Recordings & Info 37. Thomas Rymer
[There is one US and Canadian text, titled "True Thomas," that was collected in NC and is in the Brown Collection of NC Folklore]
CONTENTS
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Folk Index
4) Child Collection Index
5) Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
6) Wiki
7) Mainly Norfolk (lyrics and info)
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud Number 219; Thomas Rymer (31 Listings)
2) Thomas of Erceldoune: The Prophet and the Prophesied
Alternative Titles
Thomas Rhymer
True Thomas
Thomas the Rhymer
Traditional Ballad Index: Thomas Rymer [Child 37]
DESCRIPTION: Thomas the Rhymer of Ercildoune meets the Queen of Elfland. She takes him away from earth for seven years, putting him through various rituals which no doubt instill his prophetic powers.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1800 (GordonBrown/Rieuwerts); printed by Scott in 1802
KEYWORDS: magic prophecy abduction
FOUND IN: Britain(Scotland) US(SE)
REFERENCES (18 citations):
Child 37, "Thomas Rymer" (3 texts)
Bronson 37, "Thomas Rymer" (2 versions)
GordonBrown/Rieuwerts, pp. 218-219, "Thomas Rymer & Queen of Elfland (1 text)
BrownII 10, "Thomas Rhymer" (1 text)
Leach, pp. 131-135, "Thomas Rhymer" (2 texts)
OBB 1, "Thomas the Rhymer" (1 text)
Friedman, p. 39, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
PBB 22, "Thomas Rhymer" (1 text)
Gummere, pp. 290-292+361-362, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
Hodgart, p. 127, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
DBuchan 6, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
TBB 35, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
Ord, pp. 422-425, "Sir John Gordon" (1 text, a truly curious version which retains the plot and lyrics of this song so closely that it cannot be called anything else, but with a different and inexplicable name for the hero)
HarvClass-EP1, pp. 76-78, "Thomas Rymer and the Queen of Elfland" (1 text)
DT 37, TOMRHYM* TOMRHYM2 TRUTOMAS
ADDITIONAL: Lyle: Emily Lyle, _Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition_, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007, pp. 5-11, "Thomas the Rhymer" (1 text plus sundry verses, 1 tune)
Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #136, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
Bob Stewart, _Where Is Saint George? Pagan Imagery in English Folksong_, revised edition, Blandford, 1988, pp. 131-132, "Thomas the Rhymour" (1 text)
Roud #219
ALTERNATE TITLES:
True Thomas
NOTES: Very many of Thomas of Ercildoune's (True Thomas's) predictions are in circulation, though only a few are precisely dated or can be tied to specific events. As Kunitz/Haycraft point out (p. 177), "Soon after Thomas's death, prophecies made in his name became so popular that it is impossible to know which were his own."
Perhaps the most famous prophecy dates from 1286, the year Alexander III of Scotland died. The day before Alexander's death, Thomas had forecast that "before the next day at noon, such a tempest shall blow as Scotland has not felt for many years" (Douglas, p. 155) or perhaps that the next day would be "the stormiest day ever witnessed in Scotland" (Cook, p. 65). Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 177, think that it was just a vague oracular saying. When the next day proved clear, Thomas was taunted, but his forecast proved true -- Scotland would not again see peace until after the battle of Bannockburn in 1314.
He also became a hero of legend in his own right -- e.g. Briggs, pp. 233-235, prints a tale, "Canobie Dick and Thomas of Ercildoune," which is a variant on one of the Arthurian legends with Thomas cast in the Merlin role.
Real and verifiable facts about Thomas are far fewer, but he does appear to have been a real person. "Thomas of Ercildoune" is a witness to a charter of c. 1265 (about the Haigs of Bemerside, also the subject of one of his couplets), and another Thomas, the son of "Thomas the Rhymer of Ercildoune," was an adult transacting in property in 1294.
Kunitz/Haycraft, p. 177, declare "That he lived and wrote at least some of the tales attributed to him is indisputable. Sometimes calling himself Learmont, sometimes The Rhymer, he owned property on a tributary of the Tweed River which to this day is known as Rhymer's Land.[Both Ercildoun (now Earlston) and the Eildon Hills are located in the region of Melrose and Berwick.] The Russian poet Lermontov believed himself a descendant of The Rhymer." They give his dates as fl. 1220?-1297?.
