Tam Lin was the 39th ballad in Child Ballads, a collection of ballads by Francis James Child.
It told a story how a young woman named Janet saved a man named Tam Lin from the Fairy Queen. It contained a warning for fair maidens not to go to Carterhaugh and described the final fight over Tam Lin between Janet and the Fairy Queen, whereby Janet kept holding Tam Lin's hand despite the Fairy Queen turning him into various animals.
Thomas Laneford believed that this ballad had been based on real events and that he was another victim of the same Fairy Queen, who introduced herself as Mab to him.
The ballad helped April MacLean figure out how to release someone from Mab's control. (AUDIO: Gifted)