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The Rhymer - Thomas Learmont of Erceldoune* Photos and text by Leslie Kirc Illustrations unknown |
Stone Age Myth in the Landscape of the Eildon Hills By Leslie Kirc Photos Leslie Kirc, Ric Kemp, Michael Fox |
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Everyone seems to agree that Thomas lived in Erceldoune and the remains of his tower is on the main road past Earlston just before you cross the River Leader. This is a commercial section of the road and the tower is behind a cafe and gas station. The view of the River Leader from the tower is blocked by commercial use.
I took this picture of the Tower remains from the gas station. It is in the cafe garden. Thomas was probably born in the area and died there. In the graveyard of the 1892 Parish Church at the east end of the village is recorded that "Auld Rhymer's Race Lies in this Place". There is little doubt that he was a poet and prophet like Nostradamus.
The most popular version of the myth of Thomas the Rhymer is he kissed the Fairy Queen near the Eildons. While he was resting under a tree, he heard a horse coming. He kissed the Lady who was on the horse. She was the fairy queen and took him to fairyland for seven years. He come back for seven years, wrote poetry, prophesied and then went back to fairyland.
In the pictures above is the official marker at the left, when you turn around the hill to the right is what you see. It is one of the Eildon Hills. Below is the shadow of the western Eildon Hill. Probably shading the spot were the marker stone is. I took this picture from the top of the hill pictured above.
I was taken aback when a local man said that Thomas kissed the Queen under Black Hill. Did Thomas enter at one place and then 7 years later enter at the other? Black Hill does not cast a shadow on Thomas’ Tower or the River Leader at mid winter. It may at Mid Summer and the reverse be said of the Eildon Hill above. You also can’t at any time see the Eildons from Thomas’ tower or along the river near it but you can see Black and White Hill. I found that the pictures I took along the River Leader fit nicely to illustrate these lines from the poem about Thomas by Sir Walter Scott. http://www.cyberscotia.com/ogmios/texts/thomas/thomas-ballad-scott.html The pictures of the shadow of the western Eildon and the River Leader photos were taken just days from the Winter Solstice around mid day.
“And Leader's waves, like silver sheen, Danced shimmering in the ray:”
”In deepening mass, at distance seen, Broad Soltra's mountains lay.”
“Adieu! adieu!' again he cried, All as he turned him roun' I love these lines of how he played his Fairy Harp and sang about Arthur and his round table. “There paused the harp its lingering sound
“This story relates to a legend common throughout Britain, namely that of a secret cavern containing sleeping warriors. Often a test is conferred to the person who is shown into the cavern. Usually the tests are failed.” http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/folklore/canobie.html
Looking down into the fabled valley where Canobie Dick entered the cave. Photo taken looking down from the middle Eildon Hill. Man is the Patriarch of a branch of the Wilson family of the Borders of Scotland.
"Janet defiantly travels to Carterhaugh after being warned of the dangers there. She encounters Tam Lin, and they interact among the green leaves. When she returns home she seems ill, and takes little care over her appearance, until one of the knights jokes that she must be pregnant. She proclaims the wonders of the father of the child, and returns to the woods to seek Tam Lin. She asks of his lineage, and he reveals that he knew her when he was a young child, before he was stolen away by the fairies. Fearing sacrifice to hell he informs her with some urgency of how he may be rescued, including dipping in stands of milk and of water. She does so, and the Queen of Fairies reflects on the things she would have done to prevent his escape." Read Sir Walter Scotts poem the Tam Lin Ballad |
The hills called the “Eildons” can be seen from all over the area they are in. They are old extinct volcanic cores. On the map they form a crescent shape as the hills line up one next to the other. This crescent shape gives unusual views from different places but they still keep their distinctive look. I feel their predominance and distinctive profile inspired early people (early Neolithic) to make them the center of a mythic culture or landscape. These myths persisted into the Late Neolithic culture the earliest culture to cultivate crops and raise animals. At the beginning of this time stones were moved to mark ritual spots and ritual times of the year. I think we can still access the myths through the folk tales of Thomas the Rhymer, Canobie Dick and even the Arthurian tales. These tales are all connected to the Eildon Hills. What we have to remember about early people is they lived there lives outside with just enough shelter from the elements to make life possible and mostly enjoyable as well as a little stressful. Yet, these people viewed there life as normal and they were as smart and creative as ourselves. They were just smart in a different way. They knew the way of the weather, plants and animals and the paths of the sun, moon and stars across the skies. If I were to say, “In the picture above the view reminds me of a woman lying down on her back with her hair spread out on a pillow and her knees bent.” It doesn't mean they saw the same thing. The flora would have been very different giving the landscape a different look. There would have been no plowed fields and grazing sheep. The trees and grasslands would have been very different. They probably didn't have pillows. Yet they may have rested there head on something. If we were to look far into the future, when Christianity is lost, and look at a cross with the crucified Christ we would wonder what it meant. Not that he died on the cross and rose from the dead so we could be saved from our sins. I think the people of the future might think we worshiped torturing people, not that we found it offensive. If the people of the future look at the old myth of the parables of Christ they would get a different sense of what Christianity is about. With this in mind we have to take what we say with a grain of salt but we also can see similarities and repetitions. Yet to say these people where free with sex or pious is hard to say. In the pictures below note how the two hills look like breasts or paps (bottom picture)of a woman lying on her back. Yet, from the other side of the hill the paps look like the silhouette of a woman's head and bust laying on her back. Also note that the cave Canobie Dick enters is located in the valley between the two left hand hills. This is close to where a woman’s vulva would be if the Hills were a lady laying down. The mid winter sun may set on this area.
