Tam Quotes

“Finally Mary understood everything. For the music, as it wound its way through that quiet countryside, scampering and chuckling gleefully along the pebbled shores of the River Doon, sweeping up hill and over moor, dancing in the wind over the purple-fringed sea-shore, told the story of Scotland. It told of the first great magic that had taken root so many millennia ago, and of the younger powers that had come along afterwards to vie with it. It told the deep secrets that Rannoch had spent so many lifetimes searching for, and would never guess at now, as though they were the passing gossip of a market-day. It told tales of great wrongs, of unbearable suffering- and of endless forgiveness and rebirth.”
― Guy Winter, Tam: The Three Changelings

“Scotland forever, ya bass!” said Tam, rocking back and landing the perfect head-butt on Rannoch’s nose.”
― Guy Winter, Tam: The Three Changelings

“The pipe-music filled the room with sound, until it seemed that the throbbing walls must burst asunder- or the very roof of the inn fly off, to release the pressure. The candle-light pranced around the room in a crazy reel of will-o’-the-wisps, distorted by the clouds of dust melting down from the ceiling like Hebridean mist. The Highlanders looked at each other in wild surmise, then started smashing tankards against the walls in time with the swirling strains of music, sending ale cascading up into the air, spattering the ceiling and soaking the revellers’ hair and plaids.”
― Guy Winter, Tam: The Three Changelings

“And what is it that you believe in, Tam?” said the Cutty Sark, smiling. “In life? In love? In happiness? You don’t even know what they really are, none of you do! You’ve been deceived, by the greatest trick of them all! Here you live, like fabricated ships in a bottle. You can see the elements around you, but you can’t feel them- can’t even touch them…” She put her hand on his cheek again, and this time he didn’t move it away. “There’s a king, and a law, and a church, and they tell you exactly who you are, what you want- what you can have, and what you can dream of! But they’re just part of the deception, can’t you see? They’re just an illusion, a child’s play-thing, ready to be washed away like sand-castles on the beach when the tide comes in. Man-made institutions can never hold out against the real world forever. Against our world. Love it, hate it, desire it, fear it- but you can’t escape it!”
― Guy Winter, Tam: The Three Changelings

“Old Ayr was seething with bargains, brawls, shaggy livestock, shaggier farmers and casual thieving. A typical market day, in other words.”
― Guy Winter, Tam: The Three Changelings

“They say we Highlanders take in dancin' wi’ our mother’s milk!” said Tam.
“You must have skipped your breakfast that day then!” said Souter Johnnie.”
― Guy Winter, Tam: The Three Changelings