Thomas the Rhymer, a name given to the earliest poet of Scotland. The history of his life and writings is involved in much obscurity; but it is generally believed that Thomas Rymour of Erçildoune was the person whose poems and prophecies were extensively known among the people of Scotland at an early period. The Rhymer derived his territorial appellation from the village of Erçildoune (now Earlston), in the county of Berwick. The time of his birth is unknown; but he appears to have reached the height of his reputation in 1286, when he is said to have predicted the death of Alexander III. (q.v.), as recorded in Bower's continuation of the Scotichronicon. The Earl of Dunbar, having questioned the Rhymer as to what kind of weather was to be on the morrow, was answered that on that day before noon should be the greatest storm of wind that ever was heard in Scotland. Next day towards noon, the weather being calm, Dunbar expressed a doubt as to the truth of the prediction, when the Rhymer said: 'It is not noon yet;' and immediately thereafter a messenger arrived with the tidings of the king's accidental death at Kinghorn on the previous evening. From this and other prophecies the Rhymer became popularly known as 'True Thomas,' and was believed to have derived his skill from his intercourse with the Queen of Fairyland. The legend bears that he was carried off to Fairyland, and after three years' residence there was permitted to revisit the earth, but still remaining bound to return to his royal mistress when she should intimate her pleasure. Accordingly, one day, when a hart and hind were seen pacing the street of the village, the Rhymer instantly rose and followed them to the forest, never to return. (Compare the myth of TANNHÄUSER.)
The earliest historical document referring to Thomas Rymour of Ercildoune is a charter of Petrus de Haga of Bemersyde, to which the Rhymer's name is appended as a witness; its date is about 1260-70. Again, in a charter of 1294, Thomas of Ercildoune, describing himself as 'son and heir of Thomas Rymour of Ercildoune,' conveys his lands in the village of Ercildoune to the Trinity House of Soltra. From this it has been inferred that the Rhymer was now dead; although Blind Harry, in his Wallae, speaks of him in 1296 or 1297 as then 'in to the faile'—the Cluniac priory of Fail in Ayrshire, by Dr Murray's conjecture. The Rhymer is also alluded to by Wynton in his Chroniele. Boece calls him Thomas Learmont, and the Russian poet Lermontoff claimed him for an ancestor; but there is no contemporary authority for this surname. Whether Rymour was a family surname or a personal appellation derived from his poetical reputation has also been discussed. The fact that his son, in the charter above referred to, applies the name to his father, but does not take it himself, seems to favour the latter view.
The Rhymer's prophecies were first collected and published in Edinburgh by Waldegrave in 1603. Sir Walter Scott (so also Mr M'Neill) believed him to be the author of the famous romance of Sir Tristrem, because his name occurs along with that of the romance in an ambiguous passage in the poems of Robert of Brunne (c. 1338). But the romance is now generally believed to have had a French origin, and to be of earlier date than the time of the Rhymer. The other poems attributed to him are chiefly descriptive of his interviews with the Fairy Queen and his adventures in Fairyland; they display poetical power of a very high order.
See The Romanees and Prophecies of Thomas of Ercildoune, edited by Dr J. A. H. Murray for the Early English Text Society (1875); editions of Thomas of Ercildoune by Alois Brandl (Berlin, 1880); Sir Tristrem, by Scott (1804), by Kölbing (Heilbronn, 1882), by G. P. M'Neill for the Scottish Text Society (1886); and Professor Child's Popular Ballads (part ii. 1884).