Robin Hood is a legendary
hero
A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ...
ic
outlaw
An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...
originally depicted in
English folklore
English folklore consists of the myths and legends of England, including the English region's mythical creatures, traditional recipes, urban legends, proverbs, superstitions, and folktales. Its cultural history is rooted in Celtic, Christian, ...
and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled
archer
Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...
and
swordsman
Swordsmanship or sword fighting refers to the skills and techniques used in combat and training with any type of sword. The term is modern, and as such was mainly used to refer to smallsword fencing, but by extension it can also be applied to a ...
. In some versions of the legend, he is depicted as being of noble birth, and in modern retellings he is sometimes depicted as having fought in the
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were in ...
before returning to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
to find his lands taken by the
Sheriff
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
. In the oldest known versions he is instead a member of the
yeoman
Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of servants in an English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in mid-14th-century England. The 14th century also witn ...
class. Traditionally depicted dressed in
Lincoln green
Lincoln Green is a mainly residential area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England around Lincoln Green Road, and is adjacent to and southwest of St James's University Hospital. It falls within the Burmantofts and Richmond Hill ward of the City o ...
, he is said to have robbed from the rich and given to the poor.
Through retellings, additions, and variations, a body of familiar characters associated with Robin Hood has been created. These include his lover,
Maid Marian
Maid Marian is the heroine of the Robin Hood legend in English folklore, often taken to be his lover. She is not mentioned in the early, medieval versions of the legend, but was the subject of at least two plays by 1600. Her history and circums ...
, his band of outlaws, the
Merry Men
The Merry Men are the group of Outlaw (stock character), outlaws who follow Robin Hood in English literature and folklore. The group appears in the earliest ballads about Robin Hood and remains popular in modern adaptations.
History
The Merr ...
, and his chief opponent, the
Sheriff of Nottingham
The Sheriff of Nottingham is the main antagonist in the legend of Robin Hood. He is generally depicted as an unjust tyrant who mistreats the local people of Nottinghamshire, subjecting them to unaffordable taxes. Robin Hood fights against him, ...
. The Sheriff is often depicted as assisting
Prince John in usurping the rightful but absent
King Richard, to whom Robin Hood remains loyal. His partisanship of the common people and his hostility to the Sheriff of Nottingham are early recorded features of the legend, but his interest in the rightfulness of the king is not, and neither is his setting in the reign of Richard I. He became a popular folk figure in the
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...
. The earliest known
ballads
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads derive from the medieval French ''chanson balladée'' or '' ballade'', which were originally "dance songs". Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and ...
featuring him are from the 15th century.
There have been numerous variations and adaptations of the story over the subsequent years, and the story continues to be widely represented in literature, film, and television. Robin Hood is considered one of the best-known tales of
English folklore
English folklore consists of the myths and legends of England, including the English region's mythical creatures, traditional recipes, urban legends, proverbs, superstitions, and folktales. Its cultural history is rooted in Celtic, Christian, ...
. In popular culture, the term "Robin Hood" is often used to describe a heroic outlaw or rebel against tyranny.
The origins of the legend as well as the historical context have been debated for centuries. There are numerous references to historical figures with similar names that have been proposed as possible evidence of his existence, some dating back to the late 13th century. At least eight plausible origins to the story have been mooted by historians and folklorists, including suggestions that "Robin Hood" was a stock alias used by or in reference to bandits.
Ballads and tales
The first clear reference to "rhymes of Robin Hood" is from the alliterative poem ''
Piers Plowman
''Piers Plowman'' (written 1370–86; possibly ) or ''Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman'' (''William's Vision of Piers Plowman'') is a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in un-rhymed, alliterative v ...
'', thought to have been composed in the 1370s, followed shortly afterwards by a quotation of a later common proverb, "many men speak of Robin Hood and never shot his bow",
in ''Friar Daw's Reply'' ( 1402) and a complaint in ''
Dives and Pauper'' (1405–1410) that people would rather listen to "tales and songs of Robin Hood" than attend Mass.
[Blackwood 2018, p.59] Robin Hood is also mentioned in a famous
Lollard
Lollardy, also known as Lollardism or the Lollard movement, was a proto-Protestant Christian religious movement that existed from the mid-14th century until the 16th-century English Reformation. It was initially led by John Wycliffe, a Catho ...
tract dated to the first half of the fifteenth century
[James 2019, p.204] (thus also possibly predating his other earliest historical mentions) alongside several other folk heroes such as
Guy of Warwick
Guy of Warwick, or Gui de Warewic, is a legendary English hero of Romance popular in England and France from the 13th to 17th centuries. The story of Sir Guy is considered by scholars to be part of the Matter of England.''Boundaries in medieval r ...
