Queen of Elphame
The supposition of a -hame stem, leading to the etymological meaning "Elf-home" in the Scots language, is speculative on the part of Robert Pitcairn, the modern editor.
St. Ursula) according to a German origin explanation noted in passing by Fiske[9][b] though it has received scarce notice aside from Barbara G. Walker, who cites Graves's The White Goddess for this insight.
("Elphane", also "Court of Elfane") occur in documents from the trial of Alison Pearson (Alesoun Peirsoun) in 1588,[12][13] and emendation to "elf-hame" was suggested by the editor, Robert Pitcairn.
But rather than the Queen herself, it was mostly with her elfin minions that Alice engaged in specific interactions, with William Simpson, Alison's cousin or uncle being a particularly close-knitted mentor, teaching her medicinal herbs and the art of healing, which she then profited from by peddling her remedies to her patients, which included the Bishop of St. Andrews.
But they were often abusive, striking her in a manner that left her bereft of all her powers ("poistee" or "poustie") on her sides, rendering her bedridden for twenty weeks at a time.
[15] Andro Man further confessed that on the Holy Rood Day (Ruidday in harvest) the Queen of Elphen and her company rode white horses (quhyt haiknayes) alongside the Devil (Christsondy) who appeared out of snow in the form of a stag.
[19][verification needed] Marion Grant, of the same coven as Andro Man, witnessed the queen as a "fine woman, clad in a white walicot.
[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.
[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.
Man's accusers charged that he had learned the art of healing from the "Quene of Elphen" and worked in exchange for "meit or deit", just like Thomas the Rhymer.
[15] Furthermore, the "fee" or "teind" to hell in the romance version of the Legend of Thomas the Rhymer is also mentioned in the ballad of Tam Lin and in the historical witchcraft trial of Alison Pearson in 1586.
—Robert Graves's version, "Thomas the Rymer"[35] The "Queen o' Fairies" appears in Tam Lin as a more sinister figure who captures mortal men and entertains them in her subterranean home, but then uses them to pay a "teind to Hell": 'And ance it fell upon a day, A cauld day and a snell, When we were frae the hunting come, That frae my horse I fell, The Queen o' Fairies she caught me, In yon green hill do dwell.
"And pleasant is the fairy land, But, an eerie tale to tell, Ay at the end of seven years, We pay a tiend to hell, I am sae fair and fu o flesh, I'm feard it be myself.