Alexander also gives 1297 as his last year: "A summons to return to Elfame in 1297 when Thomas was entertaining friends in the Tower of Erceldoune. A man came to him with a story that a stag and a hind had left the shelter of the forest and were walking about the village unafraid. At this portent Thomas immediately left his guests and followed the animals out of human ken to his fairy mistress."
Garnett/Gosse, volume I, pp. 275-278, discusses what is known about Thomas. It credits him at least being the inspiration of Scottish poetry: "Many, perhaps most, ancient literatures claim a patriarchal founder, who from some points of view wears the semblance of a fable and from others that of a fact. Scotland had her Orpheus or Linus in THOMAS of ERCILDOUNE, called also THOMAS the RHYMER, who... [would] fulfil the requisites of a venerable ancestor, could we but be sure he was indeed an author. His actual existence is unquestionable. Ercildoune or Earlston is a village in Berwickshire, and ancient parchments demonstrate that two Thomases, father and son, dwelt there as landowners in the thirteenth century. The tradition of poetry appears to attach to the elder, whose appellation of 'Thomas the Rhymer' might seem decisive on the point if, by a strange coincidence, 'Rhymer' were not also another form of 'Rymour," a surname then common in Berwickshire" (pp. 275-276).
Garnett and Gosse, on p. 276, note that Robert Manning's 1338 metrical chronicle "affirms [Thomas] to have been the author of a poem on Tristrem sufficiently popular to be habitually in the mouths of minstrels and reciters. This is strong testimony. It is thought to be invalidated by the fact that Gottfried of Strasbourg, writing his standard poem on the Tristrem story nearly a century before Thomas of Ercildoune, declares himself indebted for it to another Thomas, Thomas of Brittany, whom chronology forbids us to identify with the Rhymer. But it is by no means clear that Thomas of Brittany was a poet. Internal evidence proves Gottfried's poem to be derived from a French version."
CHEL1, p. 316, is not convinced: "With the Tristram legend is connected the name of Thomas, a poet of the twelfth century, who is mentioned by Gottfried of Strasbourg in the early thirteenth century. The somewhat misty by historical Thomas of Erceldoune has been credited with the composition of a Sir Tristram story, but this was possibly due to a confusion of the twelfth century Thomas with his interesting namesake of the succeeding century. The confusion would be one to which the popular mind was peculiarly susceptible. Thomas the Rhymer was a romantic figure credited with prophetical gifts, and a popular tale would readily be linked with his name...."
(Garnett and Gosse do say, on p. 278, that the Tristram poem associated with Thomas is of "small" poetic merit; "Its defects are not so much of language, as of insensibility to the beauty and significance of the story; the versification is not inharmonioius, but the poet... follows his original with matter of fact servility, and seems afraid of saying more than is set down for him: hence the strongest situations are slurred over and thrown away.")
Pp. 277-278 add that "A metrical romance composed on [Thomas's] name more that a century after his death represents him as the favored lover of the Queen of Fairy, as residing with her for three years in her enchanted realm, and as at length dismissed to earth lest he should be apprehended by the field, who is about to make his triennial visitation to Elfland, exactly like a bishop. As a parting gift the Fairy Queen endows him with the faculty of prophecy, which he turns to account by predicting a series of events in Scottish history some considerable time after they have taken place.... If, as is supposed, this original poem ended with the return of Thomas to Fairie, it cannot have been written by him, but no doubt embodies a genuine tradition respecting him."
(This description has its peculiar points, because, Tolkien's study "On Fairy Stories," (pp. 7-8), says that the word "Fairy/Fairie" is not attested before Gower, and only once before 1450, which poses problems in describing a tale allegedly of the fourteenth century.)
Thus Thomas's place in legend is very strong. Thomas's prophecies, however, were not "collected" until 1603; it would be difficult to prove the authenticity of most of these. Those wishing for samples can see Lyle, pp. 18-21. Several pages after that are devoted to the idea that Thomas himself will return to somehow set right the problems of the time.
Lyle, pp. 31-33, also compares a text of the ballad of Thomas with the Romance. The parallels are close enough to make dependence an effective certainty. Possibly the parallels would be even closer had not both items been damaged; Lyle thinks the ballad has lost part of its ending, while the romance "is well known to be incoherent." Lyle goes so far (p. 33) as to suggest that the ballad is the source for the romance, although there are genuine difficulties with this hypothesis and I do not believe she presents enough data to allow a real judgment.