,
Bevis of Hampton
Bevis of Hampton ( fro, Beuve(s) or or ; Anglo-Norman: ; it, Buovo d'Antona) or Sir Bevois, was a legendary English hero and the subject of Anglo-Norman, Dutch, French, English, Venetian,Hasenohr, 173–4. and other medieval metrical chival ...
, and
Sir Lybeaus.
However, the earliest surviving copies of the narrative ballads that tell his story date to the second half of the 15th century, or the first decade of the 16th century. In these early accounts, Robin Hood's partisanship of the lower classes, his
devotion to the Virgin Mary and associated special regard for women, his outstanding skill as an
archer
Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...
, his
anti-clericalism
Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...
, and his particular animosity towards the
Sheriff of Nottingham
The Sheriff of Nottingham is the main antagonist in the legend of Robin Hood. He is generally depicted as an unjust tyrant who mistreats the local people of Nottinghamshire, subjecting them to unaffordable taxes. Robin Hood fights against him, ...
are already clear.
Little John
Little John is a companion of Robin Hood who serves as his chief lieutenant and second-in-command of the Merry Men. He is one of only a handful of consistently named characters who relate to Robin Hood and one of the two oldest Merry Men, al ...
,
Much the Miller's Son
Much, the Miller's Son is one of the Merry Men in the tales of Robin Hood. He appears in some of the oldest ballads, ''A Gest of Robyn Hode'' and ''Robin Hood and the Monk'', as one of the company.
History
In ''A Gest of Robyn Hode'', he helps ...
, and
Will Scarlet
Scarlet (also Scarlett, Scarlock, Scadlock, Scatheloke, Scathelocke and Shacklock) is a prominent member of Robin Hood's Merry Men. He is present in the earliest ballads along with Little John and Much the Miller's Son.
The confusion of surn ...
(as Will "Scarlok" or "Scathelocke") all appear, although not yet
Maid Marian
Maid Marian is the heroine of the Robin Hood legend in English folklore, often taken to be his lover. She is not mentioned in the early, medieval versions of the legend, but was the subject of at least two plays by 1600. Her history and circums ...
or
Friar Tuck
Friar Tuck is one of the legendary Merry Men, the band of heroic outlaws in the folklore of Robin Hood.
History
The figure of the jovial friar was common in the May Games festivals of England and Scotland during the 15th through 17th centur ...
. The latter has been part of the legend since at least the later 15th century, when he is mentioned in a Robin Hood play script.
In modern popular culture, Robin Hood is typically seen as a contemporary and supporter of the late-12th-century king
Richard the Lionheart
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...
, Robin being driven to outlawry during the misrule of Richard's brother
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
while Richard was away at the
Third Crusade
The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt by three European monarchs of Western Christianity (Philip II of France, Richard I of England and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor) to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by ...
. This view first gained currency in the 16th century. It is not supported by the earliest ballads. The early compilation, ''
A Gest of Robyn Hode'', names the king as 'Edward'; and while it does show Robin Hood accepting the King's pardon, he later repudiates it and returns to the greenwood.
The oldest surviving ballad, ''
Robin Hood and the Monk
Robin Hood and the Monk is a Middle English ballad and one of the oldest surviving ballads of Robin Hood.
Original work and later publications
The work was preserved in Cambridge University manuscript Ff.5.48, albeit heavily damaged by wear. ...
'', gives even less support to the picture of Robin Hood as a partisan of the true king. The setting of the early ballads is usually attributed by scholars to either the 13th century or the 14th, although it is recognised they are not necessarily historically consistent.
The early ballads are also quite clear on Robin Hood's social status: he is a
yeoman
Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of servants in an English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in mid-14th-century England. The 14th century also witn ...
. While the precise meaning of this term changed over time, including free retainers of an aristocrat and small landholders, it always referred to commoners. The essence of it in the present context was "neither a knight nor a peasant or 'husbonde' but something in between".
