Story: Tam Lin M/F, n-c (dyke grrl)
dyke grrl
I haven't been in much of a story-writing mood lately, but I thought I'd
chime in with one for Hallowe'en. I'm mostly taking it from the ballad "Tam
Lin," which is my favorite Hallowe'en related ballad.
It's mostly the old ballad, with a little bit of embellishment from me.
Janet seems quite bratty all through the ballad (I'm combining Child 39-A
with the parts I like better from Quiller-Couch's 1927 Oxford Book of
Ballads).
I hope you enjoy!
--dyke grrl
Tam Lin
M/F, non-cons
=============
"O, I forbid ye, maidens a'
that wear gold in your hair,
to come or gae by Carterhaugh,
for young Tam Lin is there."
The young ladies looked at each other. The command had been intended for
Janet, the laird's daughter. None of the other girls ventured far from the
castle without an escort. They wouldn't consider travelling all the way to
Carterhaugh, even then, with nothing but an abandoned garden and the ruins
of a castle.
Janet laughed and tossed her head. "I'm not the least bit afraid of that!"
she laughed. The girls shook their heads. There was no controlling Janet.
The nicer ones wondered why Janet's brother had made the warning at all.
"There's nane that gaes by Carterhaugh
but they leave him a wad.."
Janet's brother paused, looked directly at her for the first time that
afternoon, and continued,
"either their rings, or their green mantles,
or else their maidenhead."
His tone was challenging, although the warning could be interpreted as
nothing more than that. Janet narrowed her eyes, and dropped her
needlework. "I'm going for a walk," she said, and headed for the gates. No
one rose to follow her.
Janet walked briskly, directly to Carterhaugh. Brambles had grown across
the gateway since she had last come here as a child. She pushed them to one
side, but finally broke off several limbs of an overhanging tree to push her
way through. As she emerged into the courtyard, she laughed in relief. It
was as bright and empty as it had always been. She sat by the fountain,
took a long drink, and swung her legs.
To one side was a rosebush she didn't remember. The scent was spicy, more
wild than the rosebushes at home, and she broke off a bloom.
Suddenly, a dark haired young man stood in front of her.
"Why pu's thou the rose, Janet?
And why breaks thou the wand?
And why comes thou to Carterhaugh
withouten my command?"
What right did this man have to tell her, Janet, the laird's daughter, what
to do?
"Carterhaugh it is my ain,
my daddie gave it me.
I'll come and gae by Carterhaugh,
and ask nae leave at ye!"
The man's eyes widened, and then narrowed. He sat down beside Janet, and
looked at her consideringly. Then he held out his hand. Janet looked at
him blankly. He gestured at the sticks. She shrugged, and passed them
over.
They sat in comfortable silence. Janet wasn't sure why, but she felt like
she knew the young man sitting next to her. She kicked her heels idly
against the edge of the fountain. The young man slowly stripped all the
leaves and bark from the sticks. When he was finished, he put the sticks on
the ground beside his feet. Then, suddenly, his hand whipped out and
grabbed Janet. Before she knew what had happened, he pulled her skirt from
her, and held her face-down over her lap.
"I see you still haven't learned respect," he said. CRACK! His hand
crashed down on her bottom. "We'll see if I can't manage to teach you."
Janet squirmed, but he held her firmly with one hand as the other crashed
over and over again onto her bottom.
"Stop! You can't do this to me! I'm the LAIRD's daughter!"
"Then he should have done it himself. But he didn't." The young man's hand
was unstoppable. Janet's bottom and thighs soon turned a deep rose. His
hand finally stopped, and Janet breathed a sigh of relief. It was over.
He stood Janet in front of him. "Now, why are you at Carterhaugh?"
Janet looked at him insolently. "My father gave it to me. It's part of my
dowry. I can come here whenever I like."
"On Lammas Eve, you come to a place where the faery are known to ride, just
because you can?"
"It's mine," Janet repeated stubbornly.
The young man stood. "I see. Well, I'll give you more of what's yours."
He turned Janet firmly, and pushed her face-down over the edge of the
fountain. With one hand holding her down, he reached with the other for one
of the sticks. SWICK! SWICK!!