Lyle also mentions some possible sources for the idea of standing somewhere and viewing heaven and hell and other places (integral here, and also found in some "House Carpenter" versions); her own suggested source is an item called "St. Patrick's Purgatory"; she also notes "The Adulterous Falmouth Squire" (for a modernized version of the latter, see Stone, pp. 82-88. It is far more of a moralizing piece -- mostly a sermon, in fact -- discussing the sacraments and talking about the sin of David before getting into the story of the squire). Much of the material she refers to could, however, come from Dante or a similar source.
Lyle, pp. 49-54, notes key similarities to the romance of "The Turk and Gawain" (published by Hahn as "The Turke and Sir Gawain"). This is a piece from the Percy Folio, and much damaged, so this is hard to prove. That there are similar motifs is beyond question -- Lyle lists among other similarities the journey with an other-worldly character (see Hahn, p. 341,lines 42-47), denying the hero food, including an order not to eat when plenty is available (Hahn, p. 341, lines 51-54; pp. 342-343, lines 83-94), an underground journey and storm (Hahn, p. 342, lines 66-72, but this section of the romance is damaged), and a castle (Hahn, p. 342, line 77).
Lyle points out that these parallels all occur in one short section of "Thomas" -- but does not point out that they occupy only a small part of "The Turk" -- roufly 60 lines out of the 337 still extant. And the direction the plot takes is completely different. I would be inclined to think that there is a common tale at the root of both.
But it is interesting to note that Whiting/Fox, p. 74, declares that "Gawain's original mistress was a fairy, queen of the other world, and nameless." Whiting rather reduces the effect of this by claiming that fairy wives were common in folklore, but it is certainly of note that the Gawain tale here parallels the tale of Thomas. Although someone really needs to do a detailed examination of date; could "The Turk and Gawain" truly precede the romance of Thomas?
Lyle also suspects a link to what she calls "Sir Landevale" -- the story Marie de France made into the Breton lai of Lanval, which also exists in a fourtheenth century English form as "Sir Landevale," and in the Percy folio text as Sir Lambewell. There are certainly thematic similarities at some points. But to make this contention possible, she has to assume a lost original used by both. I personally think that they merely both picked up the same folklore themes.
Ercildoune itself is now known merely as Earlston, according to Lyle, p. 8. For other place-names found in the versions of the ballad, see Lyle, pp. 12-17. The Eildon Tree of the song is long gone, but there is actually a memorial on its proposed site.
Supposedly this song was the inspiration for Keats's "La Belle Dame Sans Merci." - RBW
Bibliography
Alexander: Marc Alexander, A Companion to the Folklore, Myths & Customs of Britain, Sutton Publishing, 2002
Briggs: Katherine Briggs, British Folktales (originally published in 1970 as A Dictionary of British Folk-Tales), revised 1977 (I use the 1977 Pantheon paperback edition)
CHEL1: Sir A. W. Ward and A. R. Waller, Editors, The Cambridge History of English Literature, Volume I: From the Beginnings to the Cycles of Romance, 1907 (I use the 1967 Cambridge edition)
Cook: E. Thornton Cook, Their Majesties of Scotland, John Murray, 1928
Douglas: Ronald Macdonald Douglas, Scottish Lore and Folklore (this is the title on the dust jacket, although the spine and title page call it The Scots Book of Lore and Folklore), Beekman House, 1982
Garnett/Gosse: Richard Garnett and Edmund Gosse, English Literature: An Illustrated Record four volumes, MacMillan, 1903-1904 (I used the 1935 edition published in two volumes)
Hahn: Thomas Hahn, editor, Sir Gawain: Eleven Romances and Tales, TEAMS (Consortium for the Teaching of the Middle Ages), Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan
Kunitz/Haycraft: Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, Editors, British Authors Before 1800: A Biographical Dictionary, H. W. Wilson, 1952 (I use the fourth printing of 1965)
Lyle: Emily Lyle, Fairies and Folk: Approaches to the Scottish Ballad Tradition, Wissenschaflicher Verlag Trier, 2007