Artisan
An artisan (from french: artisan, it, artigiano) is a skilled craft worker who makes or creates material objects partly or entirely by hand. These objects may be functional or strictly decorative, for example furniture, decorative art ...
s (such as millers) were among those regarded as 'yeomen' in the 14th century. From the 16th century on, there were attempts to elevate Robin Hood to the nobility, such as in Richard Grafton's ''Chronicle at Large'';
[Knight and Ohlgren, 1997.] Anthony Munday presented him at the very end of the century as the
Earl of Huntingdon
Earl of Huntingdon is a title which has been created several times in the Peerage of England. The medieval title (1065 creation) was associated with the ruling house of Scotland (David I of Scotland, David of Scotland).
The seventh and most rec ...
in two extremely influential plays, as he is still commonly presented in modern times.
As well as ballads, the legend was also transmitted by 'Robin Hood games' or plays that were an important part of the late medieval and early modern May Day festivities. The first record of a Robin Hood game was in 1426 in
Exeter
Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol.
In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...
, but the reference does not indicate how old or widespread this custom was at the time. The Robin Hood games are known to have flourished in the later 15th and 16th centuries. It is commonly stated as fact that Maid Marian and a jolly friar (at least partly identifiable with Friar Tuck) entered the legend through the May Games.
Early ballads
![Robin Hood and guy of Gisborne Bewick 1832](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c5/Robin_Hood_and_guy_of_Gisborne_Bewick_1832.jpg)
The earliest surviving text of a Robin Hood ballad is the 15th-century "
Robin Hood and the Monk
Robin Hood and the Monk is a Middle English ballad and one of the oldest surviving ballads of Robin Hood.
Original work and later publications
The work was preserved in Cambridge University manuscript Ff.5.48, albeit heavily damaged by wear. ...
". This is preserved in
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
manuscript Ff.5.48. Written after 1450, it contains many of the elements still associated with the legend, from the Nottingham setting to the bitter enmity between Robin and the local sheriff.
![Fairbanks Robin Hood standing by wall w sword](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Fairbanks_Robin_Hood_standing_by_wall_w_sword.jpg)
The first printed version is ''
A Gest of Robyn Hode'' ( 1500), a collection of separate stories that attempts to unite the episodes into a single continuous narrative. After this comes "
Robin Hood and the Potter
Robin Hood and the Potter is Child ballad 121, and among the oldest existing tales of Robin Hood.
The device of disguising himself as a potter may have been taken from the older legends of Hereward the Wake.
Synopsis
Robin Hood demands a toll of ...
", contained in a manuscript of 1503. "The Potter" is markedly different in tone from "The Monk": whereas the earlier tale is "a thriller"
[ the latter is more comic, its plot involving trickery and cunning rather than straightforward force.
Other early texts are dramatic pieces, the earliest being the fragmentary '']Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham
''Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham'' is the manuscript fragment of a late medieval play about Robin Hood, the earliest known Robin Hood playscript and the only surviving medieval script of a Robin Hood play. The manuscript dates from c1475, ...
'' ( 1475). These are particularly noteworthy as they show Robin's integration into May Day rituals towards the end of the Middle Ages; ''Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham'', among other points of interest, contains the earliest reference to Friar Tuck.
The plots of neither "the Monk" nor "the Potter" are included in the ''Gest''; and neither is the plot of "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne
Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne is Child Ballad 118, part of the Percy collection. It introduces and disposes of Guy of Gisborne who remains next to the Sheriff of Nottingham the chief villain of the Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary he ...
", which is probably at least as old as those two ballads although preserved in a more recent copy. Each of these three ballads survived in a single copy, so it is unclear how much of the medieval legend has survived, and what has survived may not be typical of the medieval legend. It has been argued that the fact that the surviving ballads were preserved in written form in itself makes it unlikely they were typical; in particular, stories with an interest for the gentry were by this view more likely to be preserved. The story of Robin's aid to the 'poor knight' that takes up much of the Gest may be an example.
The character of Robin in these first texts is rougher edged than in his later incarnations. In "Robin Hood and the Monk", for example, he is shown as quick tempered and violent, assaulting Little John for defeating him in an archery contest; in the same ballad Much the Miller's Son casually kills a 'little page
Page most commonly refers to:
* Page (paper), one side of a leaf of paper, as in a book
Page, PAGE, pages, or paging may also refer to:
Roles
* Page (assistance occupation), a professional occupation
* Page (servant), traditionally a young m ...
' in the course of rescuing Robin Hood from prison.Robin Hood and the Monk
Robin Hood and the Monk is a Middle English ballad and one of the oldest surviving ballads of Robin Hood.
