Tam Lin Retellings

[Bookwyrme]

There are a lot of them!! Which ones have you read & what do you think?

I've read a whole list, though I see that now I have some catching up to do.

I think my favorites so far are Pamela Dean's Tam Lin which shows what happens when the queen of fairy teaches college. Much of it is dedicated to college life. It's not college life as it is, but college life as you wish it were.

Another favorite is Winter Rose. I love Patricia McKillip & the way she tells a story as much by suggestion as by telling it. I also love her incredible prose poetry. Solstice Wood the sort-of sequel that came out recently was something of a disappointment; one of only 2 books she's written where I felt THE MESSAGE was getting in the way of the story.

Alan Garner's Red Shifit is by far the strangest of the tellings. I wouldn't even have thought of it as a Tam Lin variant if the author hadn't said it was. It shifts without warning between 3 very different time frames & is Tam Lin if you look very carefully.  

[NightIntent]

Before I answer... what's Tam Lin? I could look it up, but I have limited time at the moment. n.n"  

[Bookwyrme]

NightIntent

Before I answer... what's Tam Lin? I could look it up, but I have limited time at the moment. n.n"

It is a ballad. You can find one version of it here: http://tam-lin.org/front.html  

[NightIntent]

Bookwyrme

NightIntent

Before I answer... what's Tam Lin? I could look it up, but I have limited time at the moment. n.n"

It is a ballad. You can find one version of it here: http://tam-lin.org/front.html

Okey-dokey, I'll look at it.

Edit: Read it, and I don't believe I've read any re-tellnigs of it.  

[tecche]

Diana Wynne Jones' Fire and Hemlock is a retelling of Tam Lin. I liked it, but didn't. I don't really like Tam Lin stories in general - it's kind of how I don't like Arthurian tales either. Something about them just annoys me and kills all interest. Don't get me wrong though, there are good renditions of both tales that I don't mind, Fire and Hemlock being one of them, but yeah.  

[Bookwyrme]

Don't like Tam Lin? Oh my! wink

To each his or her own. Me, I'm mildly obsessed with "Tam Lin."

Fire and Hemlock is one of my favorite books. Actually I discovered Diana Wynne Jones because of it. I'd read a couple of books by her but hadn't been terribly impressed, then I read & loved it & started looking for her other stuff.

It's how I found Pamela Dean & refound Patricia Mckillip, too.