1991: Thomas The Rhymer

Thomas is a young and flashy balladeer who follows the various courts of the mighty while preserving a friendship with a farming couple and flirting with their pretty neighbor. Thomas mysteriously disappears, because the Queen of Elfland enticed him to entertain her in her bed…. And also sing for her court. After a boisterous seven-year term by her throne, Thomas returns to the human world, unaged and unable to speak anything except the truth. Now his adventure begins since he has to figure out how to reconnect with those he left behind.Why it's on the listEllen Kushner reworked the classic ballad "Thomas the Rhymer" and a few other traditional poems. Kushner weaves these stories into a sensual tale about love, truth, illusion, and the nature of inspiration. Like any good folk tale, Kushner's prose is exquisitely lyrical, and her plot deceptively simple -- for underneath the classic fairy story of a musician's abduction into the Otherworld is a marvelously engaging story about the various temptations and dangers that all innovative people face in the quest of their Muse.Thomas the Rhymer is conceivably the best description of the Faerie realm ever written. It is fantastical and imaginative and wonderful. The story is what it is. A legend taken from an old poem; and yes it may be anticlimactic. But if you read it, read it for the creative imagination that went into it. Read it for a true glimpse of the Faerie world.Read if you likeScottish and British mythology, Fairy Tales