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I forbid you maidens all that wear gold in your hair
to go by Carterhaugh, for young Tam Lin is there
None that go by Carterhaugh e'er they leave him a pledge
either their mantles of green, or their maidenhead ...
- Tam Lin
The above link is an audio guide to tonight's post - an mp3 of Tempest's version of "Tam Lin" - right click, save as, if you'd like to have a soundtrack. :)
Today's adventure wasn't inspired by the song, but by a book - Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, which takes the old Scottish ballad and sets it in 70s-era Minnesota, among romantic students at a small liberal arts college. If you haven't read this book, and you're at all interested in fantasies or faerie tale retellings, go out and find yourself a copy immediately. I first read this book in the summer of 1994, the week before I left for college. Possibly, had I stuck to my original plan to go to Knox College, I might have found some sort of analogue to Blackstock College, but as it was, Avila College - a small commuter college in suburban Kansas City - was never going to live up to the pure romance and abandon I found in this book. I disappear into this book every time I read it, and I've read it many times in the past ten years. When I moved to Minnesota, I found that several of my friends felt the same way about this book. It's a disease, of sorts, I guess - an experiment in time travel, in teleportation, as you spend the hours reading actually living in a college town in Minnesota in the 1970s.
The inspiration for the fictional Blackstock is Carleton College, in Northfield, Minnesota, and for several years, Karen has been threatening to organize a field trip to Northfield to explore the campus that explored our beloved book. Today, after more than six years, four of us - Karen, Dre, Kirsten, and I - finally made the short-ish drive. We were even armed with an informal guide from the author herself, telling us which buildings corresponded with which, and explaining some of the differences in the modern campus. I took pictures! Okay, so not many turned out very well, but I still have a few I love.
So, inside, large pictures of a gorgeous college campus in late fall. If you've read Tam Lin, it might be interesting to see the building/place analogues. If you haven't, it's still a beautiful campus.
( carleton college, november 2005 )
I came home and finished reading the book again, which took up my whole evening. I have yet to write anything on Siren Song. Whoops. I told you, that book causes curious ripples in time.
I come away with something different each time I read Tam Lin. Tonight, I'm left with the idea that sometimes, life turns in unexpected directions. You may think that one wrong move will bring (or has brought) ruin down upon you, but sometimes, that's when the best, most magical things happen.
R
to go by Carterhaugh, for young Tam Lin is there
None that go by Carterhaugh e'er they leave him a pledge
either their mantles of green, or their maidenhead ...
- Tam Lin
The above link is an audio guide to tonight's post - an mp3 of Tempest's version of "Tam Lin" - right click, save as, if you'd like to have a soundtrack. :)
Today's adventure wasn't inspired by the song, but by a book - Pamela Dean's Tam Lin, which takes the old Scottish ballad and sets it in 70s-era Minnesota, among romantic students at a small liberal arts college. If you haven't read this book, and you're at all interested in fantasies or faerie tale retellings, go out and find yourself a copy immediately. I first read this book in the summer of 1994, the week before I left for college. Possibly, had I stuck to my original plan to go to Knox College, I might have found some sort of analogue to Blackstock College, but as it was, Avila College - a small commuter college in suburban Kansas City - was never going to live up to the pure romance and abandon I found in this book. I disappear into this book every time I read it, and I've read it many times in the past ten years. When I moved to Minnesota, I found that several of my friends felt the same way about this book. It's a disease, of sorts, I guess - an experiment in time travel, in teleportation, as you spend the hours reading actually living in a college town in Minnesota in the 1970s.
The inspiration for the fictional Blackstock is Carleton College, in Northfield, Minnesota, and for several years, Karen has been threatening to organize a field trip to Northfield to explore the campus that explored our beloved book. Today, after more than six years, four of us - Karen, Dre, Kirsten, and I - finally made the short-ish drive. We were even armed with an informal guide from the author herself, telling us which buildings corresponded with which, and explaining some of the differences in the modern campus. I took pictures! Okay, so not many turned out very well, but I still have a few I love.
So, inside, large pictures of a gorgeous college campus in late fall. If you've read Tam Lin, it might be interesting to see the building/place analogues. If you haven't, it's still a beautiful campus.
( carleton college, november 2005 )
I came home and finished reading the book again, which took up my whole evening. I have yet to write anything on Siren Song. Whoops. I told you, that book causes curious ripples in time.
I come away with something different each time I read Tam Lin. Tonight, I'm left with the idea that sometimes, life turns in unexpected directions. You may think that one wrong move will bring (or has brought) ruin down upon you, but sometimes, that's when the best, most magical things happen.
R
