“Thomas Rymer”
Description
Thomas the Rhymer of Ercildoune meets the Queen of Elfland. She takes him away from earth for seven years, putting him through various rituals which no doubt instill his prophetic powers.
Notes
Very many of Thomas of Ercildoune's (True Thomas's) predictions are in circulation, though only a few are precisely dated or can be tied to specific events.
Perhaps the most famous prophecy dates from 1286, the year Alexander III of Scotland died. The day before Alexander's death, he had forecast that "before the next day at noon, such a tempest shall blow as Scotland has not felt for many years." When the next day proved clear, Thomas was taunted, but his forecast proved true -- Scotland would not again see peace until after the battle of Bannockburn in 1314.
Real and verifiable facts about Thomas are far fewer, but he does appear to have been a real person. "Thomas of Ercildoune" is a witness to a charter of c. 1265 (about the Haigs of Bemerside, also the subject of one of his couplets), and another Thomas, the son of "Thomas the Rhymer of Ercildoune," was an adult transacting in property in 1294.
Thomas's prophecies, however, were not "collected" until 1603; it would be difficult to prove the authenticity of most of these. - RBW
References
- Child 37, "Thomas Rymer" (3 texts)
- Bronson 37, "Thomas Rymer" (2 versions)
- BrownII 10, "Thomas Rhymer" (1 text)
- Leach, pp. 131-135, "Thomas Rhymer" (2 texts)
- OBB 1, "Thomas the Rhymer" (1 text)
- Friedman, p. 39, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
- PBB 22, "Thomas Rhymer" (1 text)
- Gummere, pp. 290-292+361-362, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
- Hodgart, p. 127, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
- DBuchan 6, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
- TBB 35, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
- Ord, pp. 422-425, "Sir John Gordon" (1 text, a truly curious version which retains the plot and lyrics of this song so closely that it cannot be called anything else, but with a different and inexplicable name for the hero)
- HarvClass-EP1, pp. 76-78, "Thomas Rymer and the Queen of Elfland" (1 text)
- DT 37, TOMRHYM* TOMRHYM2 TRUTOMAS
- ADDITIONAL: Walter de la Mare, _Come Hither_, revised edition, 1928; #136, "Thomas Rymer" (1 text)
- Roud #219
- BI, C037