Original work and later publications
The work was preserved in Cambridge University manuscript Ff.5.48, albeit heavily damaged by wear. ...
. From Child's edition of the ballad, online at Sacred Texts
119A: Robin Hood and the Monk
Stanza 16:
:
:
:
: No extant early ballad actually shows Robin Hood 'giving to the poor', although in "A Gest of Robyn Hode" Robin does make a large loan to an unfortunate knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the Gr ...
, which he does not in the end require to be repaid; and later in the same ballad Robin Hood states his intention of giving money to the next traveller to come down the road if he happens to be poor.
:
:
As it happens the next traveller is not poor, but it seems in context that Robin Hood is stating a general policy. The first explicit statement to the effect that Robin Hood habitually robbed from the rich to give the poor can be found in John Stow
John Stow (''also'' Stowe; 1524/25 – 5 April 1605) was an English historian and antiquarian. He wrote a series of chronicles of English history, published from 1565 onwards under such titles as ''The Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles'', ''The C ...
's ''Annales of England'' (1592), about a century after the publication of the Gest.[ Stephen Thomas Knight 2003 ''Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography'' p. 43 quoting John Stow, 1592,''Annales of England'' ''.] But from the beginning Robin Hood is on the side of the poor; the Gest quotes Robin Hood as instructing his men that when they rob:
:
:
:
:
:
:
And in its final lines the ''Gest'' sums up:
:
:
Within Robin Hood's band, medieval forms of courtesy rather than modern ideals of equality are generally in evidence. In the early ballad, Robin's men usually kneel before him in strict obedience: in ''A Gest of Robyn Hode'' the king even observes that '' Their social status, as yeomen, is shown by their weapons: they use sword
A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...
s rather than quarterstaff
A quarterstaff (plural quarterstaffs or quarterstaves), also short staff or simply staff is a traditional European pole weapon, which was especially prominent in England during the Early Modern period.
The term is generally accepted to refer t ...
s. The only character to use a quarterstaff in the early ballads is the potter, and Robin Hood does not take to a staff until the 17th-century ''Robin Hood and Little John
Robin Hood and Little John is Child ballad 125. It is a story in the Robin Hood canon which has survived as, among other forms, a late seventeenth-century English broadside ballad, and is one of several ballads about the medieval folk hero that f ...
''.
The political and social assumptions underlying the early Robin Hood ballads have long been controversial. J. C. Holt
Sir James Clarke Holt (26 April 1922 – 9 April 2014), also known as J. C. Holt and Jim Holt, was an English medieval historian, known particularly for his work on Magna Carta. He was the third Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, ser ...
influentially argued that the Robin Hood legend was cultivated in the households of the gentry, and that it would be mistaken to see in him a figure of peasant
A peasant is a pre-industrial agricultural laborer or a farmer with limited land-ownership, especially one living in the Middle Ages under feudalism and paying rent, tax, fees, or services to a landlord. In Europe, three classes of peasants ...
revolt. He is not a peasant but a yeoman, and his tales make no mention of the complaints of the peasants, such as oppressive taxes. He appears not so much as a revolt against societal standards as an embodiment of them, being generous, pious, and courteous, opposed to stingy, worldly, and churlish foes. Other scholars have by contrast stressed the subversive aspects of the legend, and see in the medieval Robin Hood ballads a plebeian
In ancient Rome, the plebeians (also called plebs) were the general body of free Roman citizens who were not patricians, as determined by the census, or in other words " commoners". Both classes were hereditary.
Etymology
The precise origins of ...
literature hostile to the feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...
order.
Early plays, May Day games, and fairs
By the early 15th century at the latest, Robin Hood had become associated with May Day celebrations, with revellers dressing as Robin or as members of his band for the festivities. This was not common throughout England, but in some regions the custom lasted until Elizabethan
The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...
times, and during the reign of Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
, was briefly popular at court
A court is any person or institution, often as a government institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance ...
.[Hutton, 1997, pp. 270–271.] Robin was often allocated the role of a May King, presiding over games and processions, but plays were also performed with the characters in the roles, sometimes performed at church ales, a means by which churches raised funds.
A complaint of 1492, brought to the Star Chamber, accuses men of acting riotously by coming to a fair as Robin Hood and his men; the accused defended themselves on the grounds that the practice was a long-standing custom to raise money for churches, and they had not acted riotously but peaceably.
