Elsa and the Story of Tam Lin

        “Why are we here again?”

        “Where else would one go to find a book?”

        “Yeah, well I’m not much of a reader.”

        “How can you not like reading, Kristoff?”

        “Look it’s… alright, I’m just not. You know. I’m not all that great at it,” the mountain main said, glancing around, unease plain on his face, “Trolls don’t really go in for the whole writing thing.”

Elsa gaped at the comment, “Well you’re going to have to learn. I can’t have a member of my court being unable to read.”

        “Yeah, see, about that. Am I really even a member? I mean you can make ice and-“

        “Hush,” Elsa said, pointing at the man, “Now, what kind of thing do you like to read about?” The queen turned towards the nearest bookshelf. Kristoff could hardly think of just how many tomes stuffed its shelves. The wooden wall of words seemed to just stretch up and up, a mountain of knowledge unto itself.

        “I don’t know… Ice?”

Elsa’s shoulders sagged as she sighed, “Everything can’t be about ice, Kristoff.”

        “Look, your highness,” she hated it when he called her that and she turned towards him in annoyance, “I’m a simple man. I wake up, eat my breakfast, gather ice, and go to sleep. I like ice.”

        She sighed again and whirled around, “Fine! Then I’ll pick something. Let’s see…” her elegant little hands slid along the spines of books as she quickly read to herself the titles imprinted on them. She walked, hips swaying along the shelf, along the walls filled with books, going over each book and discarding the thought of pulling it out. Kristoff follower her dutifully, unable to shake the feeling that the queen had already read everything in this library, possibly ten times over. Given her upbringing he found it a hard theory to doubt.

        “Ah ha! here we are,” Elsa finally said, plucking a book from the wall like fruit from a vine. She took the book into her arms and bade Kristoff to follow, plunging further into the library where situated in a small circle around a table five chairs sat. She pushed Kristoff into a chair and handed the book to him. A small thing considering the size of some of the other books, and old if he could take a guess. Imprinted on the spine and the face were the words ‘Tales of the Fae in the Far Flung World’

        “This is about the trolls again, isn’t it? I told you they didn’t really mean that,” Kristof complained.

        “No, here, turn to page…” she thought for a moment, “twenty five. You’ll read that.”

With a sigh he cracked open the book, the pages fluttering apart. He flipped through the paper, each page holding lines of text or a slightly washed out picture. Kristoff saw dragons and fairies, angry dogs and shaggy good ones. He finaly came to the page the queen had asked for.

        “‘Tam Lin, the Elf Knight’?”

The queen nodded before taking a seat on the armrest of the chair and commanding him to read.

        “‘Long ago, there lived a fair young maiden who was the daughter of an earl. Her name was Janet and she lived in a grey castle beside the forest of Carterhaugh in Selkirk, Scotland.

        One day, she realized that she was bored to tears with sewing in her bower or playing silly games with the ladies of her father's house. So, she set off to explore the forest.’” Kristoff read, “‘It was a magical setting. The sunlight shone through the trees and beneath her feet, the forest floor was covered with bluebells and briar roses. Impulsively, she stretched our her hand and plucked a white rose. No sooner had she done this when a young man suddenly appeared on the path before her.

        Softly, he spoke. "I am the guard of these woods, sent here to make certain no-one disturbs their peace - who are you to pluck the roses of Carterhaugh and wander here without my leave?"’”

 

        Kristoff turned the page. Printed on the next one was a woodcut of the elf and the fair lady, Janet and Tam Lin. She held up the rose as if protecting herself from the man accusing her. The man was tall and fair himself, handsome in a boyish way.

        “‘"I meant no harm," Janet answered. The young man smiled, as one who has not smiled for a long time, and plucked a red rose that had grown beside the white one. "Ah, but I would willingly give all the roses of Carterhaugh to one so lovely as yourself," he said.’”

        Elsa giggled at the exchange.

        “ ‘So taken by the man’s charm Janet took the rose and found herself to have quickly fallen asleep. When she awoke she was back in her grey castle. Months passed and she found that she was pregnant. Her father confronted her, commanding she name the father, but all she would say was that he was an elf whom she would not forsake.

Later she returned to Carterhaugh and after wandering and losing herself in the wondrous woods once again plucked a white rose from a briar.’” Kristoff looked at the queen, a little smile over her face, “This doesn’t really seem like that good of a story.”

        She gave the large man a playful slap on his shoulder and told him to read on.

        “ ‘The young man appeared once more, softly accusing Janet of again taking what is his. He quickly remembered the fair woman, and importantly the swell of her belly. Shyly Janet asked the man his name.

