YMMV / Tam Lin

• Awesome Music: The Fairport Convention version is pretty good.
• Values Dissonance: Several versions twist the story by having Tam Lin actually rape Janet (variations of "he laid her down and did not ask her leave"). Granted, Janet doesn't seem to mind, but still. However, this only occurs in the later versions, but it is made as explicit as it can in the earlier ballads that Janet was looking for Tam Lin so that she could have sex with him. In several versions of the ballad, Tamlin is not a human, but instead was simply an elf from the start and Janet literally set out into Carterhaugh with the intention of having sexual intercourse with him.
  • The setting of Carterhaugh woods itself is important; historically in Scottish lore, it was indeed the location known to harbour the Fair Folk. Several other stories like "The Wee Wee Man", and "Thomas the Rhymer" take place close by to Carterhaugh itself. So anyone travelling into this region would've been aware of the lore surrounding it.
  • Janet is mentioned as having worn a green kirtle when she went to Carterhaugh. Green is the last colour that anyone would wear into a fairy location as the colour green was unlucky and was known to attract the attention of the Fair Folk. Moreover, the colour green was symbolic of fertility and growth, as well as being the colour of sexual liberty in ballads.
  • In several versions of the ballad, Janet either lingers in Carterhaugh braiding her hair, as if she was waiting for someone, or she lingers by the holy well (areas further associated with faeries or enchantment). In some versions, Janet deliberately seeks out Tamlin's horse and waits beside it for him to appear.
  • Later in the story, when the topic of her pregnancy arises, Janet proudly defends her lover to her father, stating that her true love is an elf and she wouldn't give him up for any of the lords that her father offers her. Soon after when she's contemplating abortion, Tamlin speaks of the pregnancy as if it were a mutual achievement. The language regarding the earlier sexual encounter portrays it as something merry/playful, especially since Janet once again defends her choice of a lover, but laments that she cannot raise their child alone.