Tam Lin

Record summary

“Tam Lin,” catalogued as Child 39, tells of Janet’s encounter with Tam Lin at Carterhaugh and her attempt to reclaim him from the Queen of Fair Elfland. Nineteenth-century broadsides, manuscripts, and Francis James Child’s ballad edition preserve variants of a story structured around a liminal landscape, seasonal passage, pregnancy, and transformation through successive animal forms. It is an important comparative lead for human–fairy marriage and return narratives. Variant relationships, dating of individual texts, and the ballad’s performance history remain more secure than any historical basis for the events.