It is from the association with the May Games that Robin's romantic attachment to Maid Marian
Maid Marian is the heroine of the Robin Hood legend in English folklore, often taken to be his lover. She is not mentioned in the early, medieval versions of the legend, but was the subject of at least two plays by 1600. Her history and circums ...
(or Marion) apparently stems. A "Robin and Marion" figured in 13th-century French 'pastourelle
The pastourelle (; also ''pastorelle'', ''pastorella'', or ''pastorita'' is a typically Old French lyric form concerning the romance of a shepherdess. In most of the early pastourelles, the poet knight meets a shepherdess who bests him in a batt ...
s' (of which '' Jeu de Robin et Marion'' 1280 is a literary version) and presided over the French May festivities, "this Robin and Marion tended to preside, in the intervals of the attempted seduction of the latter by a series of knights, over a variety of rustic pastimes".[Dobson and Taylor, p. 42.] In the ''Jeu de Robin and Marion'', Robin and his companions have to rescue Marion from the clutches of a "lustful knight". This play is distinct from the English legends.[ although Dobson and Taylor regard it as 'highly probable' that this French Robin's name and functions travelled to the English May Games where they fused with the Robin Hood legend. Both Robin and Marian were certainly associated with May Day festivities in England (as was ]Friar Tuck
Friar Tuck is one of the legendary Merry Men, the band of heroic outlaws in the folklore of Robin Hood.
History
The figure of the jovial friar was common in the May Games festivals of England and Scotland during the 15th through 17th centur ...
), but these may have been originally two distinct types of performance – Alexander Barclay
Dr Alexander Barclay (c. 1476 – 10 June 1552) was a poet and clergyman of the Church of England, probably born in Scotland.
Biography
Barclay was born in about 1476. His place of birth is matter of dispute, but William Bulleyn, who w ...
in his ''Ship of Fools'', writing in 1500, refers to '' – but the characters were brought together.[Jeffrey Richards, ''Swordsmen of the Screen: From Douglas Fairbanks to Michael York'', p. 190, Routledge & Kegan Paul, Lond, Henly and Boston (1988).] Marian did not immediately gain the unquestioned role; in ''Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor, and Marriage
"Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor, and Marriage" is Child ballad 149. It recounts Robin Hood's adventures hunting and a romance with Clorinda, the queen of the shepherdesses, a heroine who did not prove able to displace Maid Marian as his swee ...
'', his sweetheart is "Clorinda the Queen of the Shepherdesses".[Holt, p. 165] Clorinda survives in some later stories as an alias of Marian.[Allen W. Wright]
"A Beginner's Guide to Robin Hood"
The earliest preserved script of a Robin Hood play is the fragmentary ''Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham
''Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham'' is the manuscript fragment of a late medieval play about Robin Hood, the earliest known Robin Hood playscript and the only surviving medieval script of a Robin Hood play. The manuscript dates from c1475, ...
'' This apparently dates to the 1470s and circumstantial evidence suggests it was probably performed at the household of Sir John Paston. This fragment appears to tell the story of Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne
Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne is Child Ballad 118, part of the Percy collection. It introduces and disposes of Guy of Gisborne who remains next to the Sheriff of Nottingham the chief villain of the Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary he ...
. There is also an early playtext appended to a 1560 printed edition of the Gest. This includes a dramatic version of the story of Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar
"Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar" is Child Ballad number 123, about Robin Hood.
Synopsis
This ballad is one of those appearing in later and later versions, the earlier one appearing in damaged form in the Percy manuscript but, as with Robin Hood a ...
and a version of the first part of the story of Robin Hood and the Potter
Robin Hood and the Potter is Child ballad 121, and among the oldest existing tales of Robin Hood.
The device of disguising himself as a potter may have been taken from the older legends of Hereward the Wake.
Synopsis
Robin Hood demands a toll of ...
. (Neither of these ballads are known to have existed in print at the time, and there is no earlier record known of the "Curtal Friar" story). The publisher describes the text as a '', but does not seem to be aware that the text actually contains two separate plays. An especial point of interest in the "Friar" play is the appearance of a ribald woman who is unnamed but apparently to be identified with the bawdy Maid Marian
Maid Marian is the heroine of the Robin Hood legend in English folklore, often taken to be his lover. She is not mentioned in the early, medieval versions of the legend, but was the subject of at least two plays by 1600. Her history and circums ...
of the May Games. She does not appear in extant versions of the ballad.
