom and Jan are a modern couple dealing with physical distance and emotional and financial issues. Thomas and Margaret are a couple during the civil war, in a town facing attack by opposition forces. Macey is a soldier with a deserting Roman legion that has kidnapped a local priestess for their camp. All of the men are plagued by overwhelming feelings that may result in visions or fits. The author has stated that the book is more of an expression of the ballad, and readers may overt connection to the ballad difficult, as the story contains no fairies, rescue, sacrifice, enchanted woods, or transformations.
- related resources: Charles Butler's essay on Tam Lin and Red Shift (archived version)
- purchase: Amazon
Pope, Elizabeth Marie The Perilous Gard. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974.
- genre: Fantasy lit
- type: Thematic elements or tropes, Significant references
- notes: 280 pages. Historical setting, 1558. Katherine Sutton, lady in waiting to princess Elizabeth, has been exiled to the Perilous Gard, an old castle, after he sister writes an ill-advised letter to Queen Mary. There she meets Christopher, accused of the death of his niece, who was taken away by the Fair Folk who live under the hill. When Christopher exchanges himself for the tiend in order to safe return his niece, Katherine follows after to find a way to rescue them both before the Halloween sacrifice can take place. Tam Lin exists as a ballad in-universe and is quoted during the story.
- purchase: Amazon
Jeffers, Susan. Wild Robin. New York: Dutton, 1976.
- genre: children's book
- type: Tam Lin AU, some references
- notes: 32 pages. Fantasy setting. Robin is a little boy who doesn't want to do his chores, so one day he runs away. He falls asleep inside a fairy ring and is taken to live with the faeries. His sister, Janet, misses him terrible, and so a little elf and Robin take pity on her and tell her how to bring him home. She grabs his from the fairy troop after letting other riders pass, and holds onto him as he transforms until she can get her cloak over him and make him human again.
- purchase: Amazon
Phelps, Ethel Johnston (ed). Short story Janet and Tam Lin. in Tatterhood and Other Tales: Stories of Magic and Adventure . New York: The Feminist Press, 1978.
- genre: Children's lit
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: pages 23-28. Historical setting. Illustrated by Pamela Baldwin Ford. Janet goes to the woods to make a wish at the enchanted well, and by doing so, summons Tam Lin. After that she visits him frequently throughout the summer, and in the fall, asks how she can rescue him. He tells her how to save him on Halloween.
- purchase: Amazon
Little, Patrick. The Hawthorn Tree. 1980
- genre: children's lit.
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 192 pages
- purchase: Amazon
- Lochhead, Liz. Tam Lin's Lady. in The Grimm Sisters. 1981
- genre: children's lit.
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 53 pages
- purchase: Amazon
Dickson, Gordon R. The Final Encyclopedia. An Orb Book, 1984
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 350 pages
- purchase: Amazon
Jones, Diana Wynne. Fire and Hemlock. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1984.
- genre: YA fantasy lit.
- type: Tam Lin AU, important references
- notes: 420 pages. Modern setting. Polly is slowly discovering that she's had her memories of her relationship with Thomas Lynn, her music teacher, altered for some strange reason to do with Laurel, owner of a local estate. Laurel has plans for Lynn, and Polly, if she can untangle her memories, may be able to stop her. The relationship of Laurel and Thomas has elements of Thomas the Rhymer included. Tam Lin also exists as a story in-universe of which the characters are aware.
- purchase: Amazon
Time-Life Books (ed) Tam Lin., short story in Fairies and Elves., part of The Enchanted World. series. Time-Life books, Alexandria Virginia, 1984
- genre: traditional retelling, anthology.
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: pages 100-107. Illustrated by Jill Karla Schwarz. Fantasy setting. Janet, daughter of the Earl of March, defies warnings and goes to pluck roses in the woods by the old well. A knight appears. She later returns to find him again, and he tells her his story, and how the unyielding grasp of a mortal lover on Halloween night might save him.
- purchase: Amazon
Yolen, Jane. Cards of Grief. Ace 1984
- genre: fantasy lit
- type: Significant quotes or references.
- notes: 144 pages. SF setting. On the planet of L'Lan'lor, grieving is the greatest cultural tradition, and Linni, the Grey Wanderer, has been chosen as the Queen's Griever. A prodigy in a matriarchal, non-monogamous culture, she is involved in the court hierarchy when first contact is made by anthropologists on a visiting spaceship. Book is structured as a series of recordings, interviews, and hearings recounting events surrounding Linni's life and involvement with the Queen, her heir, and a member of the contact team. Tam Lin is mentioned in passing as part of a cultural exchange of songs, and some influence in overall themes may also be present.
- purchase: Amazon
- Kock, Christopher J. The Doubleman. 1985
Vinge, Joan D. Tam Lin., short story appearing in Imaginary Lands., Robin McKinley, ed. Greenwillow Books, New York, 1985.
- genre: fantasy lit.
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: pages 181-212. Historical setting. Jennet has grown up hearing rumors of her mother's disappearance, and has been constrained by the harsh rules of the priest who now advises her father. On midsummer's day, she defies them to go to the revels in the town, where the music and dancing enchants her until she goes to the woods to seek the truth. She meets Tam Lin, and they become lovers. When she learns in the fall that she is pregnant, the resulting arguments reveal truths about her family history. She returns to the woods to find Tam again, and learn what can be done to save him.
- purchase: Amazon
Grant, Richard. Rumors of Spring. Spectra 1987
- genre:
- type:
- notes: Not yet reviewed. 439 pages.
- purchase: Amazon
Lawrence, Ann Summer's End: Stories of Ghostly Lovers. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987.
- genre: YA
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling.
- notes: Pages 24-40. Fantasy setting. Overall book is framed as stories told to children by a guest at an inn. The Tam Lin story is set at Halloween. Janet is the daughter of an impoverished Laird, and neither of her parents pay much attention to her wanderings, as they cannot afford to present her in society or matchmake her to local families. She goes to Carterhaugh woods and plucks roses, at which point a strange man appears, and they court through the summer. She ends up pregnant, and when she goes to find herbs to abort the pregnancy, he appears again and tells her his history, referring to the Good Neighbors who had taken him. He can be rescued at the end of seven year's service (no mention of tithes or sacrifice), and she does so, and can then take him home to her family.
