Seven Things That Never Happened to Tam Lin

[tamnonlinear]

So, I present to you, on the eve of All Hallow's Eve, a bit of fiction. Enjoy. This was written hastily several months back and sat for a long time after that, but it's back and I'm putting it up and out for the holiday

Comments

[king_duncan]

BRILLIANT

[tamnonlinear]

Thank you!

[tamarinne]

Oh, nice! NICE!!! I'm getting a pretty clear impression that you don't care much for Mr. Lin. *laugh*

#5 definitely had me laughing the hardest.

#7 gave me distinct chills.

The only one that confused me a bit was #4. Did she not reach out for him because his eyes were gone? Because she had never intended to get him in the first place?

But all are well done. Thank you for sharing!

[tamnonlinear]

Nah, I like him well enough, I just like doing mean things to characters. Maybe I've just read too many versions of the story and wanted to see things go wrong.

(But yes, I am being horrible to poor old Tam here. He doesn't get off easy in any of these, does he?)

Four is a take on the Faerie Queen's threat that had she known she might lose Tam Lin, she'd have taken out his eyes and put in eyes of wood, taken out his heart and put in a heart of stone.

So Janet is at the crossroads at the appointed hour, but it's too late, he's already gone. He's beyond saving and there's nothing there for her to rescue.

[tamarinne]

Ah! OK, somehow my mental picture of there being blood on his shirt put the blood on his back. I was thinking that perhaps she had whipped him or something? I couldn't make sense of it. But knowing that, going back and reading it is much more clear. Thanks!

[tamnonlinear]

Edited to clarify, thank you!

[qos]

A marvelous Halloween offering!

The last one hit me the hardest.

[tamnonlinear]

Hee. I was going to end with one of the happier ones (well, relatively speaking...) and had it originally set up to alternate back and forth, but one of my betas gave me an "end on this one!" as a comment for the (current) last, and I took her advice.

The last one was fairly nasty, but it's a fair point. It IS difficult to make a sympathetic hero out of someone who you know has done horrible things, and it's a fair read of the story to say that Janet was by no means the first woman Tam had dealings with, though we never hear about them. There's the old saying that the special women's entrance to hell says "Maybe he'll change", and I wanted to see what I could do with that.

Women's Entrance

[qos]

Can I quote you on that last bit?

It's so, so true!

Re: Women's Entrance

[tamnonlinear]

It's not original to me. I don't know where it comes from (I assume someone on my friends list DOES know, so speak up) but a short google search with terms like women's entrance to hell and maybe he'll change... the results got very depressing very fast, so I couldn't bear to search.

But you can certainly feel free to steal it, same as I did.

[melebeth]

Brilliant!

I'm glad tamarinne pointed me over here this morning.

[tamnonlinear]

I'm glad you came! Thank you.

[wcg]

I think I need a shot of whiskey now.

[tamnonlinear]

Glenkinchie would be the whiskey produced closest to Selkirk, as far as I can tell.

[wcg]

Do you indulge in the pure? If you're a fan of it, you might be interested in my friend donpaul's book about the history of whiskey.

[tamnonlinear]

Nah, I'm a lightweight with little useful knowledge (2006 resolution was to take up drinking) so high quality stuff is largely wasted on me. I like a sip of the stuff that dissolves in your mouth and doesn't require swallowing, but I don't know one kind from another.