Taken from Scott’s View
Taken from the southern side of the Hills This brings us to the story of Canobie Dick and his entering into the cave of Thomas the Rhymer. Although there is no cave in or near the Eildons there are very early passage tombs and long borrows built in and around England and Ireland that seem to give credence to the story of Canobie Dick.
New Grange by Fox-- West Kennet Long Borrow, Avebury by Kemp New Grange in Ireland comes to mind. When I first entered the tomb in 1988 the stones lining the passage reminded me of something watching. It was an eerie feeling like when I read about Canobie Dick seeing the black Knights along the passage way of the cave. I suspect that the story and the passage tombs and the view from Scott’s View all are connected to a man's psychic journey into his soul and purpose in life as well as his masculinity and his connection to his wife or woman. In the bottom right picture group below see how phallic the stone looks. This stone stands just above Scott’s View. It is as if the stone says, yes, a man needs to view the Eildon Hills from here. The clouds made it impossible to tell where the mid-winter sun sets in Oct. much lease Mid Winter (see picture above). I will go back and take more pictures. So this article will be updated every few years or so.
The picture above was taken just below the standing stone just east of Earlston. I was amazed at how similar the view was to that of Scot's View.
The two stones are of very different shapes. I am 5 feet 6 inches tall and I can see over the standing stone outside Earlston easily(on the right). Note how tall the standing stone above Scott’s View is compared to the sheep and they are in the front of the stone and enclosure. It seems like it is much taller then a man. The stones at Avebury are thought by some to be male and female. The male stones are tall and phallic and the female stones are square and placed to make them appear diamond shape. With this in mind I would say the stone at Scott’s View is male and the Stone just east of Earlston is female. The tales of Thomas Rhymer and Tam Lin are similar but not the same. The mortal Thomas goes to Fairy land willingly. The mortal Tam Lin is rescued from Fairyland by a mortal woman. Do the two stones and the two tales have the same meaning? Yes, the Mid Winter Sun does set on the Eildons from the female stone east of Earlston. It comes down right where the Legendary cave of Canobie Dick is supposed to be. In the picture below the Brother Stones are the two specks on the hill above the date. The enclosure is I think around the left hand most hill. The enclosure was very obvious from the road but not in this picture. The light was failing so I didn't get a good picture. It would be interesting to see if the sun sets on the Eildons from the Brother Stones and what time of year. The Brother Stones are Between Scott's View and the East Earlston Standing Stone.
Are the sites at and around the Eildons and earlier version of Avebury Complex, New Grange and the Boyne Valley or even Stonehendge and its complex? Are all the sites telling a similar myth in different parts of the British Isles. Has the life of a real person from long ago come together in a myth from our even more distant past or is all of this just coincidence? Does Thomas kiss and disappear into the Eildons and then come back again to disappear into the Black Hill in the summer seven years later? Are the fairies of now the gods and goddesses of the past? Are each of the the hundreds of stone circles in the British Isles churches of a lost religion and what is left of a complex and mighty civilization so different from our own that we dismiss it as unimportant? I would like to hear from you and share your ideas and experiences. |
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