- purchase:
- Sandemo, Margit. Nattens Demon. (Demon of the Night) 1987
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. Part of The Legend of the Ice People series, written in Norwegian.
- purchase: Amazon
- Snyder, Midori. Soulstring. 1987
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed.
- purchase: Amazon
- Johnson, Polly B. The Ballad of Tam Lin the Elven Knight.. San Antonio: The Press of the Unseen Unicorn, 1988.
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed.
- purchase:
Yolen, Jane. The Books of the Great Alta: Sister Light Sister Dark and White Jenna. New York: TOR, 1988-9.
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed
- purchase: Amazon
Elphinstone, Margaret. A Sparrow's Flight. 1989
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed
- purchase: Amazon
- Feist, Raymond. Faerie Tale. 1989
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 448 pages
- purchase: Amazon
James, Betsy. The Red Cloak. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1989
- genre: Children's lit
- type: Tam Lin AU.
- notes: 36 pages. Setting is not specified, fantasy. Tam and Jan are children born on the same day and inseparable friends, until Tam is stolen away by the Faeries that live in the lake, and everyone other than Jan thinks he has died. A wise woman makes Jan a magic red cloak she can use to cover and recapture Tam. She must throw it over him when they make their yearly procession out of the lake on Midsummer's night, and keep him covered as he transforms through several shapes. She does so, and recovers Tam. Both Tam and Jan are depicted as young children.
- purchase: Amazon
Silverman, Maida; Boix, Manuel (illustrator). The Magic Well. Holiday House, 1989
- genre: young reader
- type: Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 28 pages. Fantasy setting. Janet is a little girl who goes to gather twigs and fruit in the woods with her mother. When she plucks a rose from a well while her mother rests, the Queen of the Fairies appears and carries her away. Janet stays with the fairies for weeks, unaware of the passage of time, but finally visits her mother as a white dove, and gets word to her that she can be rescued that night, on Halloween. Janet's mother pulls her from the fairies procession and holds her as she transforms, and if able to bring her home again.
- purchase: Amazon
Dalton, Annie. Out of the Ordinary. HarperCollins, January 1990
- genre: YA
- type: Thematic elements or tropes, significant references
- notes: 243 pages. Modern setting. Molly Guerney is a teenager, youngest daughter of the woman who takes in every stray and foster in need of help. Molly sometimes feels music in bones and sees things that aren't there. One night she accidentally casts a spell to ask for a quest, and a child, Floris, is sent to her for protection. Floris is under a curse to change shape, and slated for sacrifice to a magus in his own world. Molly and a local musician, Icarus, must figure out how to save Floris. Tam Lin is referenced during a series of transformations the child undergoes while Molly fights to retain him by holding on to him.
- purchase: Amazon
- Gaiman, Neil The Books of Magic. Vertigo Comics 1990
- genre:
- type: Significant quotes or references
- notes: Not yet reviewed. Graphic novel series. Main character's father is Tamlin, a magician, associated with the Faerie Queen. Name appears to be a reference, overall story does not contain Tam Lin elements.
- purchase: Amazon
Kushner, Ellen. Thomas the Rhymer. William Morrow & Co 1990
- genre: Fantasy lit
- type: Significant quotes or references
- notes: 258 pages. Fantasy setting with significant historal references. Primarily a retelling of the ballad Thomas the Rhymer. Told in four parts from different viewpoints. First section is told by Gavin, a shepherd who takes Thomas, a wandering mistrel who has fallen ill, into his household to heal. Thomas becomes a friend and visits often. Second is from the viewpoint of Thomas, after he meets the Queen of Elfland and stays with her in the realm of Faerie for seven years. Third is Meg, wife of Gavin, after Thomas returns. Fourth is Elspeth, Thomas's wife, recounting his years as a seer until his death. A scene late in the story has Thomas and another harper perform Tam Lin as a test of their talents.
- purchase: Amazon
Mayer, Marianna. Noble-hearted Kate. New York: Bantam Books, 1990
- genre: YA
- type: Tam Lin AU.
- notes: 64 pages. Illustrations by Winslow Pels. Fantasy setting. Contains elements of the tale Kate Crackernut as well as Tam Lin. Kate's stepsister, Meghan, is cursed to have the face of a sheep as a scheme to make Kate the prettier sister. Kate and Meghan go on a quest to restore Meghan to her true form. Along the way, this involves the rescue of a prince captured by the fairies, and holding on to him as he is transformed.
- purchase: Amazon
Munro, Alice. Hold Me Fast, Don't Let Me Pass., in Friend of My Youth. New York: Knopf, 1990.
- genre: literature, short story
- type: Significant quotes or references
- notes: pages 74-105. Modern setting. Hazel travels to Philliphaugh after the death of her husband Jack, to retrace some of the people and places of his youth, when he was stationed there during WWII. Several people cite the ballad during the story, make reference to the local places related to it. The ballad is used as an allegory to the tension in the character's lives between the mundane world and memory or desire.
- purchase: Amazon
Yolen, Jane; Mikolayak, Charles (illus). Tam Lin: An Old Ballad. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1990.
- genre: Children's books
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: 25 pages. Fantasy setting. On her sixteenth birthday, Jennet MacKenzie decides to brave the woods that is her inheritance and determine if the stories of fairies are true. She meets Tam Lin, and learns his story, then braves the tests to rescue him.
- related resource: Jane Yolen's commentary on the book.
- purchase: Amazon
Cooper, Susan. Tam Lin. New York: Margaret K. McElderry Books, 1991.
- genre: Children's books
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: 32 pages. Fantasy setting. Illustrated by Warwick Hutton. Margaret goes to Cartershay, despite the warnings, and meets a young man, Tam Lin. She spends the day with him, but upon returning home finds she's been gone a week and is in disgrace. She remains friends with Tam, and learns of his history and he dangers he faces from the fairies with whom he lives.
- purchase: Amazon
Dean, Pamela. Tam Lin. Part of The Fairy Tale Series, Ed. by Terri Windling. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 1991.
- genre: YA
- type: Tam Lin AU.
- notes: 468 pages. Modern setting. Story is set at a liberal arts college in the 1970s. It follows Janet through her years at college, including the rumors of ghosts on campus, the strange behavior of a number of the classics majors, and the mysterious behavior and history of a number of the members of the faculty. The magical elements are woven throughout the story in an understated way, but become more pronounced as the story progresses.
