Queen of Elphame

Queen of Elphame

The "Queen of Elphame" designation was only used in isolated instances in the 19th century.[8] Serious scholarship on Thomas the Rhymer, for instance, generally do not employ this spelling. But it was embraced by Robert Graves who used "Queen of Elphame" in his works. Usage has since spread in various popular publications.

The theory that the queen whom Thomas Rhymer met at

The form "Queen of Elphen" occurs in the 1598 witchcraft trial indictment (ditty) and confession of Andro Man (Andrew Man) of Aberdeen.^[6] Andro Man confessed that as a boy he saw "the Devil" his master "in the likeness and shape of a woman, whom [he] callest the Queen of Elphen," and as an adult, during the span of some thirty-two years he had carnal relations with the "Quene of Elphen" on whom he begat many bairns.^[14] Further down however, the Devil whom he calls "Christsonday" is the goodman (husband), though "the Quene has grip of all the craft".^[15]

Andro Man further confessed that on the

Bessie Dunlop in 1576 confessed that the dead man's spirit she had congress with (Thom Reid) was one of "the good neighbours or brownies, who dwelt at the Court of Faery (Elf-hame)" ("gude wychtis that wynnitin the Court of Elfame.."), and they had come to take her away, but she refused to comply thereby angering Thom. When interrogated, Bessie denied having carnal relations with Thom, though he once took her by the apron and "wald haif had hir gangand with him to Elfame." Bessie was informed that the queen had secretly visited her before, and according to Thom, when Bessie lay in bed in child-birth, it was the "Quene of Elfame" who in the guise of a stout woman had offered her a drink and prophesied her child's death and her husband's cure. And indeed, it was at the behest of this Queen who was his master that Thom had come to Bessie at all.[17]^[18]

The Queen's shape-shifting magic extends to her own person. Andro Man's confession also noted that "she can be old or young as she pleases".^{[19][verification needed]}

Marion Grant, of the same coven as Andro Man, witnessed the queen as a "fine woman, clad in a white walicot."^[20][c] Similarly, Isobel Gowdie's confession described the "Qwein of Fearrie" as handsomely ("brawlie") clothed in white linen and in white and brown clothes, and that providing more food than Isobel could eat.^[22][23]

Robert Sempill in a ballad (1583) on the bishop Patrick Adamson refers to Alison Pearson participating in the fairy ride.^[24][25] The Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue also, in giving the entry Elphyne "Fairy-land," and gives Sempill's ballad as an example in usage.^[26][27]

For oght the kirk culd him fobid, He sped him sone, and gat the thrid; Ane carling of the Quene of Phareis, That ewill win geir to elphyne careis; Through all Braid Abane scho hes bene, On horsbak on Hallow ewin; And ay in seiking cetayne nyghtis, As scho sayis with sur [our] sillie wychtis. — R.S., 'Legend of the Bischop of St. Androis Lyfe, callit Mr Patrick Adamsone alias Cousteane", Poems 16th Cent. in: Scottish Poems of the XVIth Century, p. 320-321^[28][d]

Robert Jamieson also noted the ballad under the etymological explanation of seelie meaning "happy."^[29] The ballad thus mention the Queen of Fairies, elphyne meaning Elfland (Fairyland), and seelie witches in a single passage.

In 1801, John Leyden identified the Scottish queen of the fairies with Nicneven, the "gyre-carlin," or Hecate.^[30] This was accepted by authors such as Sir Walter Scott,^[31] but has baffled later scholars; Nicneven is, properly, a witch in the 16th-century poetry of Alexander Montgomerie. She is a worshipper of Hecate and a separate person from the "Elfe Queene," who also appears in the poem.^[32][33]

Ballads

A similar queen appears in the legend of