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.
Herbie Brennan’s Fairy Encounters
Author Herbie Brennan describes two encounters he has had with the wee folk.
FAIRY OINTMENT
Dame Goody was a nurse that looked after sick people and minded babies. One night she was awoken at midnight, and when she went downstairs she saw a strange squinny-eyed, little ugly old fellow who asked her to come to his wife who was too ill to mind her baby. Dame Goody didn’t like the look of the old fellow, but business is business; so she popped on her things, and went down to him. And when she got down to him, he whisked her up on to a large coal-black horse with fiery eyes, that stood at the door; and soon they were going at a rare pace, Dame Goody holding on to the old fellow like grim death.
They rode, and they rode, till at last they stopped before a cottage door. So they got down and went in and found the good woman abed with the children playing about; and the babe, a fine bouncing boy, beside her.
Dame Goody took the babe, which was as fine a baby boy as you’d wish to see. The mother, when she handed the baby to Dame Goody to mind, gave her a box of ointment, and told her to stroke the baby’s eyes with it as soon as it opened them. After a while it began to open its eyes. Dame Goody saw that it had squinny eyes just like its father. So she took the box of ointment and stroked its two eyelids with it. But she couldn’t help wondering what it was for, as she had never seen such a thing done before. So she looked to see if the others were looking, and, when they were not noticing, she stroked her own right eyelid with the ointment.
No sooner had she done so, than everything seemed changed about her. The cottage became elegantly furnished. The mother in the bed was a beautiful lady, dressed up in white silk. The little baby was still more beautiful than before, and its clothes were made of a sort of silvery gauze. Its little brothers and sisters around the bed were flat-nosed imps with pointed ears, who made faces at one another, and scratched their polls. Sometimes they would pull the sick lady’s ears with their long and hairy paws. In fact they were up to all kinds of mischief; and Dame Goody knew that she had got into a house of pixies. But she said nothing to nobody, and as soon as the lady was well enough to mind the baby, she asked the old fellow to take her back home. So he came round to the door with the coal-black horse with eyes of fire, and off they went as fast as before, or perhaps a little faster, till they came to Dame Goody’s cottage, where the squinny-eyed old fellow lifted her down and left her, thanking her civilly enough, and paying her more than she had ever been paid before for such service.
Now next day happened to be market-day, and as Dame Goody had been away from home, she wanted many things in the house, and trudged off to get them at the market. As she was buying the things she wanted, who should she see but the squinny-eyed old fellow who had taken her on the coal-black horse. And what do you think he was doing? Why he went about from stall to stall taking up things from each, here some fruit, and there some eggs, and so on; and no one seemed to take any notice.
Now Dame Goody did not think it her business to interfere, but she thought she ought not to let so good a customer pass without speaking. So she ups to him and bobs a curtsey and said: ” Gooden, sir, I hopes as how your good lady and the little one are as well as–”
But she couldn’t finish what she was a-saying, for the funny old fellow started back in surprise, and he says to her, says he: ” What! do you see me to-day ? ”
” See you,” says she, ” why, of course I do, as plain as the sun in the skies, and what’s more,” says she, ” I see you are busy too, into the bargain.”
” Ah, you see too much,” said he; “now, pray, with which eye do you see all this?”
” With the right eye to be sure,” said she, as proud as can be to find him out.
“The ointment! The ointment!” cried the old pixy thief. “Take that for meddling with what don’t concern you: you shall see me no more.” And with that he struck her on her right eye, and she couldn’t see him anymore; and, what was worse, she was blind on the right side from that hour till the day of her death.
Source
English Fairy Tales (Everyman’s Library Children’s Classics)
THE SHEPHERD OF MYDDVAI
Up in the Black Mountains in Caermarthenshire lies the lake known as Lyn y Van Vach. To the margin of this lake the shepherd of Myddvai once led his lambs, and lay there whilst they sought pasture. Suddenly, from the dark waters of the lake, he saw three maidens rise. Shaking the bright drops from their hair and gliding to the shore, they wandered about amongst his flock. They had more than mortal beauty, and he was filled with love for her that came nearest to him. He offered her the bread he had with him, and she took it and tried it, but then sang to him:
Hard-baked is thy bread,
‘Tis not easy to catch me,
and then ran off laughing to the lake.
Next day he took with him bread not so well done, and watched for the maidens. When they came ashore he offered his bread as before, and the maiden tasted it and sang :
Unbaked is thy bread,
I will not have thee,
and again disappeared in the waves.
A third time did the shepherd of Myddvai try to attract the maiden, and this time he offered her bread that he had found floating about near the shore. This pleased her, and she promised to become his wife if he were able to pick her out from among her sisters on the following day. When the time came the shepherd knew his love by the strap of her sandal. Then she told him she would be as good a wife to him as any earthly maiden could be unless he should strike her three times without cause. Of course he deemed that this could never be; and she, summoning from the lake three cows, two oxen, and a bull, as her marriage portion, was led homeward by him as his bride.
The years passed happily, and three children were born to the shepherd and the lake-maiden. But one day here were going to a christening, and she said to her husband it was far to walk, so he told her to go for the horses.
“I will, said she, if you bring me my gloves which I’ve left in the house.”
But when he came back with the gloves, he found she had not gone for the horses; so he tapped her lightly on the shoulder with the gloves, and said, “Go, go.”
” That’s one,” said she.
Another time they were at a wedding, when suddenly the lake-maiden fell a-sobbing and a-weeping, amid the joy and mirth of all around her.
Her husband tapped her on the shoulder, and asked her, “Why do you weep?”
” Because they are entering into trouble; and trouble is upon you; for that is the second causeless blow you have given me. Be careful ; the third is the last.”
The husband was careful never to strike her again. But one day at a funeral she suddenly burst out into fits of laughter. Her husband forgot, and touched her rather roughly on the shoulder, saying, “Is this a time for laughter? ”
” I laugh,” she said, “because those that die go out of trouble, but your trouble has come. The last blow has been struck; our marriage is at an end, and so farewell.” And with that she rose up and left the house and went to their home.
Then she, looking round upon her home, called to the cattle she had brought with her:
Brindle cow, white speckled,
Spotted cow, bold freckled,
Old white face, and gray Geringer,
And the white bull from the king’s coast,
Grey ox, and black calf,
All, all, follow me home,
Now the black calf had just been slaughtered, and was hanging on the hook; but it got off the hook alive and well and followed her; and the oxen, though they were ploughing, trailed the plough with them and did her bidding. So she fled to the lake again, they following her, and with them plunged into the dark waters. And to this day is the furrow seen which the plough left as it was dragged across the mountains to the tarn.
Only once did she come again, when her sons were grown to manhood, and then she gave them gifts of healing by which they won the name of Meddygon Myddvai, the physicians of Myddvai.
Source
English Fairy Tales (Everyman’s Library Children’s Classics)