- related resources: The Annotated Dean
- purchase: Amazon
Muller, Robin The Nightwood. Toronto: Doubleday Canada Ltd., 1991.
- genre: Children's lit
- type: Tam Lin AU
- notes: 32 pages. Fantasy setting. Elaine lives at the edge of an overgrown woods, the Nightwood, where several years before a maze of briars had grown up overnight. When she ventures into the woods and plucks a rose, she meets Tamlynne, the guardian of the woods, who takes her dancing at a faerie ball. She goes again and again, falling in love with Tamlynne, but growing weaker and paler in the mortal world. Elaine receives advice on how to save Tamlynne from an old woman who lost her love to the Faerie Queen, and thereby saves Tamlynne on Halloween.
- purchase: Amazon
Tepper, Sherri S. Beauty. DoubleDay 1991
- genre: fantasy literature
- type: Significant quotes or references.
- notes: 463 pages. Modern fantasy setting. Beauty has grown up as main character in the tale of Sleeping Beauty, but when the enchantment is due, she is carried off by observers from a dystopian future who had come to see the little remaining magic in the world. This begins a series of journeys through fairy tale stories, while Beauty tries to determine her purpose, falling through a variety of classic fairy tales. One of these involves meeting a character based on Tam Lin and Thomas the Rhymer, and engineering his extraction from the land of Fairies before the tithe. Includes modern settings and dark elements.
- purchase: Amazon
Scarborough, Elizabeth Ann. Phantom Banjo., Picking the Ballad's Bones., and Strum Again. (The Songkiller Saga) Bantam, 1991-2.
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 263, 242, 275 pages.
- purchase: Amazon
Ball, Margaret. No Earthly Sunne. Baen Publishing, 1994
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed
- purchase: Amazon
Pratchett, Terry Lords and Ladies : A Novel of Discworld. New York: HarperPrism, 1994.
- genre: fantasy lit
- type: Significant quotes or references, Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 374 pages. Fantasy setting. Shortly before the wedding of King Verence (formerly a court jester) and Magrat (until recently the most junior member of the local witch coven), the barrier between Lancre and the Faerie realm has grown weak, and the Faerie Queen is seeking a new consort. The Elves want into the world for their own sport, and it’s up to the local Witches, a few visiting Wizards, a local morris dancing troupe, and anyone else who is handy to stop them. The book indirectly references Tam Lin and features a woman rescuing her lover from the Queen and faerie troop, but it is one thread among many.
- purchase: Amazon
Sussex, Lucy. Deersnake. Hodder & Stoughton 1994.
- genre: YA
- type: Significant quotes or references
- notes: 219 pages. Modern setting. After an experiment with hallucinogens triggers the disappearance of one of her closest friends, Katie has to figure out what happened to Martin, who no one else seems to remember having existing. This includes learning about the Otherworld and how to recreate the circumstances that lead to the opening there. Includes discussion of Tam Lin and quoting from it, several references, and a young woman rescuing a young man, as well as fairy-induced animal transformations.
- purchase: Amazon
- McGraw, Eloise Jarvis. The Moorchild. Aladdin Paperbacks, 1996
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 241 pages
- purchase: Amazon
McKillip, Patricia A. Winter Rose. New York: Ace Books, 1996.
- genre: fantasy lit
- type: Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 262 pages. Rois first sees the new tenant of the adjacent land, Corbet Lynn, stepping out of shadows while she's drinking from a woodland well hidden by overgrown roses. Mystery surrounds him, as his father abandoned the family property more than a generation ago, after murdering his own father, and the family is rumored to be cursed. Corbet begins entwining his life with that of Rois and that of her sister, Laurel, as Rois explores the history of his families and the boundaries between worlds he seems to cross. She must eventually confront the Queen of the Dark to break the hold on him and return him safely to the mortal world.
- purchase: Amazon
Wrede, Patricia. The Lorelei. in Book of Enchantments. Harcourt Brace 1996
- genre: fantasy, short story.
- type: Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: Pages 128-152. Modern setting. Janet is on a school trip through Germany when the tour bus breaks down and the group must spent the night near a place where folklore has it that the Lorelei, a German equivalent to a Siren, once lured sailors to their death. Janet discovers one of the boys, Dan, from the tour has gone missing and tries to find him. She finds that the Lorelei is trying to lure him over a cliff edge, and so she holds on to him to hold him back while the Lorelei tries to convince her to release him. They can only rescue one another by covering each other's ear's and impeding their progress.
- purchase: Amazon
Brust, Steven; Bull, Emma. Freedom & Necessity. New York: TOR, 1997.
- genre: Historical Fiction literature
- type: Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 443 pages. Historical setting. Epistolary novel set in 1849. James, feared drowned at sea months before the start of the story, has turned up alive again, and this starts off a series of letters between friends and family over this and other related events. Kitty, James, Susan, and Richard are the narrators of the story, through letters and journals arguing everything from shopping to philosophy (Hegel and Marx predominate). James's family is seeking greater political control through ties with a cult-like organization, the cost of which is sacrificing a family member, while his more revolutionary minded friends try to find a way to unravel it all and save him. Features members of the gentry hunting a young man through the woods on Beltane and him being rescued by his pregnant lover. Ties to Tam Lin are largely allegorical.
- purchase: Amazon
- Datlow, Ellen (ed) Black Swan, White Raven. Avon Books, 1997
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 370 pages
- purchase: Amazon
-
Edghill, Rosemary. The Phaerie Bride. In Elf Magic., edited by Martin H. Greenberg. New York, 1997.
- genre:
- type:
- notes: Pages 39-64. Historical setting, 1800. Story is largely fantasy, uses elements of Tam Lin, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and other tales. Jonet Bellamy's wicked stepmother promises her in marriage to their unnatural neighbor, Auberon, who needs a bride to sacrifice to the tiend. Jonet, after several weeks of courtship, falls in love with her devilish fiance and agrees to marry him, and then must travel to hell to bring him home again after he takes her place in the tiend.
- purchase: Amazon
Doherty, Berlie, Ed. Tales of Wonder and Magic. Cambridge, Mass.: Candlewick Press, 1998.
- genre: Young reader
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling.
