Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago
Lady Margaret / Tam Lin (Child No. 39) - Sung by Duncan Williamson, a Traveller of Furnace, Argyllshire, Scotland, later settled in Fife. Recorded by John D. Niles in July 1984.
00:00:00 Talks about Traveller Fairy Belief
00:01:55 Sings Lady Margaret
The original recording can be listened to here:
https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AXQTVRF7FT3WTN8U
A biography of Duncan Williamson along with many further sound recordings can be found here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/person/4292?l=en
Linda Williamson's thesis on Scottish Traveller singing can be read here, it is well worth your time if you are interested in Duncan Williamson's song repertoire: era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/8223
Note by Kevin W.:
Duncan first knew Tam Lin in fragmentary form from the singing of his grandmother Bett MacColl in Tarbert, Loch Fyne, Kintyre, and later completed it by adding verses he heard from other family members later in his life. Travellers called the song "Lady Margaret".
Linda Williamson, who married and lived with Duncan for many years, noted in her thesis on Traveller singing:
In October 1982 Duncan invited his second cousin Robbie Townsley to stay with him for a few weeks, so the two of them could collaborate on some narrative fragments Duncan knew. The result was the completion of Duncan's "Lady Margaret". Until 1982 the song had never been more than a partially sung and spoken fairy story in Duncan's repertoire.
Duncan ends the song with a verse that properly belongs to "The Douglas Tragedy" (Child No. 7):
So Lady Margaret on the white milk steed
Lord William on his dappled grey
With a bugle and horn hanging down by the side
It's merrily they rode away, away
It's merrily they rode away
Duncan explained how he once had a disagreement with Hamish Henderson over which of the two ballads the verse properly belongs to. Duncan said in The Douglas Tragedy they both died, there is no one riding away at the end. So he kept the verse at the end of Tam Lin which has a happy ending.
A 1967 recording made by George McIntyre and Helen Fullarton of Duncan's Tam Lin fragment before he reconstructed it can be heard here:
youtube.com/watch?v=k13q3xA5Gkg
Hamish Henderson recorded Betsy Johnston, a Traveller in Glasgow, singing Tam Lin in 1956:
youtube.com/watch?v=4XqF0NQ5XkI
Song transcription:
Oh Lady Margaret she sat ond her high chamber
She was sewing her silks and seams
And she luikit east and she luikit west
And she saw those woods grow green.
So picking up her petticoats
Beneath her harlin gown
And when she came to the merry green woods
That was there that she let them down.
For she had not pulled one nut, one nut
One nut nor scarcely three,
When the highest lord ind aa the countryside
Come a-riding through the trees.
He said, "Why do you pull those nuts, those nuts?
Why do you bend those trees?
Why do you come to this merry green wood
Without the leave of me?"
She said, "Sir, onceten time those woods were mine
Without the leave of youse,
And I can pull those nuts, those nuts
And I can bend those trees."
So he tuik her gently by the hand
And he gently laid her down,
And when he had his will of her
He raised her up again.
She said, "Now you've had your will of me
Come tell to me your name,
And if a baby I do have
I will call him the same."
He said, "I'm an earl's son from Carlyle
And I own all those woods so green,
But I was taken when I was small
By an evil fairy queen.
"But tomorrow night is Halloween
And all those nobles there'll be free,
And if you can come to the Five Mile Gate
It is there you can set me free.
"Oh first they will come some dark, some dark
And then they will come some brown,
But when there comes a milk-white steed
You must pull its rider down.
"Oh first I'll turn to a wicked snake
And then to a lion so wild,
But hold me fast and fear me not
I may be the father of your child.
"And then I'll turn to a naked man,
Oh an angry man I'll be!
Just throw your mantle over me
And then you'll have me free."
So that night at the midnight hour
Lady Margaret she made her way,
And when she came to the Five Mile Gate
She waited patiently.
Oh first there came some dark, some dark
And then there came some brown,
But when there came a milk-white steed
She pulled its rider down.
Then he turned to a wicked snake
And then to a lion so wild,
She held him fast and feared him not
He'd be the father of her child.
Then he turned to a naked man,
Oh an angry man was he!
She threw her mantle over him
And then she had him free.
And then cried the voice of the fairy queen
Oh an angry queen was she!
Saying "If I had a-known yesterday
Oh what I know today,
I'd tuik out your very heart's blood
And put in a heart of clay, clay
And put in a heart of clay.
So Lady Margaret on her white milk steed
Lord William on his dapple grey,
With the bugle and the horn hanging down by their side
It's merrily they rode away, away
It's merrily they rode away.
