One of the things I stumbled across in my faerie research was the “Child Ballads,” as they are known in academia. Francis Child, a Harvard researcher, compiled hundreds of ancient Scottish ballads. There are around ten that specifically focus on the faeries.
Because I am a researcher at heart (and a literary nerd), I began to transcribe these ballads into more modern English. Snippets of my transcriptions appear in my debut novel, The Elflaine Chronicles, but I plan on compiling the finished ballads all in one place for other folklore enthusiasts.
For fun, here is the first half of the first faerie ballad I transcribed:
Thomas the Rhymer
True Thomas lay on Huntlie bank
A wonder he spied with his eye
And there he saw a Lady bright
Come riding down by the Eildon tree.
Her skirt was of the grass green silk
Her covering of fine velvet;
And every strand of her horse’s mane
Hang fifty silver bells and nine.
True Thomas, he pulled off his cap
And bowed low down to his knee—
“All hail thou mighty Queen of Heaven!
For I’ve never seen anyone like you on Earth.”
“Oh no, oh no, Thomas,” she said;
“That name does not belong to me;
I am but the Queen of fair Elfland,
That have come to visit thee.”
“Play a harp and sing, Thomas,” she said,
“Play and sing with me:
And if you dare to kiss my lips
Sure of you I will be.”
“Whether good or bad becomes me,
Fate shall never frighten me.”
Then he kissed her rosy lips
All beneath the Eildon Tree.
—“Now you must go with me,” she said,
“True Thomas, you must go with me:
And you must serve me seven years,
Through good or bad, as chance may be.”
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Haley Hamilton 