The Queen of Elfland

by Kray Van Kirk

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NOTES: A few years ago I was browsing a bookstore, and came across this line in the introduction to a now forgotten anthology of ghost stories “The modern ghost story appears to be as much about longing as it is about dread”. It is this longing, years with us and changing with the times, that is responsible for the current success of Harry Potter and the myriad fantasy and science fiction books that did not exist when I was growing up; we love the idea of a rift between the worlds.

Ellen Kushner wrote a fantastic version of Thomas the Rhymer- a truly wonderful book. I wondered: if Thomas the Rhymer went under the hill and found Elfland, what might we see on the subway if we looked in just the right direction, at just the right time?

This song remains one of my favorites.

DADGAD tuning, 12-string

I am the Queen of Elfland, Thomas
said the writing on the wall
Look for me on the 'A' train headed south
When you thought you wouldn't find me at all

I've been watching you all your life
Waiting for the day
I would take you down under the hill
Seven years, seven months, seven days

So ride with me o'er the fernie brae
Through the rivers of blood that run
On the road from the Eildon Hills

Sing for me at my bed and board
Sing for me in the dawn
Sing for me as the crowd rushes in
and the loudspeaker says to get one

Sing for me by the sun and the moon
thought neither one hangs in the sky
Electric blue is the light underground
As the time passes seamlessly by

Trade your songs for the silence now
To the truth has your tongue been trained
'Till the winds and the seasons change

I am the Queen of Elfland Thomas
You are mine, you are mine, you are mine
For though you walk on the earth once again
It will be for a very short time

For when the sun finally sets in the west
And you give your last breath to the sky
Into the sunlight, under the hill
Summer king, summer king summer king
We will fly.