Stone: Brian Stone, translator, Medieval English Verse, revised edition, Penguin, 1971
Tolkien: J. R. R. Tolkien, "On Fairy Stories" (presented as a lecture in 1938, then in 1947 in Essays Presented to Charles Williams, then combined with "Leaf by Niggle" in the 1964 volume Tree and Leaf); I use the version published in The Tolkien Reader, Ballantine, 1966 (although, because "Tree and Leaf" has a pagination separate pagination from the rest of the book, it likely is close to the pagination in Tree and Leaf)
Whiting/Fox: B. J. Whiting, "Gawain: His Reputation, His Courtesy, and His Appearance in Chaucer's Squire's Tale," essay reprinted (with modifications) in Denton Fox, editor, Twentith Century Interpretations of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Prentice-Hall, 1968, pp. 73-78
Folk Index: Thomas Rymer [Ch 37]
Friedman, Albert B. (ed.) / Viking Book of Folk Ballads of the English-S, Viking, sof (1963/1957), p 39 [1790s]
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p131
Leach, MacEdward / The Ballad Book, Harper & Row, Bk (1955), p133
Leach, MacEdward / The Heritage Book of Ballads, Heritage, Bk (1967), p 35 (Thomas the Rhymer)
Hellman, Neal. Hellman, Neal; and Sally Holden / Life Is Like a Mountain Dulcimer, TRO, sof (1974), P36
Hellman, Sally. Hellman, Neal; and Sally Holden / Life Is Like a Mountain Dulcimer, TRO, sof (1974), p34
Thomas the Rhymer [Ch 37] Us - Thomas Rymer
Child Collection Index: Thomas Rymer
037 Alison Kinnaird True Tammas The Harper's Gallery 1980 4:48 Yes
037 Alison McMorland & Geordie McIntyre Thomas Rymer Where Ravens Reel 2010 No
037 Andreas Schmidt Tom Der Reimer, Op.135a Carl Loewe - Lieder & Balladen, Complete Edition, Vol. 1 2000 No
037 Clan Alba True Thomas Clan Alba 1995 6:50 Yes
037 Dan Dutton True Thomas Rose & Briar 2004 6:51 Yes
037 Daniel Dutton True Thomas Twelve Ballads 2006 No
037 Danny Carnahan & Robin Petrie True Thomas Journeys of the Heart 1984 6:00 Yes
037 Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Tom Der Reimer, Op.135a Carl Loewe - Balladen & Lieder 1999 No
037 Duncan Williamson Thomas the Rhymer Jim Carroll & Pat Mackenzie Collection No
037 Duncan Williamson Thomas the Rhymer Put Another Log on the Fire: Songs and Tunes from a Scots Traveller 1994 6:26 Yes
037 Duncan Williamson Thomas the Rhymer John Howson Collection 1970-1995 No
037 Ewan MacColl Thomas Rhymer - Thomas Rymour The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Child Ballads) - Vol. 1 1961 6:51 Yes
037 Ewan MacColl Thomas Rhymer The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 1 [Reissue] 196? No
037 Ewan MacColl Thomas the Rhymer The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 1 1956 No
037 Ewan MacColl True Thomas Poetry and Song, Vol. 8 1967 No
037 Ferdinand Frantz Tom Der Reimer Loewe Balladen 1960 5:50 Yes
037 Franz Völker Tom Der Reimer, Op. 135a Franz Völker Singt Lieder 1994 No
037 Frederick Worlock & C.R.M. Brookes Thomas the Rhymer Poetry of Robert Burns & Scottish Border Ballads 1959 No
037 Gordon Mooney Hollin Green Hollin + Thomas the Rhymer + Young Benjie + Tam Lin O'er the Border - Music of the Scottish Borders played on the Cauld Wind Pipes 1994 3:32 Yes
037 Hermes Nye Thomas the Rhymer Ballads Reliques - Early English Ballads from the Percy and Child Collections 1957 2:30 Yes
037 Ja-Kyoung Kuh Tom Der Reimer <website> 2007 5:36 Yes
037 Jack Hinshelwood True Thomas the Rhymer If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O 2003 No
037 Jenny Armstrong Thomas the Rhymer The Leaves Entwine 1993 6:04 Yes
037 Kurt Moll Tom Der Reimer, Op. 135a Carl Loewe - Balladen 1992 No
037 Lorraine Lee Thomas Rhymer Beloved Awake 1991 4:46 Yes
037 Matt Seattle Band Thomas the Rhymer Suite Reivers of the Heart 2010 No
037 Pamela Morgan Thomas the Rhymer Ancestral Songs 2006 7:20 Yes
037 Paul Bender Tom Der Reimer, Op. 135a Lebendige Vergangenheit 2000 No
037 Raymond Crooke Thomas the Rhymer <website> 2007- 7:46 Yes
037 Rick Lee True Thomas + The Languor of Love Look What Thoughts Will Do 2005 4:25 Yes
037 Ron Taylor & Jeff Gillett Thomas the Rhymer Both Shine as One 2006 No
037 Ron Taylor & Jeff Gillett Thomas the Rhymer Songs of Witchcraft & Magic - Songs & Ballads Compiled By the Museum of Witchcraft 2007 No
037 Ruth Barrett Thomas the Rhymer Songs of the Otherworld 2010 No
037 Sìleas True Thomas File Under Christmas 1991 5:12 Yes
