What is Tam Lin? Tam Lin is an old fairy ballad from the borderlands of Scotland, concerning a mortal woman who encounters a mysterious man in a forbidden forest. When she finds herself pregnant with his child, she seeks him out again and learns he is a mortal man, captive to the faeries and at risk for sacrifice as their tribute to hell.

The woods of Carterhaugh are guarded by Tam Lin, a man who demands payment of all maidens who pass through, in the form of a belonging or their virginity. A maiden named Janet travels to Carterhaugh and picks a rose, causing Tam Lin to appear.

Maidens are waned against entering Caterhaugh for fear of Tam Lin, a bell-wearing deflowerer. Janets leaves her sewing bower to travel to the forbidden woods to pluck roses. There she encounters Tam lin, argues with him, and is then ravaged by him.

Is Tam Lin a rape story? The relationship between Janet and Tam Lin is definitely sexual, but is it consensual? How can we interpret the conflicting and sometimes troubling versions of the encounter in the story?

A maiden travels to the forbidden woods of Carter Hall to pick flours, whereby she summons Tam Lin, with whom she argues over ownership of the land. He ravages her, and she demands to know who he is. He tells her his story, how he as captured by the Queen of faeries and is doomed to be sacrificed unless she can save him.

She returns to the woods to speak with Tam Lin again, and he reveals his human heritage and the threat against his life, including instructions on how she can save him. She does this, and angers the Queen of Faeries in the process.

There are many versions of Tam Lin. The ballad is known to have existed in the Scottish border lands for hundreds of years. More recently it has spread in both folk revival and folk rock circles.

Notable for omitting any mention of Faeries, Halloween, or rescue of Tam Lin. He undergoes transformations to be able to leave with Janet, but there's no indication he was endangered previously. It's also not clear in this version if Tam Lin is human, faerie, or even alive.

Following his instructions, she waits for the faerie troop to pass and then pulls Tam Lin from his white steed. She hold on to him through transformations, winning him away. The Elfin Queen speaks out, wishing she'd replaced his heart with a stone rather than lose him.

The versions of Tam Lin available at this site have been examined to determine the most common events, and a sort of meta-ballad created from those tales. This is an attempt by this website to present a modern English version of the story that contains the central elements of the tale without (hopefully) introducing too much new data for the ...