Publisher: Tor Fantasy Copyright: 1990 Publication date: Nov 1991 Currently out of print

Abducted by the Queen of Elfland, True Thomas, the brilliant Rhymer, lives unaging with her in Faerie's inhuman splendor for years beyond count. Finally, dazed with enchantment, Thomas is returned to the world of dirt and work and passing time. Tormented by his memories and desiring nothing but mortal life, he has only his harp and the Queen's parting gift: the inability to speak anything but the truth.

--Description on back of book

Cover Blurbs:

"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

"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-Dipsatch

"Elegant and cozy. Witty and wise. Innocent and sensuous and, at times, downright sexy. Kushner's Thomas the Rhymer does it all." -- Jane Yolen

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

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