- notes: pg 39-54. Fantasy setting. Illustrated by Juan Wijgaard. Janet and her maidens play on the plains of Carterhaugh, until one day in May the Queen of Fairies appears and forbids mortals to use the grounds. Janet, defiant, goes to pluck roses the next morning and by doing so summons Tam Lin. He allows her to pluck the roses, but says she must not come again. The next day she comes, and pucks broom. Again, Tam Lin appears and says he'll let her pluck flowers that day, but not again. The third day, she goes to pluck hyacinths, and Tam Lin is waiting for her, to tell her his story. He talks of how he was captured by the fairies and wishes he could go home again. He instructs Janet to wait until Halloween and pull him from his horse in the fairie troop, and hold onto him as he transforms. She does so, and takes him home to wed.
- purchase: Amazon
Foglio, Phil. Things That Go Bump In The Night. appearing in issue #11 of xxxenophile magazine. 1998
- genre: Adult fantasy graphic novel
- type: Tam Lin AU.
- notes: 7 pages (unnumbered). Fantasy setting. When a Witch has her familiar and lover, Yorick, stolen away by the Faerie Queen, she must undergo a trial to recapture him, keeping him in a lover's grasp while he is put through transformations. Puts an adult spin on keeping a lover's hold. Humorous. 18+
- purchase: Amazon
Ragan, Kathleen; Yolen, Jane. Fearless Girls, Wise Women, and Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World. W. W. Norton & Company 1998
- genre: Children's fantasy lit
- type Traditional retelling
- notes: pgs 40-43, text is from Jacob's More English Fairy Tales.
- purchase: Amazon
- Fisher, Katherine. The Lammas Field. 1999 by Hodder & Stoughton
- genre: YA
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 172 pages
- purchase: The Lammas Field amazon)
Kerven, Rosalind; The Enchanted Forest: A Scottish Fairytale. London: Frances Lincoln, 1999.
- genre: Children's fantasy lit
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: 32 pages. Fantasy setting. Illustrated by Alan Marks. When Janna dares go into the forbidden woods, she meets a young man named Tam Lin, who tells her a very strange story of his history and how he can be saved. She returned to perform the rescue, facing down the Queen to return Tam Lin to the human world.
- purchase: Amazon
McCaughre, Geraldine. Never Let Go. Hodder & Stoughton 1999
- genre: children's book
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: 28 pages. Fantasy setting. Illustrated by Jason Cockroft. Plain Janet is engaged to Tamlin when he falls from his horse on a summer day and is taken away by the Queen of Fairyland. Janet consults the roses for help, and goes to rescue him on Halloween. She holds on to hm as he transforms, and wins him in the end, taking him home to marry.
- purchase: Amazon
Paterson, Judy. Tamlane. Broxbrun: Amaising Publishing House Ltd., 1999.
- genre: Children's books
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: 30 pages. Fantasy setting. Illustrated by Sally J. Collins. Janet and Tamlane are friends as children, but he disappears at the age of nine. Rumors abound that he was taken away by the fairies and that mortals should avoid the woods. Many years later, Janet decides to brave the woods and find her friend. She meets with Tamlane, who remembers her, but is now a guardian of the woods. She thinks of him through the summer, and in the fall returns to ask how she can bring him home again. He tells her to come to Miles Cross and pull him from his horse as the faerie troop processes, and hold onto him as he is transformed. She does so, and brings him home the next morning.
- purchase: Amazon
Yolen, Jane (ed). Burd Janet. in Not One Damsel in Distress: World Folktales for Strong Girls.. San Diego, New York, London: Harcourt, 2000.
- genre: Young reader
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: Pages 48-56. Illustrations by Susan Guevara. Fantasy setting. On her sixteenth birthday, Janet sneaks out to Carterhaugh to claim a rose, as a first step in returning the land to mortal control. She meets Tam Lin, who tells her that he has been trapped by the faeries for a long time, but will die the next night. She promises to cave him, and returns on Halloween to rescue him.
- purchase: Amazon
- Billingsley, Frannie. The Folk Keeper. (Jean Karl books) 2001.
- genre: YA
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 162 pages
- purchase: Amazon
Prue, Sally Cold Tom. Scholastic 2001
- genre: fantasy YA
- type: Significant quotes or references, some tropes
- notes: 187 pages. Modern setting. Tom is a faerie who no longer fits in with his troop, and must seek refuge among the demons (humans). He finds shelter with the human Anna, but the troop is still trying to hunt him down. A neighbor, Edie Mackintosh, also seems to know more about what's going on than they do. The ballad is considered historical backdrop for the story, and some imagery is used.
- purchase: Amazon
Black, Holly. Tithe. Simon & Schuster 2002
- genre: YA
- type: Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 310 pages. Modern fantasy. Kaye is a teenage in a run down area of New Jersey, staying with her grandmother, who has discovered that she is a changeling, a faerie child who had been left to be raised by humans. Now they want her back to serve as the tithe, but her alliance with Roiben, another faerie, allows her to save herself. This puts them in the middle of a battle between the faerie courts, and they are caught in intrigues between different factions and friends.
- purchase: Amazon
Farmer, Sally House of the Scorpion. 2002
- genre: fantasy lit.
- type: Significant quotes or references
- notes: Modern setting. There is a Scottish character named Tam Lin in this story, but the overall story has no tropes or references to the ballad. Name may be an homage.
- related resources: Tam Lin character guide for House of the Scorpion.
- purchase: Amazon
- Marillier, Juliet. Son of the Shadows. (book 2 of the Sevenwaters Trilogy). Tor books, 2002.
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 464 pages.
- purchase: Amazon
Dart-Thornton, Cecilia. The Battle of Evernight, third book in the Bitterbynde Trilogy. (The Ill-Made Mute., The Lady of Sorrows.) Warner Aspect 2003
- genre: fantasy lit
- type: Significant quotes or references, Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: Series: 552, 559, 459 pages. Tam Lin retelling pages 366-371 of final book. Fantasy setting. Primary character Ashalind is initially discovered as a disfigured mute with no memory, in the world of Erith where various folklore creatures roam the world. Over the course of three books, she regains her voice, her appearance, and her memory, allies herself with the King of Faeran (fairies), and is involved in a war to defeat the dark Faeran and reopen the gates between mortal and Faeran realms. A number of the supporting cast figures are from folklore, and one of the King's assistants is Tamlain of Roxburgh, who tells the story of how he came to serve the Faeran and met his wife, Alys-Jennet. Retelling omits sacrifice, Queen figure is a high ranking Faeran but outranked by the King. Alys-Jennet has no substantial part in overall story.