037 Singlepeter Tom Der Reimer <website> 2008 1:41 Yes
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer Present - The Very Best of Steeleye Span 2002 6:36 Yes
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer Portfolio 1989 3:14 Yes
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer The Journey 1999 7:36 Yes
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer Live BBC 1974 6:36 Yes
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer Spanning the Years 1995 3:13 Yes
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer Gone to Australia - On Tour 1975-84 2001 5:48 Yes
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer On Tour 1983 5:39 Yes
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer Now We Are Six 1974 3:13 Yes
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer A Rare Collection 1972-1996 1999 6:47 Yes
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer A 20th Anniversary Celebration - Live at the Beck Theatre 1989 No
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer Sails of Silver 1998 6:49 Yes
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer Original Masters 1997 3:15 Yes
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer Live in Nottingham 2003 6:44 Yes
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer Gaudete 2003 No
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer Live at the Siego Club, Rimini, August 1982 1982 6:15 Yes
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer Steeleye Span 1980 No
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer The Best of Steeleye Span - EMI Gold Issue 2002 No
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer A Parcel of Steeleye Span - Their First Five Chrysalis Albums 1972-1975 2009 6:40 Yes 037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer The Collection [Steeleye Span] 1991 No
037 Steeleye Span Thomas the Rhymer The Best of Steeleye Span [Heritage] 1984 3:13 Yes
037 Tania Opland & Mike Freeman True Thomas Choice Fare 2000 6:22 Yes
037 Thomas Quasthoff Tom Der Reimer op.135 Carl Loewe - Balladen - Ballads - Ballades 1989 No
037 Uncle Dirtytoes Thomas the Rhymer Make Them Come Alive - Live at Stony Point Barn 1997 5:18 Yes
037 Unknown Thomas the Rhymer The Classical Poetry Collection 2007 4:11 Yes
037 Venereum Arvum Thomas the Rhymer Scowan Urla Grun + Fower Muckle Sangs 2003 No
037 Venereum Arvum Thomas the Rhymer (original) Scowan Urla Grun + Fower Muckle Sangs 2003 No
037 Walther Ludwig Tom Der Reimer, Op. 135a Carl Loewe Zu Ehren - Aufnahmen Von 1902-1970 1997 No
037 Wilhelm Strienz Tom Der Reimer, Op 135a The Songs of Carl Loewe 1996 No
Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
37. THOMAS RYMER
Texts: Brown Coll.
Local Titles: True Thomas.
Story Types: A: True Thomas is lying on a hill when a lovely lady in grass green clothes rides up. She takes him up behind her on her horse, and they speed off. Eventually they come to a garden, where Thomas eats of some fruit. The woman then promises to show him "fairies three", and after dressing him in green and silver she takes him away to elf-land for seven long
years. Examples: Brown Coll.
Discussion: This text, which is to be published with the F. C. Brown North Carolina Collection, is unique to America as far as I know. The ballad itself (See Child, I, Siyff.) goes back to a fifteenth century romance concerning a thirteenth century seer who was given prophetic power by the Queen of the Elves. In North Carolina, the story follows Child A without too much
deviation. The first four stanzas of the American version parallel Child A, stanzas 1, 2, 6, and 8. Two lines of North Carolina Stanza 5 are almost exactly like Child A, Stanza n, while North Carolina Stanza 6 parallels Child A Stanza 16.
Thomas the Rhymer: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Thomas Rymer.
Child's Ballads/37
Thomas Learmonth (c. 1220[1] – c. 1298;[2] also spelled Learmount, Learmont, or Learmounth), better known as Thomas the Rhymer or True Thomas,[3] was a 13th century Scottish laird and reputed prophet from Earlston (then called "Erceldoune"). He is also the protagonist of the ballad "Thomas the Rhymer" (Child Ballad number 37).[4] He is also the probable source of the legend of Tam Lin.
Thomas the Rhymer meets the Queen of Elphame; illustration by Kate Greenaway.
