 First edition | |
| Author | Pamela Dean |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Thomas Canty |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Contemporary fantasy, urban fantasy and fantasy of manners |
| Publisher | Tor Books |
Publication date | March 1991 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 468 |
| ISBN | 0-312-85137-5 |
| OCLC | 22506452 |
| 813/.54 20 | |
| LC Class | PS3554.E1729 T36 1991 |
Tam Lin is a 1991 contemporary fantasy novel by United States author Pamela Dean, who based it on the traditional Scottish border ballad "Tam Lin".
The protagonist of Tam Lin is Janet Carter. Written in the indirect third person, from Carter's point of view, the novel is set during her years as a student in the early 1970s at the fictional Blackstock College in Minnesota. The characters include her fellow students, professors at the college, her family, and a childhood friend. The plot combines the story of a young woman's life at college with a retelling of the traditional Scottish fairy ballad "Tam Lin".
Tam Lin is a late 20th-century urban fantasy or fantasy of manners. The story touches on themes including college education, sexuality, contraception, abortion and pregnancy. Dean has referred to this novel as a "love poem" to "my college, and ultimately to the study of English literature." [1]
The novel Tam Lin is based on the traditional Scottish border ballad Tam Lin. [2]
The novel also contains many quotations and allusions. Most of the quotations are from English literature and especially Shakespeare's plays, [3] but there are also quotes from and allusions to other sources, including English folk songs. One chapter refers extensively to an in-story production of The Revenger's Tragedy . [3] It refers to the poetic works of John Keats. The complete text of La Belle Dame Sans Merci is quoted by the novel's protagonist. [3] Homer's Iliad is quoted and referenced by several characters, in the original ancient Greek and in English translations by George Chapman and Alexander Pope. [3]
The novel alludes to several historical events and figures in early 1970s U.S. history, including the Vietnam War and Nixon. Carter mentions the US Supreme Court ruling allowing legal abortions in the U.S. (see Roe v. Wade ).
Blackstock College is partially based on Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, which the author attended as an undergraduate (1971–1975). In the "Author's Note", Dean states:
Readers acquainted with Carleton College will find much that is familiar to them in the architecture, landscape, classes, terminology, and general atmosphere of Blackstock. They are earnestly advised that it would be unwise to refine too much upon this. Blackstock is not Carleton. [4]
In the novel, a key revelation is that two of the Classics majors, Robin and Nick, are in fact the same Robert Armin and Nicholas Tooley who performed with The King's Men during the time when William Shakespeare was writing plays for the troupe. The story even alludes to a theory that the historical Armin's singing ability influenced some of Shakespeare's plays (as it gave the Bard a new form to work with). It is implied that they had been mortals who had joined Medeous' faerie band in the early 17th century, which is why they are alive at Blackstock in the 1970s.
Diana Wynne Jones was an English novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, and short story writer. She principally wrote fantasy and speculative fiction novels for children and young adults. Although usually described as fantasy, some of her work also incorporates science fiction themes and elements of realism. Jones's work often explores themes of time travel and parallel or multiple universes. Some of her better-known works are the Chrestomanci series, the Dalemark series, the three Moving Castle novels, Dark Lord of Derkholm, and The Tough Guide to Fantasyland.
John Anthony Bellairs was an American author best known for his fantasy novel The Face in the Frost and many Gothic mystery novels for children featuring the characters Lewis Barnavelt, Rose Rita Pottinger, Johnny Dixon, and Anthony Monday. Most of his books were illustrated by Edward Gorey. At the time of his death, Bellairs' books had sold a quarter-million copies in hard cover and more than a million and a half copies in paperback.
TamLin is a character in a legendary ballad originating from the Scottish Borders. It is also associated with a reel of the same name, also known as the Glasgow Reel. The story revolves around the rescue of Tam Lin by his true love from the Queen of the Fairies. The motif of winning a person by holding him through all forms of transformation is found throughout Europe in folktales.
Carleton College is a private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota. Founded in 1866, the 200-acre (81 ha) main campus is between Northfield and the approximately 800-acre (320 ha) Cowling Arboretum, which became part of the campus in the 1920s.