Early modern stage
James VI of Scotland
James VI and I (James Charles Stuart; 19 June 1566 – 27 March 1625) was King of Scotland as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the Scottish and English crowns on 24 March 1603 until hi ...
was entertained by a Robin Hood play at Dirleton Castle
Dirleton Castle is a medieval fortress in the village of Dirleton, East Lothian, Scotland. It lies around west of North Berwick, and around east of Edinburgh. The oldest parts of the castle date to the 13th century, and it was abandoned by th ...
produced by his favourite the Earl of Arran in May 1585, while there was plague in Edinburgh.
In 1598, Anthony Munday wrote a pair of plays on the Robin Hood legend, ''The Downfall and The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington
''The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntingdon'' and ''The Death of Robert Earl of Huntingdon'' are two closely related Elizabethan-era stage plays on the Robin Hood legend, that were written by Anthony Munday (possibly with help from Henry Chettl ...
'' (published 1601). These plays drew on a variety of sources, including apparently "A Gest of Robin Hood", and were influential in fixing the story of Robin Hood to the period of Richard I
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was ...
. Stephen Thomas Knight has suggested that Munday drew heavily on Fulk Fitz Warin, a historical 12th century outlawed nobleman and enemy of King John, in creating his Robin Hood.[Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography p. 63.] The play identifies Robin Hood as Robert, Earl of Huntingdon
Earl of Huntingdon is a title which has been created several times in the Peerage of England. The medieval title (1065 creation) was associated with the ruling house of Scotland (David I of Scotland, David of Scotland).
The seventh and most rec ...
, following in Richard Grafton's association of Robin Hood with the gentry, and identifies Maid Marian with "one of the semi-mythical Matildas persecuted by King John". The plays are complex in plot and form, the story of Robin Hood appearing as a play-within-a-play presented at the court of Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
and written by the poet, priest and courtier John Skelton John Skelton may refer to:
*John Skelton (poet) (c.1460–1529), English poet.
* John de Skelton, MP for Cumberland (UK Parliament constituency)
*John Skelton (died 1439), MP for Cumberland (UK Parliament constituency)
*John Skelton (American footb ...
. Skelton himself is presented in the play as acting the part of Friar Tuck. Some scholars have conjectured that Skelton may have indeed written a lost Robin Hood play for Henry VIII's court, and that this play may have been one of Munday's sources. Henry VIII himself with eleven of his nobles had impersonated "Robyn Hodes men" as part of his "Maying" in 1510. Robin Hood is known to have appeared in a number of other lost and extant Elizabethan plays. In 1599, the play ''George a Green, the Pinner of Wakefield'' places Robin Hood in the reign of Edward IV. ''Edward I'', a play by George Peele first performed in 1590–91, incorporates a Robin Hood game played by the characters. Llywelyn the Great
Llywelyn the Great ( cy, Llywelyn Fawr, ; full name Llywelyn mab Iorwerth; c. 117311 April 1240) was a King of Gwynedd in north Wales and eventually " Prince of the Welsh" (in 1228) and "Prince of Wales" (in 1240). By a combination of war and d ...
, the last independent Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...
, is presented playing Robin Hood.
Fixing the Robin Hood story to the 1190s had been first proposed by John Major
Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997, and as Member of Parliament ...
in his ''Historia Majoris Britanniæ'' (1521), (and he also may have been influenced in so doing by the story of Warin); this was the period in which King Richard was absent from the country, fighting in the Third Crusade
The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt by three European monarchs of Western Christianity (Philip II of France, Richard I of England and Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor) to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by ...
.[Holt, p. 170.]
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
makes reference to Robin Hood in his late-16th-century play ''The Two Gentlemen of Verona
''The Two Gentlemen of Verona'' is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1589 and 1593. It is considered by some to be Shakespeare's first play, and is often seen as showing his first tentative steps in laying ...
''. In it, the character Valentine is banished from Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
and driven out through the forest where he is approached by outlaws who, upon meeting him, desire him as their leader. They comment, "By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar, This fellow were a king for our wild faction!" Robin Hood is also mentioned in ''As You Like It
''As You Like It'' is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has b ...
