Reverend Robert Kirk
The Reverend Robert Kirk (1644 – 1692) was a Scottish Episcopalian minister, a Gaelic speaker, and a seventh son. He was the minister of Balquhidder Church from 1664 until 1685, and of Aberfoyle from 1685 to 1692.
It is said that he would go out in the evenings lay his ear to the ground on Doon Hill and listen to the Faeries. In 1691 he wrote the booklet The Secret Commonwealth Of Elves, Fauns And Fairies. On 14th May, during one of his visits to Doon Hill, he disappeared and it is thought that he entered the Faerie Underworld and it is local belief that his was transported away as punishment for revealing too much about Faeries and their ways. There he now resides as chaplain to the Faerie Queen, but one day he may return to visit his old church once more.
The Fairy Minister
He heard, he saw, he knew too well
The secrets of your fairy clan;
You stole him from the haunted dell,
Who never more was seen of man,
Now far from heaven, and safe from hell,
Unknown of earth, he wanders free.
Would that he might return and tell
Of his mysterious company!
And half I envy him who now,
Clothed in her court’s enchanted green,
By moonlit loch or mountain’s brow
Is chaplain to the Fairy Queen.
~ Andrew Lang
Thomas the Rhymer
Thomas Learmonth, or Thomas the Rhymer as he is more popularly known, was a 13th Century Scottish laird and reputed friend of the Faeries and prophet of Earlston, a town on the river Leader in Leaderdale (modern day Berwickshire) in Scotland.
Rhymer's Tower
The story goes that he met a beautiful, graceful woman riding a horse while wandering alone in a forest near of Melrose Abbey, Roxburghshire. Thomas mistook her as the Queen of Heaven but she told him that she was the Queen of Elfland (Queen of the Fairies). Thomas was taken by her and kissed her despite her warning that to do so would put him under her power. Immediately after the kiss the Queen turned into a hag and told him that he must accompany her to the Faerie realm and serve her for seven years.
After a long journey through the Underworld they reached the Queen’s castle where her husband waited for her. She then turned back into the beautiful Queen he had met and kissed. He served her for seven years and eventually returned to the upper world with the gift of prophecy and a tongue that couldn’t lie. His prophecies proved accurate and his gifts soon brought him fame and wealth and he was revered throughout the land.
Thomas became the subject of verse and song and his story is recorded in several forms. Here’s a fuller version of the story.
Steeleye Span, Thomas the Rhymer
See below for the lyrics.
True Thomas sat on Huntley bank,
And he beheld a lady gay;
A lady that was brisk and bold,
Come riding o’er the ferny brae.
Her skirt was of the grass green silk,
Her mantle of the velvet fine;
At every lock of her horse’s mane,
Hung fifty silver bells and nine.
True Thomas, he pulled off his cap,
And bowed him low down to his knee’
“All hail, thou mighty Queen of Heaven
Your like on earth I ne’er did see.”
“No, no Thomas,” she said,
“That name does not belong to me,
I am the queen of fair Elfland,
And I have come to visit thee.”
“You must go with me Thomas,” she said,
True Thomas you must go with me;
And must serve me seven years,
Through well or woe, as chance may be.”
Chorus:
Hark and carp, come along with me,
Thomas the Rhymer;
Hark and carp, come along with me,
Thomas the Rhymer;
Hark and carp, come along with me,
Thomas the Rhymer;
Hark and carp, come along with me,
Thomas the Rhymer.
She turned about her milk white steed,
And took Thomas up behind;
And aye whenever her bridle rang,
Her steed flew swifter than the wind.
For forty days and forty nights,
They rode through red blood to the knee;
And they saw neither sun nor moon,
But heard the roaring of the sea.
And they rode on and further on,
Further and swifter than the wind;
Until they came to a desert wide,
And living land was left behind.
“Don’t you see yon narrow, narrow road,
So thick beset with thorns and briars?
That is the road to righteousness,
Though after it but few enquire.”
“Don’t you see yon broad, broad road,
Lying lies across the lily leaven?
That is the road to wickedness,
Though some call it the road to heaven.”
“Don’t you see yon bonnie, bonnie road,
Lying across the ferny brae?
That is the road to fair Elfland,
Where you and I this night must go.”
Chorus:
Hark and carp, come along with me,
Thomas the Rhymer;
Hark and carp, come along with me,
Thomas the Rhymer;
Hark and carp, come along with me,
Thomas the Rhymer;
Hark and carp, come along with me,
Thomas the Rhymer.
O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you
O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you.
She is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate stone
On the forefinger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies
Over men’s noses as they lie asleep;
Her wagon spokes made of long spinner’s legs,
The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers;
Her traces, of the smallest spider web;
Her collars, of the moonshine’s wat’ry beams;
Her whip, of cricket’s bone; the lash, of film;
Her wagoner, a small grey-coated gnat,
Not half so big as a round little worm
Pricked from the lazy finger of a maid;
Her chariot is an empty hazelnut,
Made by the joiner squirrel or old grub,
Time out o’ mind the fairies coachmakers.
~ William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.
When I sound the fairy call
When I sound the fairy call,
Gather here in silent meeting,
Chin to knee on the orchard wall,
Cooled with dew and cherries eating.
Merry, merry, Take a cherry
Mine are sounder, Mine are rounder
Mine are sweeter, For the eater
When the dews fall. And you’ll be fairies all.
~ Robert Graves
Child of the pure, unclouded brow
Child of the pure, unclouded brow
And dreaming eyes of wonder!
Though time be fleet and I and thou
Are half a life asunder,
Thy loving smile will surely hail
The love-gift of a fairy tale.
~ Lewis Carroll
