Janet Saves the Day

I’VE been fascinated by the story of Tam Lin ever since I heard English folk band Fairport Convention’s rendition of the old Scottish ballad.

Tam Lin is a knight who becomes the Queen of Elfland’s lover for seven years. The queen has to pay a tithe to hell every seven years and plans to sacrifice Tam at the end his time with her. Fortunately for him, he meets Janet.

Janet is the heir of an old estate named Carter Hall. Maidens are warned to avoid the hall’s grounds as a strange young man lurks there, claiming the virginity of any young women he happens upon. Janet, being more headstrong than the average medieval teenager, rushes off to Carter Hall and meets Tam. He is obviously a very comely young man as he manages to get to third base with Janet on their very first date....

Of course, this is just what it sounds like in the ballad. It’s very likely that many details have been left out and Tam and Janet actually go steady for some time before their hormones get the better of them.

In An Earthly Knight (HarperTeen, 352 pages, ISBN: 978-0060089948) by Janet McNaughton, Janet and Tam meet several times before she realises that she is in love with him. It is then Janet who seduces a more-than-willing Tam.

This version is set in 12th century Scotland, whereas Tam Lin (Puffin Books, 480 pages, ISBN: 978-0142406526) by Pamela Dean transplants the characters to a liberal arts college in 1970s America.

In Dean’s book, Janet and Thomas Lynn spend most of the story dating other people. This is quite frustrating for the reader as not only does the original ballad point to their pairing, but Dean has created two characters that are obviously meant for one another.

When they eventually get together, Janet gets pregnant. In Dean’s novel, it is required that Thomas’s rescuer be pregnant with his child. In McNaughton’s version, Janet uses her condition to get her out of betrothal to a man she does not love.

True to their original source, both stories end with Janet saving Tam/Thomas from being sacrificed to hell.

Interestingly enough, although Dean’s book has a more contemporary setting, 21st century teen readers might find it less accessible than McNaughton’s.

Dean’s Janet, the daughter of a literature professor, is majoring in English literature and is probably more widely read than the average lit professor in a Malaysian college. Janet is able to recite huge chunks of Shakespeare, she recognises and makes references to obscure poems, and has passionate arguments about literary theory with her course mates.

Most Malaysian teens would find Janet’s interests bewildering. As the book is set in the 1970s, even pop culture references (the Grateful Dead is the characters’ favourite rock band) would not be familiar to the youth of the Noughties.

On the other hand, McNaughton’s Janet is simply a high-spirited and strong-willed 16-year-old. The book’s 12th century setting is purely incidental and, if anything, seems a more natural backdrop for the story’s magical elements.

I like Diana Wynne Jones’ inspired merging of the tales of Tam Lin and Thomas the Rhymer (a harper who also becomes the faery queen’s lover for seven years) in Fire and Hemlock (Collins, 400 pages, ISBN: 978-0006755197). However, I feel queasy about her lovers Polly (in the role of Janet) and Tom because they meet when the former is 10 and the latter a newly-divorced man. In addition, Tom is likened to a tall, thin, bespectacled tortoise – yes, tortoise! Not exactly what you’d expect of a romantic hero.

For swoon-worthiness, try Thomas in Ellen Kushner’s Thomas the Rhymer (Spectra, 304 pages, ISBN: 978-0553586978). He is a poet, a singer and a harper whose music and tales and good looks enchant humans and faeries alike.

The Queen of the faeries is so enamoured of Thomas that she rewards him at the end of their seven-year affair with the gift of prophecy.

To enjoy Fairport Convention’s dramatic and expressive interpretation of Tam Lin, go to youtube.com/watch?v=nN1AOamgrHk.

Comments

[Daphne]

Hello Marineko: Thanks for those titles. I like Red Shift although it never fails to depress me. Could handle that better as a teenager, not so well now!

I once wrote a tongue-in-cheek piece about my fascination with Tam Lin for a magazne called Quill. I posted it on this blog: http://daphne.blogs.com/books/2008/08/smouldering-scottish-folktales.html

Will check out your blog! Cheers!

[marineko]

Oh, and I forgot - Patricia McKillip's "Winter Rose" is a wonderful Tam Lin retelling!

I'm going to youtube Fairport Convention now :)

[marineko]

Oh, and I forgot. Patricia McKillip's "Winter Rose" - a wonderful Tam Lin retelling!

[marineko]

You missed out "A Perilous Knight" by Elizabeth Marie Pope and "Red Shift" by Alan Garner, two other good Tam Lin reworkings. I've loved Tam Lin for a long time (my first encounter was via Fire & Hemlock when I was in high school), and I think I've written about all of these books, except Red Shift, on my blog at one time or another. It's great to see someone else shares the Tam Lin obsession!

(Also, another Thomas the Rhymer retelling that is worth checking out is "Harp, Pipe & Symphony" by Paul di Filippo)

[Daphne]

Hello Subashini - You should try listening to other Fairport music. All brilliant!

I agree - I want to be in that world depicted in Pamela Dean's Tam Lin. I didn't like Nick Tooley though.

Let me know what you think of Thomas the Rhymer and An Earthly Knight. Kino has both.

:-D

[Subashini]

Pamela Dean's 'Tam Lin' is the kind of book I can reread over and over and over... I'm trying to think of how best to describe it. Sort of like a really dense, rich oatmeal chocolate chip cookie? Chewy and comforting and incredibly delicious.

I dream of being in that 70s university setting, surrounded by all those gorgeous men from another century spouting gorgeous Shakespeare lines. :) I think the book is the ultimate fantasy for all geeky humanities majors who still wish they were in university as opposed to being in the "real world" where we're corporate peons answering to Dumb & Dumber managerial types.

Sorry, got a bit carried away there... anyway, it's one of my favourite books of all time, really. It was also my first introduction to the Tam Lin myth, or ballad, rather... and now I can't wait to get my hands on the other books you mentioned. ('Fire and Hemlock is sitting on my bookshelf, though, waiting for me!)

And I must admit I downloaded Fairport Convention's Tam Lin because you mentioned it a few times here... and god, it's just perfect. :)