Historical figure
Sir Thomas was born in Erceldoune (also spelled Ercildoune - presently Earlston), Berwickshire, sometime in the 13th century, and has a reputation as the author of many prophetic verses. Little is known for certain of his life but two charters from 1260–80 and 1294 mention him, the latter referring to the "Thomas de Ercildounson son and heir of Thome Rymour de Ercildoun".[5]
Popular esteem of Thomas lived on for centuries after his death, to the extent that several people have fabricated Thomas' "prophecies" in order to further the cause of Scottish independence.[5] His reputation for supernatural powers for a time rivalled that of Merlin. Thomas became known as "True Thomas" because he could not tell a lie. Popular lore recounts how he prophesied many great events in Scottish history,[5] including the death of Alexander III of Scotland.
Thomas' gift of prophecy is linked to his poetic ability, although it is not clear if the name Rhymer was his actual surname or merely a soubriquet. He is often cited as the author of the English Sir Tristrem, a version of the Tristram legend, and some lines in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle may be the source of this association.
Prophecies attributed to Thomas
"On the morrow, afore noon, shall blow the greatest wind that ever was heard before in Scotland."
This prophecy predicted the death of Alexander III; the exact nature of the blow only became apparent with the king's death the next day.
"As long as the Thorn Tree stands
Ercildourne shall keep its lands."
Of this prophecy, Barbara Ker Wilson writes: In the year the Thorn Tree did fall, all the merchants of Ercildourne became bankrupt, and shortly afterwards the last fragment of its common land was alienated.
"When the Cows of o' Gowrie come to land
The Judgement Day is near at hand"
The Cows of Gowrie, two boulders near Invergowrie protruding from the Firth of Tay, are said to approach the land at the rate of an inch a year.
"York was, London is, and Edinburgh shall be
The biggest and bonniest o' the three"[6]
"At Eildon Tree, if yon shall be, a brig ower Tweed yon there may see."
"Fyvie, Fyvie thou'll never thrive,
As long as there's in thee stones three;
There's one in the oldest tower,
There's one in the lady's bower,
There's one in the water-gate,
And these three stones you'll never get."
To this day, only one of the stones has been found. Since 1885 no eldest son has lived to succeed his father.[7]
Ballads
Musicologists have traced the ballad, "Thomas the Rhymer", back at least as far as the 13th century. It deals with the supernatural subject matter of fairy-folk. The theme of this song also closely relates to another song, that of Tam Lin, which follows the same general topical lines. Its more general theme relates to temptation and mortal pleasures.
Several different variants of the ballad of Thomas Rhymer exist, most having the same basic theme. They tell how Thomas either kissed or slept with the Queen of Elfland and either rode with her or was otherwise transported to Fairyland. One version relates that she changed into a hag immediately after sleeping with him, as some sort of a punishment to him, but returned to her originally beautiful state when they neared her castle, where her husband lived. Thomas stayed at a party in the castle until she told him to return with her, coming back into the mortal realm only to realise that seven years had passed. He asked for a token to remember the Queen by; she offered him the choice of becoming a harper or a prophet, and he chose the latter.
After a number of years of prophecy, Thomas bade farewell to his homeland and presumably returned to Fairyland, whence he has not yet returned.[8]
There is also a 14th-century romance "Thomas of Erceldoune", with accompanying prophecies, which clearly relates to the ballad, though the exact nature of the relationship is not clear. The romance survives complete or in fragments in five manuscripts, the earliest of which is the Lincoln codex compiled by Robert Thornton. The romance confirms the content of the ballad.[9]
Music
The German version of Tom der Reimer by Theodor Fontane was set as a song for male voice and piano by Carl Loewe, his op. 135.
The following have each made recordings of the ballad in recent times:
Electric folk band Steeleye Span
Two different versions for the Now We Are Six album, 1974
Re-recorded (differently) for Present--The Very Best of Steeleye Span album, 2002
Singer Ewan MacColl
An outstanding earlier recording, in German, is by Heinrich Schlusnus, on Polydor 67212, of 1938 (78 rpm).
The English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams left an opera by the title of Thomas the Rhymer incomplete at the time of his death in 1958. The libretto was a collaboration between the composer and his second wife, Ursula Vaughan Williams, and it was based upon the ballads of Thomas the Rhymer and Tam Lin.[10]
Literature Criticism
Composer and teacher R J Stewart provides a full esoteric exegesis of the ballad in his book The UnderWorld Initiation.
