Thomas the Rhymer

Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner book cover

Bantam Paperback Reissue (2005). Cover art by Kinuko Y. Craft.

Thomas the Rhymer

Winner, 1991 World Fantasy Award. Winner, 1991 Mythopoeic Award. Tähtifantasia Award, 2009. New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age.

Award-winning author and radio personality Ellen Kushner’s inspired retelling of an ancient legend weaves myth and magic into a vivid contemporary novel about the mysteries of the human heart. Brimming with ballads, riddles, and magical transformations, here is the timeless tale of a charismatic bard whose talents earn him a two-edged otherworldly gift.

A minstrel lives by his words, his tunes, and sometimes by his lies. But when the bold and gifted young Thomas the Rhymer awakens the desire of the powerful Queen of Elfland, he finds that words are not enough to keep him from his fate. As the Queen sweeps him far from the people he has known and loved into her realm of magic, opulence—and captivity—he learns at last what it is to be truly human. When he returns to his home with the Queen’s parting gift, his great task will be to seek out the girl he loved and wronged, and offer her at last the tongue that cannot lie.

  • New York: William Morrow & Co., 1990. New York: Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club, 1990. London: Victor Gollancz, 1991; 1992. New York: Tor, 1991. New York: Bantam/Spectra, 2004.


    Translations:
    Tokyo: Hayakawa Publishing, Inc., 1992 (Japanese).
    Germany: Bastei Lübbe Taschenbuch, 1993 (Thomas der Barde, German). Riga: Hekate, 1997 (Tomass Varsmotajs, Latvian).
    Paris: Éditions Hoëbeke, 2000 (Thomas le rimeur, French); Éditions Gallimard, 2002 (Thomas le Rimeur, French).
    Moscow: Arabesque, 2007 (Tomas Ryfmach, Russian). First Russian edition. Abridged version of text.
    Finland: Vaskikirjat, 2008 (Thomas Riiminiekka, Finnish).
    St. Petersburg: Arcadia Publishing, 2021 (Tomas Bard, Russian).

Reviews

  • Finding a truly great one-off fantasy read can be difficult for many readers, but this could just be the book to get everyone reading fantasy. Originally published in 1990, Thomas the Rhymer has just been published under Gollancz’s Fantasy Masterworks. This will hopefully enable the title to gain more popularity with a new generation of readers. The title truly has the potential to get people reading fantasy, and this should be on every teenager’s reading list…. Thomas the Rhymer is simply one of the best standalone modern fantasies written. A moving tale of betrayal and forgiveness.

    Andrew Musk, Starburst

  • What might seem all quaint, all harps, houppelandes, elf mounds and aristocracy, takes on a very human immediacy in Kushner’s skilled treatment…Richly imagined scenes if Faerie, elegant and incongruous as the films of Cocteau. Kushner’s elves seek out humankind with a near-vampire hunger and a bittersweet desire. Bu the end of Thomas the Rhymer we understand the attraction mortals hold for them.

    Locus

  • Lovingly crafted, beautifully wrought—a jewel of a book. Ellen Kushner is one of the best of the new fantasy writers.

    Judith Tarr

  • Nobody is writing more elegant and gorgeous English these days than Ellen Kushner. Her books ought to be given to writing classes as texts on how the English language can be made so pure and cold and clear that you long to drink it down…Is there anything this writer can’t do well?

    Orson Scott Card in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

  • What a perfectly splendid story, splendidly told, with great style and orginality. A bow of deep appreciation to Ms. Kushner, and my gratitude!

    Anne McCaffrey

  • A book to introduce those who know nothing of the ballads to their rich and deep content…and intrigue those already familiar with them.

    Maddy Prior, lead singer for Steeleye Span

  • An elegant and beautiful book that manages both to create firmly real, breathing people and to evoke the magic of faerie. Tender, wise, tough and imaginative — it’s a magical tour de force shot through with strange melodies. I loved it.

    Neil Gaiman

  • Lyrically written and humanly moving. Ellen Kushner’s treatment of the True Thomas legend is worthy to rank with those of Kipling and Cabell.

    Poul Anderson

  • An earthy, witty, even mildly erotic book, as convincing in its depiction of faerie passion and prejudice as in its descriptions of the narrowly focused life of the Middle Ages.

    St. Louis Post-Dispatch

  • A happy blend of discreet scholarship and literary style…Kushner creates a lavish microcosm where riddles and runes and magical transformations govern.

    Publishers Weekly

  • Studded with adulterous noblemen, promiscuous courtiers and sensuous love scenes, the old fairy tale takes in a ribald contemporary feel under Kushner’s pen, which paradoxically is truer to the story’s original pre-Victorian bawdiness.

