Oil on linen, 6' x 8', 1991/2003
I lay on yon green bank
and I saw a lady gay,
a lady that was brisk and bold,
come riding o'er the ferny bra
I took off my hat,
and bent down on my knee,
saying, "Hail, Almighty Queen of Heaven,
your like on earth, I n'er did see.
"Oh no, Thomas," she cried,
"that name does not belong to me!"
"I'm but the Queen of fair Elfland.
I've come to take you home with me."
For 14 days and 14 nights
we rode through red blood to the knee,
and we saw neither sun nor moon,
but heard the roaring of the sea.
At last we came to an orchard,
with fruits so fine and fair.
I reached for one to eat, but she cried out,
"Thomas, leave them there!"
"For if you taste our fairy fruits,
you'll never get back to your own country.
Come and lay your head in my lap,
and I will show you wonders three."
"Do you see that narrow road,
grown o'er with thorns and briars?
That is the path of righteousness,
after that one few inquire."
"Now look, see that road,
that is so easy and wide?
That is the road to Hell, my love,
though some say to Paradise."
But last and best, see that little path,
down by the riverside,
That winds through the ferns to fair Elfland?
That's where we'll go tonight.
................................................................................
We lived there, for a moment it seemed,
in wonder and delight,
until one day she came to me and said,
"Do you know that 7 years have passed?"
"This nation pays a tithe to Hell,
and tomorrow a soul is due.
Stranger and a mortal here, you are
the one the Fiend will choose."
"But for all the gold in both our worlds,
I wouldn't harm a hair on your head.
So tonight, with a mighty force,
I'll take you home instead."
................................................................................
"Thomas farewell, she said,
I can no longer stay."
"Lady, please leave me a proof
that we spoke before you go away!"
"You may choose, she said,
would you rather harp or sing?"
"How shall I make a song to compare
with the wonders I have seen?"
"With this kiss,
a goodly gift, I will give to you,
for lips that have kissed the Fairy Queen,
may only tell the truth."
She turned her horse then
and rode away, over grasses bent and brown.
I rhymed this song out of my broken heart
as I walked back to the town.
...............................................................................
(These are my lyrics, based on stanzas from a poem dating around 1450, with
some additions derived from a late 1800s text. There are 61 stanzas in the poem.
To give you the flavor of it, here are a few stanzas:
Als I me wente yis endres daye,
Ffull faste in mynd makand my mone,
In a mery mornynge of Maye,
By Huntle bankkes my selfe allone.
I herde ye jaye and ye throstelle,
the mawys mendye of hir songe,
ye wodewale beryde als a belle,
That alle ye wode a-bowte me ronge.
Allonne in longyne thus als I laye,
Vndyre-nethe a semely tre,
Saw I whare a lady gaye
Came ridand ouer a longe lee.
................................................................................
Thomas existed; he signed a deed. Francis Child deduced that his birthdate would
have been between 1210 and 1220.)
The ballad is an explanatory prologue to a "fytt" of prophecies...for when Thomas,
given a tongue which could only speak the truth, spoke of the future, he was
prophetic. Of the prophecies...according to Child; "The Whole Prophecie of Merlin,
Thomas Rymour and Others, collected and issued as early as 1603, continued to
be printed as a chap-book down to the beginning of this century, (1800s) when
few farmhouses in Scotland were without a copy of it."
I have worked on versions of True Thomas for over 30 years...the story is meaningful
to me, but the means to convey it have been elusive. The earliest text (the
"romance" poem from the 1400s mentioned above) seems to be a condensed, and
I suspect, much altered, parse of a longer work, which Child thought might have
been written by Thomas himself. Such a manuscript, if it ever existed, hasn't
turned up in the halls of the scholars. The lyrics that I use now follow the
romance closely, but omit much of the description.
I wonder if I will eventually sing this intricate story in its
entirety.
The Oxford dictionary cites this poem as first reference for several definitions,
such as the word "crapotee" for the precious stone, repellent to poisonous influences,
found in the head of a toad.
The phrase "I plight thee my troth" that eventually became part
of many wedding ceremonies is also traced by Oxford to True Thomas.
The romance poem sketches an outline of medieval cosmology that attempts to
fuse prechristian and Christian models of the universe.
It is telling that Thomas' adultry with the Elf Queen, (she has a King, who
would have her drawn and quartered if he knew.) is not the chief danger to his
mortal soul...the real peril is plucking a fruit! The pluck for pluck peril
is similar to the motif of the beast's rose in the French fairytale "Beauty
and the Beast." (and the ballad Tam Lin) That the fairy kingdom must pay a yearly
fee to "the fiend," might harken to an oral tradition of annual human sacrifice.
In any event, the cosmology detailed by the romance poem explains
quite a bit about amorous affairs. I've read that the idea of romantic love
was "new" in the middle ages. One wonders.
A wonderful version of True Thomas, titled "The Black Swans", may be found in
Sylvia Townsend Warner's fantastic book of fairy stories "Kingdoms of Elfin."
Poems of Political Prophecy: Thomas of Erceldou...