Janet cried out in pain. He continued to whip her bottom and thighs with
the switch. Janet's angry, pained cries turned to repentance. "I'm sorry.
Please stop. I won't do it again." The man continued until the switch
finally broke.
Janet lay limply where he had placed her. He rubbed her back, but left her
lower parts alone. Finally, Janet turned to face him. "Who are you?"
"Don't you remember me," he asked, a smile hiding behind his eyes.
"But. you were imaginary," she protested.
"No more than you," said he.
"I called you Tam Lin. Are you really he?"
"As much he as any other," he allowed. "Now, it's time for your forfeit."
"Surely, I've paid my forfeit," Janet protested nervously.
"No. The warning said that you'd give either your ring, or your green
mantle. You have neither," he mused. "I suppose it will be the third
choice."
----------
Four and twenty maidens fair
were playing at the ba',
and out then came the fair Janet,
ance the flower amang them a'.
Four and twenty maidens fair
were playing at the chess,
and out then came the fair Janet,
as green as onie glass.
Out then spak' an auld grey knight,
Lay owre the castle wa',
And says, "Alas, fair Janet!
For thee we'll be blamed a'."
"Hauld your tongue, ye auld-faced knight,
Some ill death may ye die!
Father my bairn on whom I will,
I'll father nane on ye!"
Out then spak' her father dear,
and he spak' meek and mild,
"And ever alas, sweet Janet," he says,
"I think thou gaest wi' child."
"If that I gae wi' child, father,
mysel' must bear the blame.
There's ne'er a lord about your ha'
shall get the bairn's name.
"O, if my love were an earthly knight,
as he is an elfin gay,
I wadna gie my ain true-love
for any lord ye hae.
"The steed that my true-love rides on
is fleeter nor the wind;
wi' siller he is shod before,
wi' burning gold behind."
Out then spak' her brither dear-
he meant to do her harm:
"There grows an herb at Carterhaugh
will twine you and the bairn."
----------
Janet ran back to Carterhaugh through the dappled afternoon light. She
prayed and hoped that the coming winter had not yet killed all of the herbs.
She forced her way through the gate, and sighed again with relief. Plants
and flowers grew abundantly in the abandoned garden. She looked about, and
found the herb her brother had described.
No sooner had she pulled a leaf from its stem than Tam Lin stood before her.
He lay his hand on hers.
"Why pu's thou the rose, Janet,
amang the leaves sae green?
And a' to kill the bonny babe
that we gat us between?"
Janet turned haunted eyes to him. "Tell me, please. Are you. are you." she
couldn't bring herself to ask the most important question of her life.
Finally, she asked, "Have you ever been baptized?"
Tam Lin answered the question she could not speak.
"The truth I'll tell to thee, Janet,
ae word I winna lee;
a knight me got and a lady me bore,
as well as they did thee."
"So, how.?"
"I was sent to stay with my grandfather Roxburgh. One day, I was hunting,
and was knocked from my horse. When I awoke, it was in the hall of the
Queen of Fairies, under the hill." He nodded to the small rise above them.
"It's lovely, all I want is given to me." His voice broke.
Janet said nothing, twirling the leaves between her fingers. He looked at
the hill, or beyond it. Finally, he spoke again. "But at the end of every
seven years, they pay a tithe to Hell. I'm so young, so healthy, so. human.
I fear it will be me."
Janet looked at him, shocked.
"But the night is Hallowe'en, Janet,
The morn is Hallowday:
Then win me, win me, an ye will,
For weel I wat ye may.
"Just at the mirk and midnight hour
the fairy folk will ride,
and they that would their true-love win
at Miles Cross they must bide."
"But how should I you ken, Tam Lin,
How should I borrow you,
Amang a pack of uncouth knights
the like I never saw?"
"O, first let pass the black, lady,
and then let pass the brown,
but quickly run to the milk-white steed,
pull ye his rider down."
Janet clasped him to her. "But it won't be so easy," Tam Lin added. "They
will turn me to an adder, and to a deer, and to a lion. But hold me fast,
and fear me not, to you I'll do no harm. Finally, they will turn me into a
burning brand. When they do that, throw me into the well water, and I will
be human again."
Janet nodded. She walked slowly home, and tried to sleep. As dusk fell,
she crept out of the castle, and made her way to Miles Cross. With no light
but the moon, the crossroads was eerie, inhuman.
