SCOTTISH MYTHS, LEGENDS AND TALES ...(3)

Thomas Rymer - the story of Thomas the Rhymer and the Queen of the Faeries. 

   Long ago, the town of Earlston in the Scottish Borders was just a tiny hamlet, called Ercildoune. In these days, Thomas Rymer was a well-kent local character, for he was the Laird. He was a gifted harpist, and was forever making up rhymes and songs. He was often seen sitting by the roadside playing his wee harp and trying out a new song he'd written, or driving his cattle to market with his harp slung across his back.

When he was a young man, Thomas was a great lad for the Lauderdale lassies; he was aye teasing them, joking and flirting, and sometimes he would make up a song for them. His cattle often got to wander off while he was chattin' up a likely wench.

One May morning, he was sitting by the Huntlie Burn, playing on his harp. With his back to a muckle thorn tree - called the Eildon Tree - he was plucking a magic, haunting melody when suddenly, he spied a lady riding down by the waterside. She was clad all in shimmering green (the favourite colour of the Faerie Folk) and she rode a milk-white steed. As she rode, the bells on her horse's bridle jingled merrily.

Thomas was entranced; he had never seen such a lovely lady, and couldn't take his eyes off her. His playing grew slower and slower, and finally stopped when Thomas rose in wonder to his feet, gave a low bow, and murmured to her - "Greetings, lovely Lady; you must be the Queen of Heaven"

"Oh, no, Thomas", she replied; "that is another. But I am the Queen Of the Faerie Folk in fair Elfland, and have come to visit you. I have heard you singing, and would listen to you all day long. Finish your song, and you may kiss my lips. And then you must come with me to Elfland".

"That is not a thing to frighten me," said Thomas. But the Queen told him: "one kiss of my rosy,red lips will bind you to me in Elfland for seven years; you must serve me all that time, through weal or woe, good times and bad!"

But Thomas was already under the Queen's sweet spell and, when his song was over, he kissed her, long and hard. Then she took Thomas to ride behind her, and they galloped off, bridle jingling merrily, over fields and moors and mountains.

At last, they came to a fork where three roads met. The Queen showed Thomas firstly, a narrow track into the hills, all beset with thorns and briars; this was the path of righteousness, taken by few travellers on life's journey. The second road was broad, flat and grassy; it led through a pretty meadow, and was the easy path to wickedness (Thomas had heard about these two paths from the priest at the little church of Ercildoune). But the Queen took Thomas down the third road, a winding fernie brae that led to fair Elfland.

As night was falling and the shadows lengthened, they reached their destination. But the Queen had one more instruction for Thomas. "Thomas", she said, "you will be with me now for full seven years; during all of this time, you must be silent - and speak NOT ONE WORD. If you do speak, but one word, you will be my servant for ever; you will never see Ercildoune again."

Thomas was well looked after in Elfland; he was given a silken green outfit like the Faerie Folk, and for his seven years, he served the Queen well and happily. He played his harp for her, and the Court would often dance to his sweet music. And in all these seven years, he uttered not one single solitary word.

Then one day the Queen spoke to Thomas. "Our seven years are gone now, Thomas, and you must return home. You have served me well and loyally, and have kept your silence. I shall miss you, my Thomas!"

So Thomas was free, and made his way back to Ercildoune. When he and the Queen finally parted, she gave him a large apple from her own orchard. "If you eat this", she said, "it will grant you two precious gifts - of Truth and of Prophecy. And it will make you rich and famous. Farewell, my Thomas."

When Thomas finally came home, his wife's black hair was flecked with grey, and his children were grown up. Thomas was a changed person, too -older, quieter, and flirting no more. He had eaten the apple, and now he noticed all the blemishes of the lassies of Lauderdale. And as he now always spoke the truth, the lassies did not like him nearly as much. (You can tell a lass her hair is golden, but it's quite another thing to tell her it's like a haystack!)

Thomas still played his harp, though, and made up his songs; mind you, he often had a far-away look in his eye. Everybody wondered where he had been for these seven years, but for some reason no-one ever dared to ask him; so no one knew, and the people could only guess.

Now, Thomas began to get a reputation as a wise man in the area; he always spoke true, and he could foresee the future. He became known as "True Thomas", and this local fame spread throughout Scotland when he correctly foretold the death of King Alexander the Third, who died from a fall off his horse in 1286. Thomas had predicted the means and the place, and from that time on, supplicants came from near and far to consult him on all manner of things - and paid him handsomely for his prophecies.

So Thomas became both rich and famous - just as the Faerie Queen had said; but as time went on, he became more and more remote from reality, as his mind kept taking him back to Elfland and his Queen. One evening, when he was sitting in the moonlight, his mind far, far away, one of his sons came to whisper in his ear: "Faither; there's rumour of a white doe grazing at the entrance to the park...". Now, Thomas knew that a white deer is almost certainly a visitor from The Other Country so, without a word to anyone, he took his harp from its hook, slung it over his shoulder, and slipped out into the silver moonlight of the castle park. He soon spied the faerie deer and, together, they vanished into the night.

Thomas Rymer was never seen again in this world; but his prophecies and his story are remembered to this day.

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