The subject of the ballad 'Young Tarn Lin', of which there are many versions, both in the Border country and in Aberdeenshire. It is perhaps the most important of all the supernatural ballads because of the many fairy beliefs incorporated in it. The fullest version is No.39A in Child's The English and Scottish Popular Ballads.
At the beginning the king warns the maidens in his court not to go to Carterhaugh Wood, which is haunted by Young Tarn Lin who exacts a pledge from every maiden who visits it, most likely her maidenhood. In spite of his warning his own daughter Janet goes to the well of Carterhaugh, summons Young Tam Lin by plucking a rose, and loses her maidenhood to him. The rest of the ballad is so vivid and so full of important detail that it would be a pity only to summarize it.
Избранные книги, процитированные и использованные в работе над «Эльфийским словарем» К.Бриггс
Aarne, Antti, The Types of the Folktale: A Classification and Bibliography, translated and enlarged by Stith Thompson, second revision. Folklore Fellows Communications No. 184, Helsinki, 1961.
(Аарне, Антти, «Типы народной сказки: классификация и библиография»)
The 'Ballad of True Thomas', which Child included in his collections as No.37A, tells part of the story of Thomas Rymour of Erceldoune, most commonly called Thomas The Rhymer (this entry outlines his whole story). Whether or not such a character as Merlin ever existed as a real man, it is certain that Thomas Rymour of Erceldoune was an historic personage living in the 13th century. But much more important than his existence is his reputation as a prophet, which endured until the 19th century. The ballad, which tells of his meeting with the Queen of Elfland and his visit to that country, is founded on a 14th century romance which can be read in Carew Hazlitt's Fairy Tales, Legends and Romances Illustrating Shakespeare. The ballad, which was not collected until the 19th century, tells the story more tersely and vividly, without the series of prophecies appended to the Romance.
— Вы видели когда-нибудь похороны эльфа, мадам? — спросил Блейк у дамы, которая оказалась рядом с ним.
— Никогда, сэр! — отвечала та.
— А я видел, — сказал Блейк, — прошлой же ночью.
И он принялся рассказывать о том, как в собственном саду он видел «процессию существ ростом и цветом напоминавших зеленых и серых кузнечиков, которые несли на розовом лепестке мертвое тело, и схоронили его с песнопениями, а потом исчезли.
Эльфы славятся искусностью в различных ремеслах. Их видели и слышали за работой; они обучают смертных ремеслам; они работают на смертных. Подробно и ярко пишет об их трудах Дж.Г.Кэмпбелл в «Суевериях горной и островной Шотландии» (с.15):
Самая знаменитая из эльфийских ярмарок проводилась в Сомерсете в Блэкдауне, близ Питминстера. Впервые ее подробно описывает Бове в своем «Пандемониуме, или Чертовой обители» (с.207). Это описание цитирует Кейтли:
Иногда они будто бы танцевали, а иногда устраивали большой рынок, или ярмарку. Я потрудился поинтересоваться у соседей, насколько можно верить тому, что рассказывают о них, и многие из окрестных жителей подтвердили эти рассказы.
Место, в котором они обыкновенно показывались, находилось на склоне холма, именуемого Черной Горкой, между приходами Питтминстер и Честонфорд, в нескольких милях от Таунтона. Те, кому доводилось путешествовать в тех местах, видели их часто как маленьких мужчин и женщин, ростом обычно меньше самого низкого человеческого роста. Одежды их были красные, голубые или зеленые, того покроя, что носили на селе в старину; на головах они носили высокие колпаки.
The liveliest of the Scottish versions of 'Rumpelstiltskin', to be found in Chambers's Popular Rhymes of Scotland. Chambers suggests that the name comes from the Scots 'stoor', meaning dust, and is inspired by the swirl of dust in which the fairies are supposed to travel. He also mentions that in another version the name for the fairy is 'Fittletot'. Rhys points out that the names of many of these Tom Tit Tot fairies end in 'Tot', 'Trot' or other similar suffixes.
The Gudewife of Kittlerumpit had lost her man, — they thought he was pressed for the sea, — and she had nothing to care for but a wee lad bairn still sucking and a muckle big soo that was soon to farrow, and she hoped for a big litter. But one fine morning she went round the hoose to the stye and poured the swill out in the trough, and there was the soo grainin' and gruntin' like one at death's door. She called and she coaxed, but never a stir was in it, and at last she sat down at the knockin' stane at her door, and she burst oot greetin'. And as she grat and roared she saw an old, queer-like leddy in green coming up the brae to her housie, which was on a hill with a green wood behind it. She had a long staff in her hand and there was something aristocratical aboot her, and when she got near the gudewife rose up and gave her a curchie and she says —
'Oh yir leddyship, I'm the maist waefulest woman in the world, and there's nane to help me.'
Nearly all trees have some sacred association from very early times, but some are more sacred than others. There is the magical trilogy of Oak and Ash and Thorn. There are the fruit-bearing trees, especially Apple and Hazel; there are Rowan, Holly and Willow, Elder and Alder. Some trees seem to be regarded as having a personality of their own, and some are more specifically a haunt of fairies or spirits.
Most people would probably think first of an oak as a sacred tree, worshipped by the Druids, and it is strong enough certainly to stand in its own right, though everyone knows the couplet,
Fairy folks
Are in old oaks,
and many oak coppices are said to be haunted by the sinister oakmen.
Hawthorn has certain qualities of its own, but it is primarily thought of as a tree sacred to or haunted by the fairies. This is especially so ofsolitary
thorns growing near fairy hills, or of a ring of three or more hawthorns. White may in blossom was supposed to bring death into the house, and although it was brought round on May Morning it was hung up outside.
Ruth Tongue collected a folk-song in Somerset whose chorus illustrates the popular belief about three very different trees:
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