From: Faulconess@aol.com
Message-Id: <91c47970.361af27e@aol.com>
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 00:47:58 EDT
To: minstrel@pbm.com
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Subject: minstrel: Tam Lin lyrics
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On Tue, Oct 6, 1998 19:55 EDT, Faulconess@aol.com wrote:

> Better yet, I 'll tell you what;  I have an old college mate who >happens to
be pursuing a doctorate in medieval studies, and >her thesis is on period
ballads. ;)  I will forward your request >to her.  I'm sure she has the
lyrics, and can give you several >different tunes to sing them to!  (If others
are also >interested, I can post her response openly to the list.)

On Tue, Oct 6, 1998 22:55 EDT, sandilee@cyberhighway.net wrote:

>My anscestory and my personna are from Northumberland. I >would LOVE to hear
what she says!!!!

Cecily de Percy
Shire of Twae Linnes, Artemisia
------------------------
Dear Cecily (and Ihon too),

Whew!  I got a response from Sandy on that one a lot quicker than I thought I
would.  As luck would have it, "Tam Lin" was one of her thesis ballads!  

She explained, first of all, that the best research for this piece was done in
the Victorian era.  A gentleman named F.J. Childs travelled through the Anglo-
Scottish borderlands to research medieval ballads that had survived to his
day, "Tam Lin" being one of them.   He found and recorded no less than ELEVEN
different versions of it.  (It's kind of like "Twa Sisters" in that regard.)
Some were taken from manuscripts; some were written down as he listened to
various local singers.   They all seem to have different tunes,  as well!  So
in answer to my request for the lyrics, Sandy's reply was a baffled, "Which
version, hon?"   =P

Sandy did specify that Mr. Child is accepted as the primary written source for
the song; so any modern collections of medieval ballads that would contain
"Tam Lin," probably cite him as their source.    All the versions of the
ballad F.J. Child found,  (along with at least a dozen more recent variations)
can be viewed at the following "Tam Lin" website: 

http://tam-lin.org

Give it a look-see;  it is a wonderful and enlightening site. 

Now comes the shamefaced admission.  Blame my spotty memory;  I seem to have
gotten two different documentation sources confused with each other in my
mind.  The aforementioned book of rare 14th century manuscripts that my prof
used as a source?  I thought harder about it (it's been about six years!) and
realized that that was a book of SACRED songs from that period.   (I still do
remember chatting with my professor after class, and hearing him moan about
how obscure it was, and how he'd had to practically bribe librarians on the
other side of the world to get it!)

The version of "Tam Lin" we studied in that class, was contained in a sheaf of
photocopied handouts, alongside sacred selections from the abovementioned
"rare book".   All of them were chosen as various examples of poetry written
with the Northumbrian dialect.   Still tho--my bad!!!   

As far as "Tam Lin" being "period" in a stricter sense....Sandy did say that,
although "Tam Lin" wasn't actually written down until recently, the dialect of
Northumbrian still runs very strongly in the several versions that F.J. Child
recorded.   This may be poetic licence, in some cases;  or, it may be that the
ballad is that old, and that well preserved.  (If you've studied linguistics,
you know that the rural dialects of a language are slow to change, even over
long periods time.  And Northumbrian is a VERY rural dialect!)

Have a look-see at the site, and tell me what you think.  Happy hunting!  And
all you maidens out there....remember to stay the heck away from Carterhaugh.
;)

Yours In Service to the Dream,
^v^  Fionna ni Caisidhe of the Firebrand
House Celestia, GDH, Aethelmearc

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