About the dead hour of the night
she heard the bridles ring;
and Janet was as glad at that
as any earthly thing.
First she let the black pass by,
and syne she let the brown,
but quickly she ran to the milk-white steed,
and pu'd the rider down.
They shaped him in her arms twa
a dove, a lion, a snake,
but aye she grips and hau'ds him fast
to be her warldis make.
They shaped him in her arms twa
but and a deer sae wild;
but aye she grips and hau'ds him fast
the father o' her child.
And last they turned him in her arms
to a red hot brand of iron,
she threw him in the well water,
she threw him in with speed.
Out then spak the Queen o' Fairies,
and an angry woman was she,
"Shame betide her ill-far'd face,
and an ill death may she die,
For she's taken away the bonniest knight
in a' my companie.
"But what I ken this night, Tam Lin,
Gin I had kent yetereen,
I wad ha' ta'en out thy heart o' flesh,
and put in a heart of stane.
"And had I the with yestreen, yestreen,
that I have coft this day,
I'd paid my teind seven times to hell
ere you had been won away!"
domino
<dyke...@verizon.net> wrote:
> (I'm combining Child 39-A
>with the parts I like better from Quiller-Couch's 1927 Oxford Book of
>Ballads).
*swoon* someone who knows Child!!!!!!!
love
domino
domino
<dyke...@verizon.net> wrote:
>
>I haven't been in much of a story-writing mood lately, but I thought I'd
>chime in with one for Hallowe'en.
and I'm very glad you did - I enjoyed this immenssely.
thank you
love
domino
Katy McGuiness
> I haven't been in much of a story-writing mood lately, but I thought I'd
> chime in with one for Hallowe'en. I'm mostly taking it from the ballad "Tam
> Lin," which is my favorite Hallowe'en related ballad.
Mine too! This was lovely. And sexy as well.
Have you seen the new retelling for children? The illustrations are
okay...sort of Susan Jeffries-ish, and it may be S.J. I can't remember
the reteller, but I can get it for you if you want.
Katy
dyke grrl
:
:
: Naomi D.
I'm glad people like it. I should make clear: all the bits in verse are
from the ballads. I just provided the setting, and the spanking. (I've
been dealing with plagiarizing students lately, so I'm super-compulsive
about my own work!)
Hopefully, I'll feel up to writing more stories soon. Or else an academic
article, but the stories would be more fun for all of us here!
--dyke grrl
dyke grrl
: okay...sort of Susan Jeffries-ish, and it may be S.J. I can't remember
: the reteller, but I can get it for you if you want.
:
: Katy
I'm usually all for retellings of ballads and whatnot, but I think that Tam
Lin is pretty much meaningless without the sex and the tithing people to the
devil, which has been left out of all the retellings for children I've seen.
Wasn't it Lang's fairy books that included a quite Bowdlerized version, in
which Janet and Tam Lin were innocent small children...? Anyhow, I actually
meant to weave that version in, and give a back plot of Tam Lin having been
Janet's childhood playmate, but I figured that if I could get together
enough concentration to do any research, it had darned well better be the
research for the work I get paid to do, and not for stories. Sigh. Perhaps
I'll re-write it at a later point.
As for Child, I was quite enamored of ballads back in my high school years,
but I haven't been paying nearly so much attention to them in recent years.
Kinda like origami: I still have some of the info, and can do one or two
nice tricks, but nothing like in my hey day.
--dyke grrl
Mija
>
> I haven't been in much of a story-writing mood lately, but I thought I'd
> chime in with one for Hallowe'en. I'm mostly taking it from the ballad "Tam
> Lin," which is my favorite Hallowe'en related ballad.
>
> It's mostly the old ballad, with a little bit of embellishment from me.
> Janet seems quite bratty all through the ballad (I'm combining Child 39-A
> with the parts I like better from Quiller-Couch's 1927 Oxford Book of
> Ballads).
>
> I hope you enjoy!
It's wonderful! What a great halloween story. :)
And your spanking scene definitely added to the
original.
Peace,
Mija
P&e
--
"No one worth possessing can be quite possessed."
Pablo and Mija's Treehouse will be back again soon!