Robert Armin was an English actor, and member of the Lord Chamberlain's Men. He became the leading comedy actor with the troupe associated with William Shakespeare following the departure of Will Kempe around 1600. Also a popular comic author, he wrote a comedy, The History of the Two Maids of More-clacke, as well as Foole upon Foole, A Nest of Ninnies (1608) and The Italian Taylor and his Boy.
John Crowley is an American author of fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, and non-fiction. Crowley studied at Indiana University and has a second career as a documentary film writer.
Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor, poet and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin. He is best known for his work in the 1970s as editor of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, which introduced readers to many overlooked classics of the fantasy genre.
Emma Bull is an American science fiction and fantasy author. Her novels include the Hugo- and Nebula-nominated Bone Dance and the urban fantasy War for the Oaks. She is also known for a series of anthologies set in Liavek, a shared universe that she created with her husband, Will Shetterly. As a singer, songwriter, and guitarist, she has been a member of the Minneapolis-based folk/rock bands Cats Laughing and The Flash Girls.
War for the Oaks (1987) is a fantasy novel by American writer Emma Bull. The book tells the story of Eddi McCandry, a rock musician who finds herself unwillingly pulled into the supernatural faerie conflict between good and evil. War for the Oaks is one of the first works in the subgenre of urban fantasy: although it involves supernatural characters, the setting (Minneapolis) is decidedly real-world. The novel is considered one of the first examples of the subgenre known as romantasy.
Robin McKinley is an American author best known for her fantasy novels and fairy tale retellings. Her 1984 novel The Hero and the Crown won the Newbery Medal as the year's best new American children's book. In 2022, the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association named her the 39th Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master in recognition of her significant contributions to the literature of science fiction and fantasy.
Pamela Collins Dean Dyer-Bennet, better known as Pamela Dean, is an American fantasy author whose best-known book is Tam Lin, based on the Child Ballad of the same name, in which the Scottish fairy story is set on a midwestern college campus loosely based on her alma mater, Carleton College in Minnesota.
Terri Windling is an American editor, artist, essayist, and the author of books for both children and adults. She has won nine World Fantasy Awards, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and the Bram Stoker Award, and her collection The Armless Maiden appeared on the short-list for the James Tiptree, Jr. Award.
Fire and Hemlock is a modern fantasy by British author Diana Wynne Jones, based largely on the Anglo-Scottish Border ballads "Tam Lin" and "Thomas the Rhymer".
Midori Snyder is an American writer of fantasy, mythic fiction, and nonfiction on myth and folklore. She has published eight novels for children and adults, winning the Mythopoeic Award for The Innamorati. Her work has been translated into French, Dutch, Italian and Turkish.
Greer Ilene Gilman is an American author of fantasy stories.
In folklore and literature, the Fairy Queen or Queen of the Fairies is a female ruler of the fairies, sometimes but not always paired with a king. Depending on the work, she may be named or unnamed; Titania and Mab are two frequently used names. Numerous characters, goddesses or folkloric spirits worldwide have been labeled as Fairy Queens.
J. R. R. Tolkien derived the characters, stories, places, and languages of Middle-earth from many sources. Shakespeare's influence on Tolkien was substantial, despite Tolkien's professed dislike of the playwright. Tolkien disapproved in particular of Shakespeare's devaluation of elves, and was deeply disappointed by the prosaic explanation of how Birnam Wood came to Dunsinane Hill in Macbeth. Tolkien was influenced especially by Macbeth and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and he used King Lear for "issues of kingship, madness, and succession". He arguably drew on several other plays, including The Merchant of Venice, Henry IV, Part 1, and Love's Labour's Lost, as well as Shakespeare's poetry, for numerous effects in his Middle-earth writings. The Tolkien scholar Tom Shippey suggests that Tolkien may even have felt a kind of fellow-feeling with Shakespeare, as both men were rooted in the county of Warwickshire.
Michael Foster, known as Mike Foster, was an emeritus professor of English and a Tolkien scholar. In 1978 he pioneered the teaching of Tolkien studies at university level.