this wood's my own

For anyone who might "want their true-love win", the following are instructions to get them out of the clutches of the Faerie queen who might pay them as a tithe to hell:

Just at the mirk of midnight hour, when the faerie folk do ride, you must wait at Miles-Cross.

(You might find yourself hearing the tolling of bells and being as glad of that as any earthly thing. This is normal, I'm afraid.)

First let pass the black steed, then let pass the brown, but when the white steed passes put you his rider down. For further signs (one glove hand and one bare, cocked up bonnet, etc.) turn to your true-love themself.

They will turn them in your arms to various animals - adder, bear, lion, such things - and you must hold fast onto him all the while. Yes, even if they turned into an inanimate object.

After a while of that, they will turn him into a piece of burning coal. Once you reach the coal stage, throw him into a well of water.

In the well he will turn into a mother-naked man. At this stage you should cover him - don't forget to bring a cloth with you for this purpose.

The faerie queen might complain about losing the guy. You can ignore her, after having done that your true-love is outside her control.

I'm told that in these days even the faeries modernized a bit. So Miles-Cross might become a train station instead, the steeds might be cars or suits, and you may need to find a slightly different way to hold fast to your true-love. Please be aware of that and keep your mind sharp - you might need to figure out a slightly different way to get them out since the fae folk have experienced such incidents and are also involving.

Usually they take seven or nine years between each tithe, so you might think your safe. However, please check with your true-love before taking extreme steps like going to sleep or going trick-or-treating for the entire night.

Disclaimer: this method only works if your true-love knight is a mortal man living with the fae folk. If your true-love is a fae folk you might want to ask him for different sets of instructions if he fears becoming the tithe. If your true-love does not live with the faeries such steps are generally unnecessry.

YEah ok i totally didn't open this and then forget about it. These aren't ranked but they are true

Medieaval Baebes Tam Lin. I particularly like the nature sounds in the background. Creepy. Wet.

The Forgetmenauts Tam Lin. This one is a really cool modernization, and it's interesting to have it sung by a man (for these five minutes at least he is gay). Goes more into the prior relationship between the narrator and Tam Lin.

The Biscuits Tam Lin. Lo-fi punk, traditional Child 39a lyrics. Two tastes that taste great together. Wild. Crunchy.

Alistair Hulett's Tam Lin. This is how it's supposed to sound. sorry to haters who do not have ten minutes to shut up and hear a story.

Anais Mitchell's Tam Lin (Child 39). A classic. This is the version where I first worked out that Janet is a badass. Mesmerizing. Dry.

You start the party dressed as vaguely medieval guy (with maybe elf ears if you wanna be fancy). Then you have costume changes, leaving and coming back dressed as different beasts. The big finish is coming back naked and having someone throw their green cloak over you.

Bonus points for having your partner or friend dressed as Janet and holding you through the "transformations" and being the one to cover you with the green cloak.

Summer Night - Sutō Kazuyuki , 2016.

Japanese , b. 1981 -

Her dad: ...I have questions but okay.

Janet: Also Carterhaugh is now safe for maidens bye!

Tam Lin is a Scottish folktale, usually presented in ballad form, dating back to at least the 16th Century. It has been summarized and re-told by different people over the years, including Overly Sarcastic Productions. It is the subject of a one-act opera, and was the inspiration for a 1970 movie that updated the story to the present day.

The fairy queen yells at Tam Lin in every version analyzed except for the Anais Mitchell version. Her version is an outlier in many respects, since the entire parade is left out, Janet simply grabs hold of Tam Lin mid-conversation.

Another oddity is Pentangle's version, which was written for the movie and consists of a jumble of images meant to complement scenes from the film, without a coherent narrative.

The biggest surprise to me is how few versions mention Janet seeking an abortion, something that I had always thought of as a central part of the story.

One thing I wish I could have looked at in more depth is the balance between versions that describe Tam Lin's transformations before he goes through them, and versions that describe them as they happen. As they happen is more common, but some songs will do the entire sequence twice.

Going into this, I had two versions prominent in my mind: Anais Mitchell's pop-folk version that leaves out much of the story, and Anne Briggs' very traditional (and very long) version. Because of this, I thought perhaps we would see a decrease in the complexity of the story over the years, but that's not the case, it's basically flat. I think a better comparison might be to separate into traditional and revised versions, although that is something of a judgment call.

There were so many minor discrepancies I couldn't even keep track of them all, but these four stood out because they are so oddly specific. Even the main character's name and the setting aren't consistent across versions, if they're even mentioned at all. Some versions don't even give the main character a name!