Thomas of Erceldoune, Launfal, and Meroudys, are
sleeping or lying beneath a tree when they see their various visitors. Tam
Lin in the ballad was taken by the fairies while sleeping under an apple
tree. Malory[69] tells us that Lancelot went to sleep about noon
(traditionally the dangerous hour) beneath an apple tree, and was bewitched
by Morgan le Fay. In modern Greek folk-lore, certain trees are said to be
dangerous to lie under at noon, as the sleeper may be taken by the nereids,
who correspond to our fairies.
At certain intervals--every seven years, the ballads say--the fiend of hell
takes a tithe from the fairies, usually preferring one who is fair and of
good flesh and blood. Hence in _Thomas of Erceldoune_,[70] the elf queen is
anxious that he should leave her realm, because she thinks the foul fiend
would choose him (ll. 219-224).
The notion of the fairies' demand of a tithe of produce, agricultural or
domestic, is parallel to this sacrifice.[71]
A third point on which fairy-lore usually insists is that the steeds of the
fairies shall be white; here _Thomas of Erceldoune_ is at variance with the
other poems, the elf-queen's palfrey being a dapple-grey. It is curious to
learn that this superstition still survives. "At that time there was a
gentleman who had been taken by the fairies, and made an officer among
them, and it was often people would see him and her riding on a white horse
at dawn and in the evening.
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