+The Text.+--The best-known text of this famous ballad is that given by
Scott in the _Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_, derived 'from a copy
obtained from a lady residing not far from Erceldoune, corrected and
enlarged by one in Mrs. Brown's MS.' Scott's ballad is compounded,
therefore, of a traditional version, and the one here given, from the
Tytler-Brown MS., which was printed by Jamieson with a few changes. It
does not mention Huntlie bank or the Eildon tree. Scott's text may be
seen printed parallel with Jamieson's in Professor J. A. H. Murray's
book referred to below.
+The Story.+--As early as the fourteenth century there lived a Thomas
of Erceldoune, or Thomas the Rhymer, who had a reputation as a seer
and prophet. His fame was not extinct in the nineteenth century, and
a collection of prophecies by him and Merlin and others, first issued
in 1603, could be found at the beginning of that century 'in most
farmhouses in Scotland' (Murray, _The Romance and Prophecies of Thomas
of Erceldoune_, E.E.T.S., 1875). The existence of a Thomas de Ercildoun,
son and heir of Thomas Rymour de Ercildoun, both living during the
thirteenth century, is recorded in contemporary documents.
A poem, extant in five manuscripts (all printed by Murray as above),
of which the earliest was written about the middle of the fifteenth
century, relates that Thomas of Erceldoune his prophetic powers were
given him by the Queen of Elfland, who bore him away to her country for
some years, and then restored him to this world lest he should be chosen
for the tribute paid to hell. So much is told in the first fytte, which
corresponds roughly to our ballad. The rest of the poem consists of
prophecies taught to him by the Queen.
The poem contains references to a still earlier story, which probably
narrated only the episode of Thomas's adventure in Elfland, and to which
the prophecies of Thomas Rymour of Ercildoun were added at a later date.
The story of Thomas and the Queen of Elfland is only another version of
a legend of Ogier le Danois and Morgan the Fay.
Our ballad is almost certainly derived directly from the poem, and the
version here given is not marred by the repugnant ending of Scott's
ballad, where Thomas objects to the gift of a tongue that can never lie.
But Scott's version retains Huntlie bank and the Eildon tree, both
mentioned in the old poem, and both exactly located during last century
at the foot of the Eildon Hills, above Melrose (see an interesting
account in Murray, _op. cit._, Introduction, pp. l-lii and footnotes).