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This is the new quote in a friend's email sig:
The truth is rarely pure, and never simple.
-Oscar Wilde, writer (1854-1900)
The truth is many things, but I'd have to agree that pure and simple are rarely if ever among them. And truth is a slippery thing- it can change. People change, and with them their truths change. Mine haven't changed, that I can tell, though perhaps I have done a poor job of conveying some of them.
A couple of friends have had feelings of wrongness or impending doom. Neither thinks it concerns them personally, and since I am not them I am left to wonder if those feelings are for me.
Is anyone else familiar with the tale of Tam Lin? The mortal man led astray in the land of fairy, and stuck there for some magically significant period of time (somehow 77 years is the figure that comes to mind). He is to end his time with the fae as a sacrifice on All Hallows Eve. But he is saved by a mortal woman who loves him (having met her in a rose garden or at a crossroads on one of the eight nights a year when the barrier between mortal lands and those of the fae is weak). The woman intercepts the fae procession and pulls him off his horse, then holds him tight while the Queen of the Fae changes his shape in an effort to make her let go. There are generally at least three things Tam Lin is changed into in the various versions of the tale: something slippery like an eel, something monstrous and fierce like a lion or bear, and something painful and inanimate like thorns or a red hot bar of iron. The woman holds him tight, and in the end the Queen cannot keep him. Tam Lin then returns to the mortal lands and marries the woman, who in some versions is already carrying his child.
Years ago I read (and I think I still own) a retelling of this tale called The Perilous Road which recast Tam Lin as a young lord kidnapped by the fae in a last ditch attempt to regain their waning power and the woman as a lady in waiting newly arrived at his holding. The woman too ends up beneath the fairy hill for reasons that I don't quite recall. She manages to find the lord, help him fight the drugs the fae are giving him to cloud his mind and prevent escape, then somehow gets out to the real world and saves him in the traditional manner (which is the only way it is possible to do so). But the story is not quite over- the woman doubts that the lord will be the slightest bit interested in a lowly lady in waiting once he is back in the real world, and besides her much prettier sister has just arrived at the castle. It is then that the Queen of the Fae returns with a very generous offer. Just take this ball of herbs, slip it into his drink at a moment when he will be certain to look next on you, and he will be always happy and content at your side. The woman refuses to take it and the Queen does not win. She tells the reader that she could not live with the constant doubt, always wondering if the love she saw in his eyes was ever real.
I liked that book a lot when I was 12. I'm trying to remember which crate it's in at home.
The truth is rarely pure, and never simple.
-Oscar Wilde, writer (1854-1900)
The truth is many things, but I'd have to agree that pure and simple are rarely if ever among them. And truth is a slippery thing- it can change. People change, and with them their truths change. Mine haven't changed, that I can tell, though perhaps I have done a poor job of conveying some of them.
A couple of friends have had feelings of wrongness or impending doom. Neither thinks it concerns them personally, and since I am not them I am left to wonder if those feelings are for me.
Is anyone else familiar with the tale of Tam Lin? The mortal man led astray in the land of fairy, and stuck there for some magically significant period of time (somehow 77 years is the figure that comes to mind). He is to end his time with the fae as a sacrifice on All Hallows Eve. But he is saved by a mortal woman who loves him (having met her in a rose garden or at a crossroads on one of the eight nights a year when the barrier between mortal lands and those of the fae is weak). The woman intercepts the fae procession and pulls him off his horse, then holds him tight while the Queen of the Fae changes his shape in an effort to make her let go. There are generally at least three things Tam Lin is changed into in the various versions of the tale: something slippery like an eel, something monstrous and fierce like a lion or bear, and something painful and inanimate like thorns or a red hot bar of iron. The woman holds him tight, and in the end the Queen cannot keep him. Tam Lin then returns to the mortal lands and marries the woman, who in some versions is already carrying his child.
Years ago I read (and I think I still own) a retelling of this tale called The Perilous Road which recast Tam Lin as a young lord kidnapped by the fae in a last ditch attempt to regain their waning power and the woman as a lady in waiting newly arrived at his holding. The woman too ends up beneath the fairy hill for reasons that I don't quite recall. She manages to find the lord, help him fight the drugs the fae are giving him to cloud his mind and prevent escape, then somehow gets out to the real world and saves him in the traditional manner (which is the only way it is possible to do so). But the story is not quite over- the woman doubts that the lord will be the slightest bit interested in a lowly lady in waiting once he is back in the real world, and besides her much prettier sister has just arrived at the castle. It is then that the Queen of the Fae returns with a very generous offer. Just take this ball of herbs, slip it into his drink at a moment when he will be certain to look next on you, and he will be always happy and content at your side. The woman refuses to take it and the Queen does not win. She tells the reader that she could not live with the constant doubt, always wondering if the love she saw in his eyes was ever real.
I liked that book a lot when I was 12. I'm trying to remember which crate it's in at home.