        “My name is Tam Lin," the young man replied. "I have heard of you! You are an elfin knight," cried Janet; and in fear she cast the flower away. "There is no cause for alarm, fair Janet," said Tam Lin. "For though men call me an elfin knight, I was born a mortal child, just as you were. Here, let us sit together and I will tell you my story.”’”

        Kristoff read on as Tam Lin told Janet of his past. How he used to be a mortal and that one night as he slept Titania, the queen of Fairies stole him away from his bed and made him into a Knight for her armies. At day, he said, he would guard Caterhaugh, taking from those who trespassed anything in equal measure to what they had taken from the forest. And at night he would be forced to return to Faeryland and attend to his forced-upon queen.

“’ O, Janet, I long to return to my mortal life and wish with all my heart that I could be rid of my enchantment!"

He spoke with such great sorrow that Janet cried out: "Is there no way this spell can be broken?" Tam Lin caught her hands in his and said: "Tonight is the feast of Samhain, and only on this night of all nights, is there a chance to win me back to mortal life.

 

"Tell me what I should do to help you," implored Janet, "for I want to win you back with all my heart."’”

        Kristof coughed, “This is, uh, starting to sound a little familiar.”

        “Some people are like that,” Elsa said back.

        “Didn’t you yell at Anna for this exact same thing?”

        “Anna wasn’t a character in a story book,” Elsa said kindly but sternly. She pointed back to the book.

        Tam Lin told Janet of how to break the spell. That night she was to wait at the crossroads and watch as the faery company road past. Three companies there would be, and she must stand still and let the first two go by unheeded. In the third Tam Lin would ride a milk white horse, with gold adorning his brow. Then, he told the fair Janet, she was to turn to him, pull him from his horse, and wrap her arms about him and never let go, no matter what spell the queen of fairies might cast upon them. Janet promised she would be there and Tam Lin disappeared with a smile.

        “’A little after midnight, Janet hurried to the crossroads and waited in the shadow of the thorn hedge. The ditches gleamed in the moonlight, the thorn bushes cast strange shapes upon the ground, and the trees rustled their branches eerily above her. Faintly on the wind, she heard the sound of bridles tinkling and she knew the faery troops were on the move.

 

        As the first company passed her, she spotted the Elf Queen herself, mounted on a coal-black steed. She stayed perfectly still until they had passed her; nor did she move when the second company went by. But, among the third company, she saw the milk-white horse that bore Tam Lin, and the gleam of the gold circlet around his brow. Janet ran from the shadow of the thorn hedge and seized his bridle. She then pulled him to the ground and clasped him in her arms.’”

 

Kristoff turned the page again and there was another woodcut. This one showed Tam Lin looking regal on his white horse while Janet tugged at his leg. Both of them were smiling as though it were some kind of game.

        Kristoff continued after a moment, letting Elsa gaze at the picture. A cry had gone through the three companies, Tam Lin is away, Tam Lin is away. The Elf Queen cried and cast a spell on her favored knight, turning him into a small scaly lizard that Janet quickly clutched to her breast. As her hands held fast to her changling love she felt a slithering in her fingers. Tam Lin was changed to a cold and sickly snake. Still she held fast even as the snake coiled around her neck. Then burning assaulted her as the snake became a burning cinder scalding her hands and turning them black. But still she held on to fair Tam Lin.

        “’At last, the Elf Queen knew that she had lost Tam Lin because of the steadfast love of a mortal woman. She then shaped him in Janet's arms in his own form and raised her voice in a bitter lament:

 

"The fairest knight in all my company is lost to the world of mortals. Farewell, Tam Lin! Had I but known that an earthly woman would win you with her love, I would have taken out your heart of flesh and put in a heart of stone. And had I known that fair Janet was coming to Carterhaugh, I would have taken out your two grey eyes and put in two of wood."’”

        Another page and another woodcut. This time Tam Lin and Janet stood in front of a briar of red and white roses, behind them through the trees a large grey castle could be seen.

        “’It is said on their return, Janet’s father blessed their union and they lived a long and happy life together. But they never forgot how they first met. Always, on Samhain, Tam Lin would take Janet for a walk through the woods, pluck for her a red, red rose and plant hundreds of soothing kisses on the brutally scarred hands that had saved him.’”

        Kristoff closed the book, the soft slap of paper and leather echoed in the empty hall of books. Elsa gave off a little sigh as he finished, and he glanced at her.

        “You read it very well, Kristoff. I thought you weren’t very good?”

Kristoff shrugged, “I’m not, maybe it’s the audience? I didn’t really think you’d like a story like that.”

        Elsa smiled and glanced around the library before planting a little kiss on Kristoff’s cheek

        “Everyone likes to pretend sometimes, Ice Master,”