ng. These powers were said to be, like Oisin's, a gift
from the Fairy Queen. She met him under the Eildon Tree, which stood on
the easternmost of the three Eildon Hills. Having got him into her
power, she took him down with her into Fairyland, where he abode, as he
deemed, for three days, but in reality for three years. At the end of
that time the lady carries him back to Eildon Tree and bids him
farewell. He asks her for some token whereby he may say that he had been
with her; and she bestows on him a prophetic tongue that cannot lie,
and leaves him with a promise to meet him again on Huntley Banks. Here
both the old ballads and the older romance desert us; but if we may
trust Sir Walter Scott's report of the tradition current in the
neighbourhood, Thomas was under an obligation to return to Fairyland
whenever he was summoned. "Accordingly, while Thomas was making merry
with his friends in the tower of Ercildoune, a person came running in,
and told, with marks of fear and astonishment, that a hart and hind had
left the neighbouring forest, and were, composedly and slowly, parading
the street of the village. The prophet instantly arose, left his
habitation, and followed the wonderful animals to the forest, whence he
was never seen to return. According to the popular belief, he still
'drees his weird' in Fairyland, and is one day expected to revisit
earth. In the meanwhile his memory is held in the most profound
respect."[153]

In the romance of Ogier, or Olger, the Dane, one of the Paladins of
Charlemagne, it is related that six fairies presided at his birth and
bestowed various gifts upon him. Morgan the Fay, the last of the six,
promised that after a long and glorious career he should never die, but
dwell with her in her castle of Avalon. Wherefore, after he had lived
and fought and loved for more than a hundred years, Morgan caused him to
be shipwrecked. All men thought he had perished. In reality Morgan had
taken this means of bringing him to Avalon, where she met him and put a
ring on his finger, which restored him to youth, and a golden crown of
myrtle and laurel on his brow--the crown of forgetfulness. His toils,
his battles, even his loves were forgotten; and his heart was filled
with a new devotion, namely, for the fairy queen Morgan. With her he
dwelt in pleasures ever new for two hundred years, until there came a
day when France and Christendom fell into trouble and danger, and the
peoples cried out for a del