    The Boston Herald

  • Elegant and cozy. Witty and wise. Innocent and sensuous and, at times, downright sexy. Kushner’s Thomas the Rhymer does it all.

    Jane Yolen

  • Thomas the Rhymer is the real thing. It belongs on the same shelf with Lord Dunsany, James Branch Cabell, James Stephens, E.R. Eddison, Ursula K. Le Guin, and the rest.

    Aboriginal Science Fiction

  • If you were afraid that Kushner’s first novel, Swordspoint, was a flash in the pan, you can stop worrying. Thomas the Rhymer . . . stopped me in my tracks. Few books are this good! If you read fantasy at all, don’t miss this one; Kushner is setting up to be one of the most important fantasists alive!

    Locus

  • Her Thomas takes on the life which the old ballads so often deny him and . . . really touches the heart.

    Andre Norton

  • Evocative, stirring, filled with life and color . . . lets us live for a while in those magical countries we’ve never seen but that we always knew must exist somewhere.

    Lisa Goldstein

  • A charming book, full of wit, imagination, the spikey sweetness of young love and the polished grain of old . . . more please!

    Suzy McKee Charnas

  • Splendid . . . touching and tender . . . there is great technical skill in the way Kushner recreates the lyrical atmosphere of a folk tale…

    Interzone

  • Relaxed and flowing, poetry counterpointing wit . . . It has a phantasmagorical quality . . . the enchantment is underpinned with tension and urgency . . . a tour de force . . . will surely endear itself to any who love old ballads, whiffs of faerie, and fine fantasy.

    New York Review of Science Fiction

  • [This] inspired fantasy . . . rings true and deep as tales told for generations [and] reveals unexpected worlds and times, and the far reaches of the human heart. Ellen Kushner knows what it’s like to be a human in Elfland, and Elf-touched in Middle-Earth, and by the end of this novel, her readers do too.

    Susanna J. Sturgis, The Martha’s Vineyard Times

  • Ellen Kushner has discovered a new and poetic way to retell the old tale. The book reads with the story-telling power of the old ballad.

    The Times (London)

  • [T]his romantic fantasy is a happy blend of discreet scholarship and literary style. … Kushner creates a lavish microcosm where riddles and runes and magical transformations govern.

    Publisher’s Weekly

  • The author of Swordspoint brings the freshness of her storytelling talent to this ballad-inspired tale of a man’s brush with immortality and its inescapable legacy. This graceful medieval fantasy is highly recommended and may have appeal to nongenre readers.

    Library Journal

  • Thomas the Rhymer seeks to reclaim the transforming power of words and to teach modern readers to respect the magic of song and story-telling.

    Prof. Henry Jenkins, Dir. of Media Studies, MIT

  • At once traditional and bold…Richly imagined scenes of Faerie, elegant and incongruous as the films of Cocteau.

    Locus

International Covers

  • Thomas the Rhymer, William Morrow and Company (1990), art by Thomas Canty

    William Morrow and Company, first edition (1990), art by Thomas Canty

  • Thomas the Rhymer, TOR Books, paperback (1991) Art by Thomas Canty

    Tor Books, paperback (1991) Art by Thomas Canty

  • Thomas the Rhymer Bantam paperback reissue (2005)

    Bantam Paperback Reissue (2005). Cover art by Kinuko Y. Craft.

  • Thomas the Rhymer, first UK edition (1991)

    First UK edition (1991)

  • Thomas the Rhymer Fantasy Masterwork Edition (2015) by Delphine Lebourgeois

    Fantasy Masterwork Edition (2015) by Delphine Lebourgeois (www.delphinelebourgeois.com)

  • Thomas the Rhymer Finland cover (2008)

    Finland cover (2008)

  • Thomas the Rhymer French Éditions Hoëbeke (2002)

    French Éditions Hoëbeke (2000)

  • Thomas the Rhymer French Éditions Gallimard (2002)

    French Éditions Gallimard (2002)

  • Thomas der Barde, Germany, published by Bastei Lübbe Taschenbuch (1993)

    Germany, published by Bastei Lübbe Taschenbuch (1993)

  • Thomas the Rhymer, Hayakawa Publishing, Inc. Japanese cover (1992)

    Hayakawa Publishing, Inc. Japanese cover (1992)

  • Tomass Varsmotajs, Latvian cover, published by Hekate, (1997)

    Latvian cover, published by Hekate, (1997)

  • Thomas the Rhymer Russian Cover

    Russian Cover

  • Thomas the Rhymer Russian inside front cover, by Folda

    Russian inside front cover, by Folda

  • Thomas the Rhymer Russian back cover, by Folda

    Russian back cover, by Folda

  • Thomas the Rhymer cover by Folda (Russian, 2007)