Works about
Bruce Glassco composed a short story titled "True Thomas" that posits Thomas' prophetic powers were a gift of alien abduction - the Queen of Faerie from the ballad was the Queen of an extraterrestrial Hive sworn to protect Languages. This short work was written for Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling's 1997 fairy tale anthology Black Swan, White Raven.
Rudyard Kipling's poem The Last Rhime of True Thomas features Thomas Learmounth and a king who's going to make Thomas his knight.
Ellen Kushner's Thomas the Rhymer is a full-length novel based on the ballad and associated folklore.
Scottish author Nigel Tranter's 1981 novel True Thomas is based on the known facts and legends of Thomas the Rhymer.
Thomas is a major character in Alexander Reid's play The Lass wi the Muckle Mou.
"Erceldoune", a novella by Holy Blood, Holy Grail co-author Richard Leigh, is based on Thomas the Rhymer, and features a folk-singer named Thomas "Rafe" Erlston. Found in Erceldoune & Other Stories. ISBN 978-1-4116-9943-4
William Croft Dickinson wrote a children's book titled "The Eildon Tree" about two modern children meeting Thomas the Rhymer and traveling back in time to a critical point in Scottish history.
John Geddie, Thomas the Rymour and his Rhymes. [With a portrait of the author], Edinburgh: Printed for the Rymour Club and issued from John Knox's House, 1920.
Beneath the Eildon Tree is a painting by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law depicting Thomas the Ryhmer and the Faery Queen.
Books referring to
Patricia Wrede's Snow-White And Rose-Red makes use of elements of the ballad, with the Queen of Elfland and two of Thomas's sons appearing as major characters.
The character True Tom (also Thomas Learmont, Thomas of Erceldoune, Thomas the Rhymer) makes an appearance in Raymond E. Feist's popular 1988 fantasy novel Faerie Tale.
Other fantasy novels, including Diana Wynne Jones's Fire and Hemlock, use elements from, and allusions to, the ballad.
Thomas appears as True Thomas in the comic book Aria: Summer's Spell. He is the lost love of the series' protagonist, Kildare, and finally reunites with her in 1960s London.
True Thomas has a brief appearance in The Books of Magic, Book III, "The Land of Summer's Twilight".
Thomas 'Tom' Learmont is a major character in Mark Chadbourn's fantasy series The Age of Misrule. The character returned in the Kingdom of the Serpent series. He is often referred to in the stories as True Thomas or Thomas the Rhymer.
In the novel Final Watch by Sergey Lukyanenko, Thomas Rhymer appears as the Grand Light Mage Thomas 'Foma' Lermont, head of Scottish Night Watch in Edinburgh.
Seven Soldiers of Victory, a graphic novel series by acclaimed author Grant Morrison, quotes extensively from the ballad and features an alternate depiction of the Queen of Faerie; Spyder, the protagonist to whom the poem is read (who is later employed by the Queen) is named Thomas.
Thomas the Rhymer (here with the alternative name Tom-lin) also appears in Sheri S. Tepper's novel Beauty.
Sir Thomas Learmont de Ercildoune is a character in Elizabeth Hand's novel Mortal Love.
Thomas Learmont appears in James A. Owen's Starchild comic series under the name of "Old Tom" as a somewhat major character.
In The Plague Dogs, Richard Adams says of the Lake District that "not Thomas Rymer of Erceldoune himself, returning to earth from fair Elfland after not seven, but seven hundred years, could have discerned, from the aspect of that dark and lonely place, what century had arrived in his absence."
Authors named/related
The novelist Thomas Learmont (b. 1939)
The Russian Romantic era writer and poet Mikhail Lermontov was probably a distant relative of Thomas the Rhymer.
References
1.^ Facts On File Online Databases
2.^ Significant Scots - Thomas Rymer
3.^ He is also known as Thomas Rhymer, Thomas Rymour, Thomas Rymer, Thomas de Erceldoune, Thomas Rymour de Erceldoune or Thomas of Erceldoune
4.^ Francis James Child, English and Scottish Popular Ballads, "Thomas Rymer"
5.^ a b c Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, v. 1, p. 317, Dover Publications, New York 1965
6.^ Barbara Ker Wilson, Scottish Folk-tales and Legends, p. 17, Oxford University Press, London 1954
7.^ Simon Welfare and John Fairley, Cabinet of Curiosities, p. 88, St. Martin's Press, New York 1991
8.^ Thomas the Rhymer, Part Third in Alfred Noyes (ed), The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border: Collected by Sir Walter Scott, London: Melrose, 1908
9.^ Richard Utz, “Medieval Philology and Nationalism: The British and German Editors of Thomas of Erceldoune,” Florilegium: Journal of the Canadian Society of Medievalists 23.2 (2006), 27-45.