Lady Margaret / Tam Lin (Child No. 39) - Sung by Duncan Williamson, a Traveller of Furnace, Argyllshire, Scotland, later settled in Fife. Recorded by John D. Niles in July 1984.
00:00:00 Talks about Traveller Fairy Belief
00:01:55 Sings Lady Margaret
The original recording can be listened to here:
https://search.library.wisc.edu/digital/AXQTVRF7FT3WTN8U
A biography of Duncan Williamson along with many further sound recordings can be found here:
tobarandualchais.co.uk/person/4292?l=en
Linda Williamson's thesis on Scottish Traveller singing can be read here, it is well worth your time if you are interested in Duncan Williamson's song repertoire: era.ed.ac.uk/handle/1842/8223
Note by Kevin W.:
Duncan first knew Tam Lin in fragmentary form from the singing of his grandmother Bett MacColl in Tarbert, Loch Fyne, Kintyre, and later completed it by adding verses he heard from other family members later in his life. Travellers called the song "Lady Margaret".
Linda Williamson, who married and lived with Duncan for many years, noted in her thesis on Traveller singing:
In October 1982 Duncan invited his second cousin Robbie Townsley to stay with him for a few weeks, so the two of them could collaborate on some narrative fragments Duncan knew. The result was the completion of Duncan's "Lady Margaret". Until 1982 the song had never been more than a partially sung and spoken fairy story in Duncan's repertoire.
Duncan ends the song with a verse that properly belongs to "The Douglas Tragedy" (Child No. 7):
So Lady Margaret on the white milk steed
Lord William on his dappled grey
With a bugle and horn hanging down by the side
It's merrily they rode away, away
It's merrily they rode away
Duncan explained how he once had a disagreement with Hamish Henderson over which of the two ballads the verse properly belongs to. Duncan said in The Douglas Tragedy they both died, there is no one riding away at the end. So he kept the verse at the end of Tam Lin which has a happy ending.
A 1967 recording made by George McIntyre and Helen Fullarton of Duncan's Tam Lin fragment before he reconstructed it can be heard here:
youtube.com/watch?v=k13q3xA5Gkg
Hamish Henderson recorded Betsy Johnston, a Traveller in Glasgow, singing Tam Lin in 1956:
youtube.com/watch?v=4XqF0NQ5XkI
Song transcription:
Oh Lady Margaret she sat ond her high chamber
She was sewing her silks and seams
And she luikit east and she luikit west
And she saw those woods grow green.
So picking up her petticoats
Beneath her harlin gown
And when she came to the merry green woods
That was there that she let them down.
For she had not pulled one nut, one nut
One nut nor scarcely three,
When the highest lord ind aa the countryside
Come a-riding through the trees.
He said, "Why do you pull those nuts, those nuts?
Why do you bend those trees?
Why do you come to this merry green wood
Without the leave of me?"
She said, "Sir, onceten time those woods were mine
Without the leave of youse,
And I can pull those nuts, those nuts
And I can bend those trees."
So he tuik her gently by the hand
And he gently laid her down,
And when he had his will of her
He raised her up again.
She said, "Now you've had your will of me
Come tell to me your name,
And if a baby I do have
I will call him the same."
He said, "I'm an earl's son from Carlyle
And I own all those woods so green,
But I was taken when I was small
By an evil fairy queen.
"But tomorrow night is Halloween
And all those nobles there'll be free,
And if you can come to the Five Mile Gate
It is there you can set me free.
"Oh first they will come some dark, some dark
And then they will come some brown,
But when there comes a milk-white steed
You must pull its rider down.
"Oh first I'll turn to a wicked snake
And then to a lion so wild,
But hold me fast and fear me not
I may be the father of your child.
"And then I'll turn to a naked man,
Oh an angry man I'll be!
Just throw your mantle over me
And then you'll have me free."
So that night at the midnight hour
Lady Margaret she made her way,
And when she came to the Five Mile Gate
She waited patiently.
Oh first there came some dark, some dark
And then there came some brown,
But when there came a milk-white steed
She pulled its rider down.
Then he turned to a wicked snake
And then to a lion so wild,
She held him fast and feared him not
He'd be the father of her child.
Then he turned to a naked man,
Oh an angry man was he!
She threw her mantle over him
And then she had him free.
And then cried the voice of the fairy queen
Oh an angry queen was she!
Saying "If I had a-known yesterday
Oh what I know today,
I'd tuik out your very heart's blood
And put in a heart of clay, clay
And put in a heart of clay.
So Lady Margaret on her white milk steed
Lord William on his dapple grey,
With the bugle and the horn hanging down by their side
It's merrily they rode away, away
It's merrily they rode away.