    Cover by Folda (Russian, 2007)

  • Additional Thomas the Rhymer cover art by Folda

    Additional Russian cover art by Folda

  • Thomas, by Folda

    Thomas, by Folda

  • Thomas the Rhymer Russian inside front cover, by Folda

    Thomas the Rhymer Russian inside front cover, by Folda

  • Thomas and the Queen, by Folda

    Thomas and the Queen, by Folda

  • Gavin and Elsbeth, by Folda

    Gavin and Elsbeth, by Folda

  • Thomas and Meg, by Folda

    Thomas and Meg, by Folda

  • Thomas the Rhymer, William Morrow and Company (1990), art by Thomas Canty (front/back spread)

    William Morrow and Company (1990), art by Thomas Canty (front/back spread)

  • Thomas the Rhymer, Uncorrected galley proof cover

    Uncorrected galley proof cover

  • Oil over Watercolor on Strathmore board. Created as a painting for the paperback cover of Thomas the Rhymer, for Bantam/Random House, NY; art by Kinuko Y. Craft

    Oil over Watercolor on Strathmore board. Created as a painting for the paperback cover of Thomas the Rhymer, for Bantam/Random House, NY; art by Kinuko Y. Craft (www.kycraft.com)

  • Oil over Watercolor; revised from original painting, which was used for the paperback cover of “Thomas the Rhymer,” for Bantam/Random House, NY; art by Kinuko Y. Craft

    Oil over Watercolor; revised from original painting, which was used for the paperback cover of “Thomas the Rhymer,” for Bantam/Random House, NY; art by Kinuko Y. Craft (www.kycraft.com)

  • Book cover featuring a harp with vines and ivy growing around it, text overlay with authors' names, Ellen Kushner and Thomas Le Rimeur, and a gold banner reading 'Héros Concentre D'Imaginaire'.

    Collection Hélios 2022

  • Book cover featuring a white tree with sprawling branches and roots, set against a green textured background, titled 'Thomas Le Rimeur' by Ellen Kushner.

    Collection Perles d'Épice 2000

“Elegant and cozy. Witty and wise. Innocent and sensuous and, at times, downright sexy. Kushner’s Thomas the Rhymer does it all.”

Jane Yolen

The Ballad: Origins

Wikipedia’s Thomas the Rhymer page gives a good account of the legend, the historical Thomas, the ballad and all its sources.  I was aware of many of these when I wrote the novel.

Terri Windling’s typically brilliant posted essay, “The Child Ballads (Part II)” from her “Into the Woods” series goes into more detail about the source ballads, and contains a quote from me about writing the novel.

Here’s an overview, from Mysterious Britain, and the ballad itself.

In James Francis Child’s monumental 19th century collection of ballad texts, The English And Scottish Popular Ballads (1882-1898) — commonly known as the Child Ballads — “Thomas Rymer” is “Child Ballad Number 37,” with three variants printed.  This version is 37C, from Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, II, ed. 1802 of Sir Walter Scott, an avid ballad collector in his native Scots Lowlands.  The fact that Scott was also a major poet and novelist surely could not have induced him to tidy it up and add any extra verses, oh dear, no.

Here are Professor Child’s original scholarly notes on the “Thomas Rymer” ballad and all its variants.

And here are the shorter (and more easily digested) notes written by Child’s student, Professor George Lyman Kitteridge (1860-1941).

The Ballad: Music

Thomas the Rhymer is based on an old Anglo-Scots Border ballad, listed in J. F. Child’s famous collection as “Thomas Rhymer,” Child #37.

Many people know the song from the 70’s British folk-rock group Steeleye Span recording. Here is a version the group recorded in 2002 on Present – The Very Best of Steeleye Span featuring art from the cover painting by Thomas Canty for the original U.S. publication of Thomas the Rhymer.

For Steeleye fans: Digging around on Wiki, I discovered this interesting fact for U.S. listeners:

Me, I still prefer a more traditional sound.  Here is the great folklorist and performer Ewan MacColl, singing a version with the oldest known tune for the ballad:

The original version of “Thomas the Rhymer” was a 6-minute song that alternated rock and acoustic elements. However, when Now We Are Six was released in America, the band substituted a 3-minute version of the song that was more thoroughly rock-style and which was judged to be more radio friendly. Almost all the subsequent re-releases of Now We Are Six contained the 3-minute version of the song. On this album, however, the band chose to go back to the 6-minute version, which is how they had normally played the song in concert; they offered a variation on the song’s acoustic moments, while keeping the rock moments relatively intact.

Here is a version by the French quartet Boann, incorporating a glorious array of art representing Thomas and the Elf Queen through the ages – including nearly all of the international cover art for the novel!