- purchase: Amazon
McNaughton, Janet. An Earthly Knight. HarperCollins, 2003
- genre: YA
- type: traditional Tam Lin retelling.
- notes: 257 pages. Historic setting, 1162. Jeanette is the daughter of an Earl in the Carterhaugh region, and is being groomed for an advantageous marriage, to counter her family's disgrace with her older sister, Isobel (whose story uses elements of Lady Isobel and the Elfin Knight). Jeanette prefers sneaking off to the woods to meet with Tam Lin, the possibly mad heir to the region. When she becomes pregnant, she must save him in order to make a proper marriage and avoid being sent to a convent for punishment.
- purchase: Amazon
Parkhurst, Caroline The Dogs Of Babel. Back Bay Books 2003
- genre: Literature
- type: Significant quotes or references
- notes: 264 pages. Modern setting. After the death of his wife, Lexy, Paul Iverson is driven to re-evaluate their life in order to understand if her death was an accident or suicide. He becomes obsessed with the idea of finding a way of questioning his dog, the only witness to her death. Quotes heavily from Tam Lin as a favorite ballad of the wife and a clue to her mindset at the time of her death.
- purchase: Amazon
- Willingham, Bill. The Last Castle., March of the Wooden Soldiers., in Fables. comic series. 2003
- genre:
- type: Significant quotes or references
- notes: not yet reviewed. Reportedly minor character, a knight favored by the Queen of Fairies. Name is a reference, but overall story contains no Tam Lin elements. Appears in 4 issues, two listed above and two collections.
- purchase: Amazon
- Bowen, Hannah Wolf. My Kingdom. Abyss & Apex, Winter 2004
- genre: lit
- type: Tam Lin AU
- notes: 5.6K words. Modern setting. Meg is a horse trainer who has brought her remaining racing horses to Carterhaugh, the track where horses only break down once every seven years. Thomas Lane is a jockey who has been working for the Lady. To win him as her co-trainer, Meg must pull him from his horse during a midnight race, as his horse changes between several race horses that died before reaching their full potential. Horse names include references to the ballad.
- availability online at Abyss & Apex
de Lint, Charles. The Butter Spirit's Tithe. Tor 2004
- genre: lit
- type: Significant quotes or references, Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 33 pages. Modern fantasy setting. Conn is a musician who, seven years before, offended a butter spirit (a household helper spirit) by ingratitude at his workplace, and now faces being sacrificed to the Grey Man on the night before Beltane. In the intervening years, he is cursed with bad luck and his girlfriend becomes allergic to him. His bandmates are determined to save him, and using the ballad of Tam Lin as a guide, have him confront the Grey Man and hold on to his true love to sort things out.
- purchase: Amazon
Vess, Charles (ed). Tam Lin., in the graphic novel series Ballads and Sagas, collected as The Book of Ballads., Green Man Press, 2004.
- genre: Literature, graphic novel
- type: Tam Lin AU.
- notes: 18 pages, text written by Elaine Lee. Traditional setting. Janet is pregnant by Tam Lin, whom she had previously met in the forest. She travels to the woods on All Hallow's Eve to save him, not knowing he had been sacrificed many years before. This retelling has Tam Lin as a ghost seeking a means of re-incarnation through Janet's child. Ballad version follows illustrated pages.
- related resources: Green Man Press
- purchase: Amazon
Keehn, Sally. Gnat Stokes and the Foggy Bottom Swamp Queen. 2005
- genre: Young reader
- type: Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 152 pages. Historical setting. Set in the swamplands of Kentucky in 1868. Twelve year old Gnat Stokes has grown up in a colorful rural community of Mary's Cove, just on the side of the feared and forbidden Foggy Bottom swamp. She is cared for by her moonshine-making grandpa and caring for a trio of foster children who follow her around, all of them getting into regular trouble. Seven years before, Goodlow Price was carried off by the frightening Zelda, a swamp Queen, who commands an army of bogies and swamp faeries and enchanted bears. When Gnat finds an enchanted cat that is supposed to lead Goodlow's true love to him, she decides to take on the task, and eventually involving all of Mary's Cove in a rescue at Hallelujah Pond at midnight on All Hallow's Eve.
- purchase: Amazon
Sarwa, Andrzej Tam Lin i Królowa Elfów. Legenda szkocka. (Tam Lin and the Elfin Queen. A Scottish Legend). 2005
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 371 pages. Written in Polish.
- Baker, Kage. Her Father's Eyes. in Mother Aegypt and Other Stories. Night Shade Books, 2006
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed.
Bear, Elizabeth. Blood and Iron. Roc Trade 2006
- genre: fantasy literature
- type: Significant quotes or references, Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 432 pages. Urban fantasy, modern setting. Seeker is a servant of the Faerie Queen, tasked with bringing home changeling children who have been raised by humans. She ends up on the middle of a power struggle with the Queen, and may lose her lover to the Tiend. Quotes the ballad and discusses it as part of Faerie culture.
- purchase: Amazon
Galenorn, Yasmine. Witchling. Penguin 2006
- genre: fantasy lit
- type: Significant quotes or references
- notes: Urban fantasy, modern setting. The half-human half-Faerie D'Artigo work for the Otherworld Investigative Services, and their investigations get them involved in some high level problems. Tam Lin mentioned as a historical figure in-universe.
- purchase: Amazon
Taaffe, Sonya. Tiends. Strange Horizons 29 October 2007
- genre: lit, short story
- type: Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 1K words. Modern setting. Told in first person, the narrator gives an account of their lover's scars, physical and emotional, from the event that took the father of her child from her and how she was not able to hold on to him. Significant allusion to the ballad, although supernatural elements are left up to the reader.
- availability: available online
- Werlin, Nancy. Impossible. 2008
- genre:
- type:
- notes: Not yet reviewed. 376 pages.
Cornwell, Elizabeth K. Shapes: A Retelling of "Tam Lin". in Fickle Muses an online journal of myth and legend. 29 November 2009
- genre: Lit, short story.
- type: Tam Lin AU
- notes: 4.8K words. Modern setting. Janet and her father are alone in the otherwise abandoned Carter Complex. Two months before there had been another family, in the penthouse, but she hasn't seen Tam Lin since the night they spent together. Janet is pregnant, and has been given some pamphlets by the school nurse regarding her options. Tam Lin returns while she is considering her options, and ask her to stop his mother from taking him away again, y holding onto him during a dark and strange series of transformations.
