If you trace it back far enough, the concept is much, much older, back to the story of Thetis and Peleus (http://www.theoi.com/Pontios/NereisThetis.html) has the same trope, only this time, it's the man who has to hold onto the woman as she's changing shape, and rather than freeing her, he binds her to marriage by completing the task. What the Tam Lin story does is changes the traditional male/female roles. Rather than oppressing the female and her position (condemning a nereid who was arguably once a goddess to her place as a mortal wife), in Tam Lin, the hero is a woman who is responsible for setting the captured male character free. He is the dude in distress, and she's no damsel. So I suspect, given that most of the versions I've seen have been written by women, the appeal here is the strong figure of the feminine.
The particular theme that always appealed to me was holding on, no matter how bad things got, which certainly stretches the theme a bit! But the idea that you can win if you just hold on long enough has definite appeal to me (and makes me feel that stubbornness and persistence is a virtue!).
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2008-05-01 03:49 pm (UTC)The particular theme that always appealed to me was holding on, no matter how bad things got, which certainly stretches the theme a bit! But the idea that you can win if you just hold on long enough has definite appeal to me (and makes me feel that stubbornness and persistence is a virtue!).