10.^ Ursula Vaughan Williams, R.V.W.: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams (Oxford University Press, 1964), p. 393.
Dictionary of National Biography
Mainly Norfolk: English Folk and Other Good Music
Thomas the Rhymer / The Mooncoin Jig
Steeleye Span: Chrysalis CHS 2026 (single, UK, February 1974)
Chrysalis 6155 024 (single, p/s, Germany, 1974)
Chrysalis CYK 5456 (single, New Zealand, June 1974)
[Roud 219 ; Child 37 ; Ballad Index C037 ; trad.]
Thomas the Rhymer or True Thomas is a ballad about the medieval prophet Thomas of Ercildoune. He meets the Queen of Elfland who takes him away from earth for seven years, putting him through various rituals which no doubt instil his prophetic powers.
Carl Loewe set this ballad to music as Tom der Reimer (op. 135a, ca. 1860).
Ewan MacColl sang Thomas Rhymer in 1956 on his and A.L. Lloyd's Riverside anthology The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) Volume I. This and 28 other ballads from this series were reissued in 2009 on MacColl's Topic CD Ballads: Murder—Intrigue—Love—Discord.
Steeleye Span released their recording of Thomas the Rhymer in 1974 in two different versions: a short one (3:14) with just five verses as a single with the B-Side The Mooncoin Jig and a long version (6:44) on the original Chrysalis UK release of their LP Now We Are Six. However, most reissues of this record contain the shorter single version of Thomas the Rhymer with the exception of the BGO CD reissue. See the notes to Now We Are Six for details.
Thomas the Rhymer was also re-released on several compilations, among others on Original Masters (on the LP the long, on the CD reissue the short version), on Spanning the Years (short version) and on A Rare Collection 1972-1996 (long version).
At least five live recordings of Thomas the Rhymer with several Steeleye Span line-ups are or were available:
from the Royal Opera Theatre in Adelaide, Australia in 1982 on their Australian-only LP On Tour,
from Perth Concert Hall in 1985 on their CD Gone to Australia,
from the Beck Theatre on September 16, 1989 on the video A 20th Anniversary Celebration,
a March 1997 live recording from a British tour was released as bonus track on Park Records' CD reissue of Sails of Silver,
and from The Forum, London on September 2, 1995 on their CD The Journey.
Steeleye Span recorded this song for a second time for their CD Present to accompany their December 2002 reunion tour.
Mary Macmaster sang True Thomas in 1995 on Clan Alba's eponymous and only CD, Clan Alba.
Lyrics
Steeleye Span sings Thomas the Rhymer
(LP version)
True Thomas sat on Huntley bank
And he beheld a lady gay
A lady that was brisk and bold
Come riding o'er the ferny brae
Her skirt was of the grass green silk,
Her mantle of the velvet fine
At every lock of her horse's mane
Hung fifty silver bells and nine
True Thomas, he pulled off his cap
And bowed him low down to his knee
“All hail, thou mighty Queen of Heaven
Your like on earth I ne'er did see.”
“No, no, Thomas,” she said,
“That name does not belong to me
I am the queen of fair Elfland
And I have come to visit thee.”
“You must go with me, Thomas,” she said,
“True Thomas, you must go with me
And must serve me seven years
Through well or woe, as chance may be.”
Chorus:
Hark and carp, come along with me,
Thomas the Rhymer (4 times)
She turned about her milk white steed
And took Thomas up behind
And aye whenever her bridle rang
Her steed flew swifter than the wind
For forty days and forty nights
They rode through red blood to the knee
And they saw neither sun nor moon
But heard the roaring of the sea
And they rode on and further on
Further and swifter than the wind
Until they came to a desert wide
And living land was left behind
“Don't you see yon narrow, narrow road
So thick beset with thorns and briars?
That is the road to righteousness
Though after it but few enquire.”
“Don't you see yon broad, broad road
That lies across the lily leaven?
That is the road to wickedness
Though some call it the road to heaven.”
“Don't you see yon bonny, Boone road
That lies across the ferny brae?
That is the road to fair Elfland
Where you and I this night must go.”
Chorus