- availability online
- Harrison, Michelle. 13 Treasures. Little Brown and Company, 2009.
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 368 pages.
Leslie, Patricia A. The Ballad of Young Tam Lin. CreateSpace Printing, 2010
- genre: YA
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: 465 pages. Historical setting, 1790. Seven years ago, John Randolph was taken away by faeries to be consort to Daniú, the Queen of Summerland, a Goddess. Meanwhile, young Janet Dunbar has been away, receiving and education, and finally returns to her home castle to be welcomed as her father's heir. There are rumors that some of the local women have had dalliances in the woods with a man going by the title of Tam Lin. When the time for the seven year's tithe comes around again, Daniú sets in motion a plan to save her beloved consort and thwart the plans of her estranged husband, Dagdanh.
- purchase: Amazon
McDermot, Pat. Glancing through the Glimmer. 2010
- genre: lit/YA
- type: Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 199 pages. Modern setting. Janet is the granddaughter of the US ambassador to Ireland, in an Ireland that never lost its monarchy and where the faeries still live under the hills. She is living with her grandparents after the death of her parents. While in Ireland, she meets Liam, royal prince, who is using an assumed identity, and is also invited to attend a ball at a royal gathering with her grandparents. She has also attracted the attention of Finvarra, king of the faeries, who wants to wisk her away as a dancing partner. Contains elements of Cinderella. Tam Lin exists as a ballad in-universe, and is used to inform Liam in an aspect of rescuing Janet in an early part of the story.
- purchase: Amazon
- McGuire, Seanan. An Artificial Night. 2010
- genre: YA
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 368 pages. Third book in the October Daye series.
- purchase: Amazon
Clarke, Sullivan. Tam Lin. Blushing Books, 2011
-
genre: adult fantasy lit
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: 61 pages. Fantasy setting. Janet is the lusty daughter of an impoverished farmholder and will be wed to the lecherous lord Dorian to pay off her father's debts. She goes to Carterhaugh dell to gather roses and encounters Tam Lin, who is really Ruan, the rightful heir to the Dorian lands. Janet must find a way to escape Dorian's castle and rescue Ruan before he can be sacrificed or she can be forced to serve Dorian's appetites. Contains scenes of questionable consent, bondage, and non-consensual sex. 18+
- purchase: Tam Lin (blushing books)
- genre: YA
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 216 pages.
- purchase: Amazon
Moloney, James. Silvermay. HarperCollins 2011
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 448 pages.
- purchase: Silvermay
Sharp, Anthea. Feyland: The Dark Realm. 2011
- genre: YA
- type: Tam Lin AU
- notes: 328 pages. Modern setting, near future. Jennet is a fan of virtual reality simulation RPGs, or 'sims', but the new game her programmer father has helped develop, Feyland, is a little too real. When Jennet loses her life essence to the Faerie Queen, she must find a knight to enter the realm and win it back for her. At her new school, she meets Tam Lin, a kid struggling with a troubled and poor family, but a hotshot at sim games. He enters Feyland to help her, but as the boundaries between the worlds start to break down, he becomes a captive of the Queen and slated for the tiend, and now Jennet must rescue him. Also incorporates aspects of Thomas the Rhymer, and the ballad exists in-universe.
- purchase: Amazon
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 312 pages.
- purchase: Amazon
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 265 pages.
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 640 pages. Main character has been tricked into servitude to the Winter Queen, Mab, and must do her bidding. Tam Lin is referenced as existing in-universe, as a previous Winter Knight of the Winter Court, and who escaped the court at Halloween at some point in the past. Other tropes may be present.
- purchase: Amazon
DeWees, Amanda. The Shadow and the Rose. (Ash Grove Chronicles #1) 2012
- genre: YA, modern setting
- type: Tam Lin AU.
- notes: 276 pages. Story is set at a private school, modern setting. Joy is a professor's daughter at a school for the performing arts with an odd history. Famous model Melisande takes over the estate next door, bringing with her an entourage of gorgeous hangers on, including Tanner Linsey, a young man who seems to be in some kind of danger. Joy and Tanner become involved, and Joy tries to unravel the mystery of his relationship to Melisande and how it related to the odd history of the school.
- purchase: Amazon
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 308 pages.
Lackey, Mercedes. Home from the Sea . Tor 2012
- genre: lit
- type: Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 375 pages. Fantasy setting, roughly 1860. Mari Prothero comes from a long line of Welsh fishermen. Near her eighteenth birthday she learns that she is also a Water Elemental, a magician tied to water, and, due to a bargain struck generations ago by a forbearer, obligated to marry a Selch and give one of her children to the sea kingdom in return for luck, prosperity, and safety in the ocean. Nan and Sarah, experienced psychics and magic user, come out from London to investigate and help her out. When Mari falls in love with the Selch Druid who trains her and bears him two sons, the Selch chieftain takes them away in anger. To regain her family, Mari must face several trials, including one where her husband transforms and she must hold onto him. References Tam Lin directly. Contains elements of East of the Sun, West of the Moon as well as The Great Selkie of Sul Skerry also.
- purchase: Amazon
Long, Ruth Frances. The Treachery of Beautiful Things. Penguin Book group, 2012
- genre: YA
- type: Significant quotes or references, Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 363 pages. Modern fantasy setting. Seven years ago, Jenny's brother, a talented musician, was taken away by the trees, though no one believed her story. Now she crosses over into the Realm of the Faeries to get him home again, and winds up in the company of Puck and Jack-of-the-Trees, who are there to either escort her safely out of the Realm or betray her by delivering her to the court of either the King or the Queen. Jenny must find and free her brother, and herself, before midnight at the end of seven years, or one of them is likely to end up sacrificed for the tithe. Jenny and Jack may have another destiny as well. Rescue scene involves transformatons on the night of the tithe.
