13th-century Scottish laird and reputed prophet from Earlston
Not to be confused with Thomas Rymer.
Thomas the Rhymer
From Thomas the Rhymer (retold by Mary MacGregor, 1908) "Under the Eildon tree Thomas met the lady," illustration by Katherine Cameron
Born
Thomas de Ercildoun
c. 1220
Erceldoune (Earlston), Berwickshire, Scotland
Died
c. 1298 (age about 78)
Nationality
Scottish
Other names
True Thomas, Thomas Learmouth/Learmonth/Learmount/Learmont/Learmounth, Thomas Rhymer/Rymour/Rymer, Thomas de Erceldoune/Ercildoun, Thomas Rymour de Erceldoune
Occupation
Laird
Known for
Prophecy
Children
Thomas de Ercildounson
Sir Thomas de Ercildoun, better remembered as Thomas the Rhymer (fl. c. 1220 – 1298[1]), also known as Thomas Learmont or True Thomas, was a Scottish laird and reputed prophet from Earlston (then called "Erceldoune") in the Borders.[2] Thomas' gift of prophecy is linked to his poetic ability.
He is often cited as the author of the English Sir Tristrem, a version of the Tristram legend, and some lines in Robert Mannyng's Chronicle may be the source of this association. It is not clear if the name Rhymer was his actual surname or merely a sobriquet.[3]
In literature, he appears as the protagonist in the tale about Thomas the Rhymer carried off by the "Queen of Elfland" and returned having gained the gift of prophecy, as well as the inability to tell a lie. The tale survives in a medieval verse romance in five manuscripts, as well as in the popular ballad "Thomas Rhymer" (Child Ballad number 37).[4][5] The romance occurs as "Thomas off Ersseldoune" in the Lincoln Thornton Manuscript.[6]
The original romance (from c. 1400) was probably condensed into ballad form (c. 1700), though there are dissenting views on this. Walter Scott expanded the ballad into three parts, adding a sequel which incorporated the prophecies ascribed to Thomas, and an epilogue where Thomas is summoned back to Elfland after the appearance of a sign, in the form of the milk-white hart and hind. Numerous prose retellings of the tale of Thomas the Rhymer have been undertaken, and included in fairy tale or folk-tale anthologies; these often incorporate the return to Fairyland episode that Scott reported to have learned from local legend.
^Tedder, Henry Richard (1889). "Erceldoune, Thomas of" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 17. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
^Chambers 1826, p. 73; Chambers 1842, p. 6
^Scott 1803, Minstrelsy, II, p.309. "Robert de Brunne" here is another name for Robert Mannyng. Scott goes on to quote another source from a manuscript in French, but Thomas of "Engleterre" is likely Thomas of Britain.
^Child Ballad #37. "Thomas the Rymer", Child 1884, Pop. Ball.I, pp. 317–329
Sir Thomas de Ercildoun, better remembered as ThomastheRhymer (fl. c. 1220 – 1298), also known as Thomas Learmont or True Thomas, was a Scottish laird...
with the legends of ThomastheRhymer and Tam Lin. The actual text spelling is "Quene of Elfame" and other variants in the witch trial transcripts. The supposition...
up rhymer in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Rhymer may refer to: Rhymer (actor), an actor in a seasonal folk play Rhymer (poet), a bad poet Rhymer (rapper)...
takes the titular character as her lover and leaves him with prophetic abilities. Although the romances and ballads associated with ThomastheRhymer have...
mentioned in the legend of ThomastheRhymer. Some believe Thomas went under the hill itself, and certainly part of the ballad occurs in the vicinity. Sir...
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more...
such as Cibola, that the Spanish thought existed in South America Seven years spent by ThomastheRhymer in the faerie kingdom in the eponymous British folk...
Thomas Learmonth may refer to: ThomastheRhymer (c.1220–c. 1298), 13th-century Scottish laird Thomas Livingstone Learmonth (1818–1903), Victorian colonist...
ISBN 978-0553381849 The Privilege of the Sword (2006) – ISBN 978-1931520201 ThomastheRhymer (1990) – ISBN 978-1557100467 St. Nicholas and the Valley Beyond:...
"Get Up and Bar the Door"; and those with supernatural themes including "ThomastheRhymer" (also known as "True Thomas" or "Thomas of Erceldoune") and...
by ThomastheRhymer which predicted that there would always be a Haig in Bemersyde: 'Tyde what may betyde Haig shall be Haig of Bemersyde'. The dates...
Best Books of 2005" from The New York Times and received the World Fantasy Award for 2006. The book tells the stories of the young Kafka Tamura, a bookish...
cursed by Scottish prophet ThomastheRhymer who proclaimed “At Gight three men by sudden death shall dee, And after that the land shall lie in lea”. Almost...
or the Northern British ThomastheRhymer. Sometimes the everyday person is a woman, and the elf is a man, as in the northern British Tam Lin, The Elfin...
Jones, based largely on the Anglo-Scottish Border ballads "Tam Lin" and "ThomastheRhymer". It was first published in 1984 in the United States by Greenwillow...
Newbery's stepson, Thomas Carnan, was the first to use the term Mother Goose for nursery rhymes when he published a compilation of English rhymes, Mother Goose's...
that George Learmonth descended from the famed 13th-century Scottish poet ThomastheRhymer (also known as Thomas Learmonth). Lermontov's father, Yuri...
narrates the tale of a woman overcome by her fairy lover, who in later versions of the story is unmasked as a mortal. "ThomastheRhymer" shows Thomas escaping...
glossed as "Elfland" or "Fairyland". In the medieval verse romance and the Scottish ballad of ThomastheRhymer, the title character is spirited away by a...
Morrow, setting the stage for his later Godhead Trilogy. The book shared the 1991 World Fantasy Award with Ellen Kushner's ThomastheRhymer. It was also...
by the protagonists and later collated. The title derives from the novel's fictional practice of stage illusions having three parts: the setup, the performance...
adapts the ballad to explore the implications of multiverse theory. List of the Child Ballads Gil Brenton The Sprig of Rosemary ThomastheRhymer Jacobs...
an echo of substance in the allegations is derived from the above quoted rhyme. William Wallace's biographer, ThomastheRhymer, is said to have been at...
including the Gunzo Prize for New Writers, the World Fantasy Award, the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award, the Franz Kafka Prize, the Jerusalem...
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