Tam Lin": an Analysis of Folktale Picture Books
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THE TRANSFORMATION OF "TAM LIN": AN ANALYSIS OF FOLKTALE PICTURE BOOKS by GINGER MULLEN BA., The University of Lethbridge, 1994 A THESIS SUMBITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Interdisciplinary Children's Literature Programme) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA October 2003 © Ginger Mullen, 2003 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of Sckvi>( pf iitn^ //• fy^iftXh/.U ,Sil//U/><^ The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada C 2 Date prfe/W \ If)?) ' DE-6 (2/88) Abstract The folktale picture book is rooted in a common folklore as well as literary and illustrative traditions. Scholarship indicates the necessity for evaluative criteria to be proposed for this unique genre which, subsequently, would assist writers, illustrators, critics and, due to their dependence on written retellings, storytellers. I group critical questions stemming from the adaptation a folktale to a folktale picture book into four categories. The first source acknowledgement, asks whether an author has credited folktale sources used when researching the retelling. The second, narrative features, examines changes made to a folktale's plot, characters and setting. The third, stylistic features, looks at the techniques by which a folktale works as an oral story and asks if the folktale picture book also lends itself to oral performance, preserves recurring symbols and images, and effectively uses diction. The final category, illustrative features, explores the ways in which an artist incorporates folklore into the pictures by means of mirroring the text, accurately presenting the culture, bringing additional layers of meaning to the story, and respecting the folkloric text's presence on the page. I apply these questions to four picture books which maintain dominant motifs found in nine versions of the ballad of "Tarn Lin" collected by Sir Frances Child: Tamlane by Judy Paterson and Sally J. Collins, The Enchanted Forest by Rosalind Kervan and Alan Marks, Tarn Lin by Susan Cooper and Warwick Hutton, and Tarn Lin by Jane Yolen and Charles Mikolaycak. This analysis leads me to conclude that, around a base of source materials, the narrative, stylistic and illustrative categories that form my evaluative framework converge to form a metaphorical triangle; a good folktale picture book must be constructed from these equally important foundations; serious deficiency in one area affects the structural integrity of the entire book. On a more personal level, this investigation has prompted me to re-examine my own work as an oral storyteller. My version of "Tarn Lin," ever a work in progress, has been changed by this evaluative framework as well as my experience with the picture books themselves. ii Table of Contents Abstract ii Table of Contents iii List of Tables iv Dedication v Acknowledgements vi Chapter One: Introduction 1 Chapter Two: Literature Review 8 Chapter Three: Critical Issues 16 Chapter Four: Traditional Tarn Lin Ballads 39 Chapter Five: Analyses of Tamlane and The Enchanted Forest 54 Chapter Six: Analyses of Tarn Lin and Tarn Lin 74 Chapter Seven: Conclusion 104 Works Cited 110 Appendix A: Child Ballad 39A 116 Appendix B: Child Ballad 39 G 119 Appendix C: Aesop Award Criteria 122 Appendix D: Margaret Read MacDonald's Criteria for the Folktale Picture Book... 122 Appendix E: Criteria for Picture Book Selection 123 iii List of Tables Table 1: Evaluative Framework for Folktale Picture Books 35 Table 2: Child 39 A to I: Sources, Characters and Place Names 42 Table 3: Child 39A to I: Motifs 43 iv Dedicated to the memory of Joel Warnica - a true human knight lost forever to the Otherworld. A thousand thank-yous to: The balladeers, storytellers, authors and illustrators who have given life to Janet, Tarn Lin and the Fairy Queen. Dr. Kieran Kealy - you've worked patiently with me in transforming a storyteller's love of "Tarn Lin" not simply into a thesis, but my thesis. Judith Saltman - your dedication to Children's Literature, and this program, inspires all of us MACLs. Dr. Anna Altmann - what sharp eyes you have! My family, friends and colleagues who deserve accolades for their hours of listening, listening, and more listening to all things related to "Tarn Lin." The dreamer awakes. The shadow goes by. When I tell you a tale, the tale is a lie. But listen to me, fair maiden, proud youth. The tale is a lie, what it tells is the