- purchase: Amazon
McGowan, Kathleen. The Ballad of Tam Lin . (Legends of the Divine Feminine Book 1) BookBaby 2012
- genre: Lit
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: 160 pages. Historical setting, 1323. In the borderlands of Scotland, Janet Douglas was a child with as much fighting spirit as her famous uncle, The Black Douglas. She meets young Thomas Gray when the families gather to celebrate, and she is heartbroken when he never returns from the hunting trip the men go on. She grows up hearing tales from Millicent Learmont, daughter of Thomas the Rhymer, about the Faerie lands, and seven years later, when Thomas returns as Tam Lin, guardian of the woods Janet has been given by her father, she seeks advice on how to return him to the realm of mortals. The Faerie Queen will test her devotion, and Janet will have to face trials at Halloween to win her true love back.
The book includes an extensive section after the main tale, detailing the author's research into the ballad, including maps, photographs, history of families and characters, and exploration of history of the ballad and folklore associated with it. - purchase: Amazon
Sherman, Delia. Cotillion. in the anthology Firebirds. edited by Sharyn November. 2012
- genre: fantasy lit
- type: Significant quotes or references,
- notes: Pages 5-40. Modern setting, New York in 1969. Newly debuted Cecilia meets Valentine, a musician, at her cotillion and agrees to go to a music rehearsal in the village. The concert venue is a strange apartment with silver trees, and the other players are eerie and otherworldly. Valentine soon has a desperate request to make to Cecilia; save him from the midwinter sacrifice. Uses both Tam Lin elements in the story and references Tam Lin as an existing ballad in-universe.
- availability: available online through lightspeed magazine
- purchase: Amazon
- genre: children's lit
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 384 pages.
- purchase: Amazon
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 563 pages.
- purchase: Amazon
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 174 pages.
- purchase: Amazon
Davroe, A.L. For Your Heart. Tempest/Createspace Publishing, November 2013
- genre: YA
- type: Tam Lin AU
- notes: 340 pages. Modern setting. Seven years before, Jeanette and her best friend Timmy entered the woods of Carver Hall Park on Halloween night and Timmy disappeared. Now there are rumors of a green man in the woods who accosts young women. Jeanette goes to the woods and plucks a rose, when the Fey who guards it, Tamrin, tells her that the rose costs one perfect human heart, so she has a year to live before he removes hers. He casts a glamor to convince everyone he's her friend, and accompanies her to her home and school. When they fall in love, he recants on his threat, and begins recovering memories of life before he served Roxel, the Summer Queen, and acted as consort to the Summer Court. When Roxel responds by casting a spell that causes Jeanette to break her vows of chastity, Tamrin volunteers to go as the tithe if it wins his true love free of the influence of the court. Jeanette seeks counsel with various Fae to find a way rescue him.
- purchase: Amazon
Huff, Tanya. He Said, Sidhe Said. in He Said, Sidhe Said. Jabberwocky Literary Agency 2013
- genre: Fantasy lit
- type: Tam Lin AU
- notes: Modern fantasy setting. A skate park has been built in an area controlled by the Faeries, and when Titania goes to investigate it, she meets young skate rat Tam Lane as he falls off his board. She takes him home for a tryst, but soon becomes disenchanted, and so convinces another skater, Janet, to 'rescue' him in order to break the bond that gives him access to the faerie realm, before the fad of skateboarding fey folk does any more harm. Humorous.
- purchase: Amazon
- genre
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 107 pages.
Mears, Stefon. But Hold Me Fast and Fear Me Not. Thousand Faces Publishing 2013
- genre: Fantasy lit
- type: Tam Lin AU.
- notes: 105 pages. Modern setting. Set in a small California town of Kertonha, Janet and her roommate Shawnette travel to see the cabin she's inherited from her mysterious uncle. The inhabitants of the town are keeping some secrets, not the least of which concern Tam Lane, the biker who lives in the woods behind the house. The transformation sequences in this telling are nontraditional, and contain racial elements that some readers may find offensive.
- purchase: Amazon
Colter, Liz. The Last King., short story in Fae. by Rhonda Parrish (ed.). World Weaver Press, 2014
- genre : fantasy lit
Harbour, Katherine. Thorn Jack. HarperCollins 2014
- genre: YA
- type: Tam Lin AU
- genre: fantasy lit
- notes: 329 pages. Modern fantasy setting. Finn Sullivan and her father have returned to her grandmother's home in Fair Hollow, NY, after the suicide of her sister, Lily Rose. Finn is also starting her first year at local liberal arts college HallowHeart. The local community, run by the Fata family, is very strange, with ageless supermodels, odd gangs of youths with fondness for rhymes and feathers, a tendency towards art and trickery, and a number of people are rarely seen in daylight. Finn befriends Jack Fata, but soon learns that association with the Fatas involves illusions and dangers, particularly as Halloween draws closer. She and her friends Christie and Sylvie become entangled in stories involving ghosts, sacrifices, the transformed, the heartless, and various members of the more menacing aspects of folklore. Story contains references to several tiends, and a few variations on Tam Lin are playing out simultaneously. Tam Lin also exists as a ballad in-universe.
- purchase: Amazon
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 352 pages.
- purchase: Amazon
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 400 pages.
- purchase: Amazon
Nickerson, Jane The Mirk and Midnight Hour. Knopf 2014
- genre: Lit
- type: Thematic Elements or Tropes
- notes: 371 pages. Historical setting, 1861. Southern Gothic. Violet Dancey lives in Mississippi at the start of the Civil War, supports the Confederacy, and lives on a small farm with her stepmother, stepsister, and the family's slaves. Her brother has already died in the war, and her father has gone off to fight. As the war progresses, they are joined by cousins from further north who are fleeing their plantation. Meanwhile, in the local woods, the mysterious Dr. VanZeldts and his 'People Things' from Africa have strange dancing rituals around bonfires in the night. When Violet finds wounded soldier Thomas Lynd from the North in a ruined house, evidently being cared for by the mysterious VanZeldts for reasons of their own, she forms an attachment. However, the hoodoo magic practiced by the VanZeldts and the conflicts within her family will overlap in ways that require acts of bravery on her part. Violet must save Thomas Lynd from sacrifice, despite the effects of the strange magic on her mind.
- purchase: Amazon
Osborne, Heather. Tam Lin. Amazon Digital, March 2014
- genre: fantasy lit, adult
- type: mostly traditional, some AU elements.
- notes: 45 pages. Fantasy setting. Tam Lin has been captured by the Queen of Faeries to be his lover, and must take the virginity of any maiden who comes into his woods. Janet, willful daughter of the new Earl, encounters Tam Lin after plucking roses, and they become lovers. Soon after, she discovers she is pregnant, and is forced into an arranged engagement with a local earl who is trying to take control of her land. She must rescue her lover from the Faeries or be faced into an abusive relationship. This version replaces the transformation sequences with sexual content. Rated 18+.
- purchase: Amazon
Link, Kelly. The Lady and the Fox., in My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Stories. October 2014
- genre: lit
- type: Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: Pages 23-49. Modern setting. Miranda spends her Christmas holidays with the Honeywell family, her godmother's home, after her mother is incarcerated overseas. Every year that it snows at Christmas, she sees a strange young man, Fenny, wearing an old-fashioned coat in the yard, looking in, and speaks with him a little more each year, over the course of seven years. He speaks of the Lady who keeps him captive and will not let him go. Miranda devises a plan to bring him inside, involving holding on to him, and the lady retaliates by changing his appearance to try to force her release.
- purchase: Amazon
- genre: Children's lit
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: not yet reviewed. Philip Longson, illustrator. 32 pages
- purchase:
Dreadful, Nichole. Tam Lin. (Adult Fairy Tales #3) Skookum Creek Publishing, December 2014
- genre: Lit
- type: Traditional Tam Lin retelling
- notes: 105 pages. Historical setting. Janet is the only child of the local earl, and slips away one summer's day to wander the abandoned Chaster's woods, where she encounter's the mysterious Tam Lin in the garden of the ruins of a castle. She returns again later in the summer to summon him again, and they are lovers. When she becomes pregnant, her father tries to arrange a marriage for her to cover the problem, but Janet is determined to win Tam Lin back from the faerie and have him for her husband. 18+
- purchase: Amazon
- genre: Children's lit
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 416 pages
- purchase:
- genre: short story
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed.
- purchase: Amazon
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 336 pages
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. Illustrated by Skyla Dawn Cameron. 18 pages
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 305 pages
Maas, Sarah J. A Court of Thorns and Roses. Bloomsbury, May 2015
- genre: fantasy lit
- type: Thematic elements or tropes.
- notes: 419 pages. Fantasy setting. Primarily a Beauty and the Beast retelling, with elements of East of the Sun, West of the Moon as well. When Feyre kills a wolf in the woods when hunting to feed her impoverished family, she violates a treaty between the humans and the Fae. She must live a life sentence in the custody of Tamlin, a High Fae. While she lives with him and his emissary, Lucien, she learns of the intrigues between the different courts of the Fae, and the threats to the mortal realm from them. She falls in love with Tamlin, but he sends her away as the danger to her grows. She returns to save him, and must face Amarantha, the High Queen, who holds the curse over Tamlin and the others, and will take full control at the ending of a period of seven times seven years.
- purchase: Amazon
- genre: short story
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed.
- purchase: Amazon
Adare, Alison. The Black Hill. September 2015
- genre: fantasy lit
- type: Thematic elements or tropes
- notes: 237 pages. Historical setting, Wales 1454. Janet Cooper, who had disguised herself as a man, Jack Cooper, to fight in the recent war, continues her disguise to follow her commander, Sir Thomas Lynhurst, to the small town of Bryn Du, where he is to become the new lord. The locals are not welcoming, and soon Jack starts hearing rumors of a pattern of deaths every seven years. Bad luck plagues the town, the daughter of the previous lord is keeping secrets, and Jack will have to find a way to hold tight and not let go if she's to save Thomas and the town.
- purchase: Amazon
- genre:
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed. 320 pages.
- genre: short story
- type:
- notes: not yet reviewed.
Movies based on Tam Lin
See Videos in the Transformative Works section
Plays Based On Tam Lin
- Wright, Harriet Sabra. Tamlane. in New Plays from Old Tales, arranged for Boys and Girls. New York: Macmillan, 1922.
- notes: The play Tamlane covers pages 66-79 (digitized text linked below has eccentric numbering) with illustrations. Janet gets advise from her old nurse on how to locate her lost love, Tamlane. This includes throwing a betrothal ring in a well where he is concealed. The rescue takes place mid-play and is followed by a scene of Janet questioning Tamlane. The ballad is heavily paraphrased for the text.
- availability: Play available on site. Full book vailable online at google plays
- M. H. Noël-Paton The hidden people: a play based on the ballads of Tam Lin and Thomas the Rhymer. 1933
- notes: not seen
- Porteous, Katrina; Anderson, Alistair Tam Lin. 2000
- notes: 90 minute musical, performed at Bedlington High School, Northumberland, UK
- Walton, Jo. Tam Lin, a Barrayaran Shakespeare Play. 2001
- notes: Based on the idea that in the world of Lous McMaster Bujold's Barrayar books, several 'forgotten' Shakespeare plays are discovered after reunification of separated human interplanetary civilizations. Setting is Shakespearean and can be read with no previous knowledge of Bujold's series.
- availability: online, recording of a performance online
McClernan, Nancy Tam Lin Play. 2005
- notes: Historical setting. . Janet has been betrothed to a man she does not want to marry. Meanwhile, tensions between the local families is on the rise, ever since the heir to the Roxbrugh family went missing seven years before. Janet sneaks out to seek out Tam Lin, with the help of her nurse, who distracts her suitor. Magic and confusion ensue.
- related resource: production website, some content, archived copy of play
- Pflaster, Duncan. The Thyme of the Season. 2010
- notes: billed as a sequel to A Midsummer Night's Dream.
- related resource: Duncan Pflaster's site
- Shannon Pritchard TRACES. Jackalope productions. Chicago IL. March 6-28, 2015.
- notes: Urban fantasy setting
- related resource: Feast Productions site on the play.
- Cooper, Susan A Scottish Highland Celebration of the Winter Solstice
The Ballad of Tam Lin. Revels North Production. Hanover NH. December 17-20, 2015.
- notes: Traditional setting
- related resource: Revels North site on the production
Review by Jenett Silver
Audio Works based on Tam Lin
- Vernon, Ursula. The Hidden Almanac. 17 August 2015.
- notes: As part of a running series of tri-weekly updates from the slightly odd world of The Hidden Almanac, the Hidden Almanac notes the anniversary of the first known publication of The Ballad of Tom Line, who paid a tavern wench to save him from the tithe, and is turned into various shapes, such as onions, rutabagas, and a chicken by the Faerie Queen in response.
- availability: available at The Hidden Almanac website.