truth. vi Chapter One: Introduction OI forbid you, maidens a', That wear gowd on your hair, To come or gae by Carterhaugh For Young Tarn Lin is there. There's nane that goes by Carterhaugh But they leave him a wad, Either their rings, or green mantles, Or else their maidenhead. (Child 3 9A, 1-2) So warns the beginning of a text of "Tarn Lin," one of nine variants of the ballad recorded by Sir Francis Child in 1895.1 In the next verse, Janet braids her hair, lifts her kilt above her knees, and runs straight to Carterhaugh. When she arrives in the forbidden woods, she inadvertently summons Tarn Lin by plucking a fairy rose. Later, she does, indeed, leave with him her maidenhead. After her family discovers her pregnancy, she returns to Carterhaugh to look for herbs to serve as an abortifacient, an act which summons Tarn Lin once more. In their ensuing conversation, he asks her not to kill the "bonie babe" and she, in turn, asks him if he is Christian. Tarn Lin not only implies that he has been baptized, but he also suggests that Janet can save him from the Queen o' Fairies, who plans to sacrifice him as a tithe to Hell. Janet agrees and, following Tarn Lin's instructions, she makes her way to Miles Cross on Halloween night. When the fairy troops pass, she pulls her lover from his white steed and holds him fast while the Queen transforms him from one beast to another. Finally, when she changes Tarn Lin into a burning gleed, Janet throws him into the well, breaking the enchantment. Tam Lin emerges, naked and reborn into the human world. The Queen o' Fairies, however, has the last word: 1 'But had I kend, Tarn Lin,' she says 'What now this night I see I wad ha taen out thy twa grey een And put in twa een o tree.' (Child 39A, 41) This ballad, Child 39A, is the version "known to most readers today" (Niles, "Traditional" 147); yet it comprises only one of more than thirty known variants which follow similar patterns of plot and characterization.2 This large number of documented ballad versions attests to "Tarn Lin's" long history in song and print. Child tells us that the first-known, partially-recorded version of "Tarn Lin" appeared in 1549 as a shepherd's song in Vedderburn's Complaint of Scotland. More than 200 years passed before David Herd preserved a complete version in 1769; within decades, several additional versions appeared, including an 1802 literary adaptation penned by Sir Walter Scott (335). (They are respectively known as Child 39B and 391.) Since then, versions have appeared in pamphlets and in collections of ballads, music and poetry. Furthermore, musicians continue to sing its stanzas and storytellers perform it as a folktale. And, importantly, "Tarn Lin" has taken root in the written tradition; authors have reshaped this story for adults and, perhaps surprisingly, for children. Sex, pregnancy, abortion and human sacrifice, all found in "Tarn Lin," hardly seem the matter of children's stories, yet this ballad has appeared for more than a century, albeit altered, in folktale collections written for children. Joseph Jacobs, in 1890, included a version in More English Fairy Tales and Sophie May used many of Tarn Lin's motifs three years later in Little Prudv's Fairy Book. Beginning in the 1970s, authors also began to recount Tarn Lin's and Janet's adventures in novels and short stories 2 specifically meant for young adults. And, since the late 1980s, at least nine picture book retellings have found their way to library and bookstore shelves.4 It was through one of these picture books that I first met Janet and Tam Lin. Attracted to a colourful cover depicting Scottish tartans, two young lovers and a red, red rose, I picked up Jane Yolen's Tam Lin and have been smitten ever since. (Yolen's version is fairly similar to Child 39A in tone, but it excludes mention of sex, pregnancy and the abortifacient.) I intuitively recognized the elements which make "Tam Lin" such a strong, evocative tale: the focus on courage, love, and the struggle between good and evil; the hero's archetypal process of maturation; and the magic of fairy enchantment. I wanted, as an oral storyteller, to tell and adapt it for audiences of all ages. I began my research at once. When I read the "Tam Lin" variants in English and Scottish Popular Ballads. I was thrilled to discover the darker side of this story, the aspects Yolen omitted. I became even more drawn to the characters, especially to Janet. I loved her willful disobedience, indomitable spirit, and her heroic act of courage.