''. When asked about the exiled Duke Senior, the character of Charles says that he is "already in the forest of Arden, and a many merry men with him; and there they live like the old Robin Hood of England". Justice Silence sings a line from an unnamed Robin Hood ballad, the line is "Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John" in Act 5 scene 3 of Henry IV, part 2. In Henry IV part 1
''Henry IV, Part 1'' (often written as ''1 Henry IV'') is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written no later than 1597. The play dramatises part of the reign of King Henry IV of England, beginning with the battle at ...
Act 3 scene 3, Falstaff refers to Maid Marian
Maid Marian is the heroine of the Robin Hood legend in English folklore, often taken to be his lover. She is not mentioned in the early, medieval versions of the legend, but was the subject of at least two plays by 1600. Her history and circums ...
implying she is a by-word for unwomanly or unchaste behaviour.
Ben Jonson
Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...
produced the incomplete masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment that flourished in 16th- and early 17th-century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio (a public version of the masque was the pageant). A masque ...
''The Sad Shepherd, or a Tale of Robin Hood'' in part as a satire on Puritan
The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to purify the Church of England of Catholic Church, Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should become m ...
ism. It is about half finished and his death in 1637 may have interrupted writing. Jonson's only pastoral drama, it was written in sophisticated verse and included supernatural action and characters. It has had little impact on the Robin Hood tradition but earns mention as the work of a major dramatist.
The 1642 London theatre closure by the Puritans interrupted the portrayal of Robin Hood on the stage. The theatres would reopen with the Restoration
Restoration is the act of restoring something to its original state and may refer to:
* Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
** Audio restoration
** Film restoration
** Image restoration
** Textile restoration
* Restoration ecology
...
in 1660. Robin Hood did not appear on the Restoration stage, except for "Robin Hood and his Crew of Souldiers" acted in Nottingham on the day of the coronation of Charles II in 1661. This short play adapts the story of the king's pardon of Robin Hood to refer to the Restoration.
However, Robin Hood appeared on the 18th-century stage in various farces and comic operas. Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...
would write a four-act Robin Hood play at the end of the 19th century, "The Forrestors". It is fundamentally based on the Gest but follows the traditions of placing Robin Hood as the Earl of Huntingdon
Earl of Huntingdon is a title which has been created several times in the Peerage of England. The medieval title (1065 creation) was associated with the ruling house of Scotland (David I of Scotland, David of Scotland).
The seventh and most rec ...
in the time of Richard I and making the Sheriff of Nottingham and Prince John rivals with Robin Hood for Maid Marian's hand. The return of King Richard brings a happy ending.
Broadside ballads and garlands
With the advent of printing came the Robin Hood broadside ballads
A broadside (also known as a broadsheet) is a single sheet of inexpensive paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations. They were one of the most common forms of printed material between th ...
. Exactly when they displaced the oral tradition of Robin Hood ballads is unknown but the process seems to have been completed by the end of the 16th century. Near the end of the 16th century an unpublished prose life of Robin Hood was written, and included in the Sloane Manuscript. Largely a paraphrase of the Gest, it also contains material revealing that the author was familiar with early versions of a number of the Robin Hood broadside ballads. Not all of the medieval legend was preserved in the broadside ballads, there is no broadside version of Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne
Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne is Child Ballad 118, part of the Percy collection. It introduces and disposes of Guy of Gisborne who remains next to the Sheriff of Nottingham the chief villain of the Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary he ...
or of Robin Hood and the Monk
Robin Hood and the Monk is a Middle English ballad and one of the oldest surviving ballads of Robin Hood.
Original work and later publications
The work was preserved in Cambridge University manuscript Ff.5.48, albeit heavily damaged by wear. ...
, which did not appear in print until the 18th and 19th centuries respectively. However, the Gest was reprinted from time to time throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.
No surviving broadside ballad can be dated with certainty before the 17th century, but during that century, the commercial broadside ballad became the main vehicle for the popular Robin Hood legend. These broadside ballads were in some cases newly fabricated but were mostly adaptations of the older verse narratives. The broadside ballads were fitted to a small repertoire of pre-existing tunes resulting in an increase of "stock formulaic phrases" making them "repetitive and verbose", they commonly feature Robin Hood's contests with artisans: tinkers, tanners, and butchers. Among these ballads is Robin Hood and Little John
Robin Hood and Little John is Child ballad 125. It is a story in the Robin Hood canon which has survived as, among other forms, a late seventeenth-century English broadside ballad, and is one of several ballads about the medieval folk hero that f ...
telling the famous story of the quarter-staff fight between the two outlaws.
Dobson and Taylor wrote, 'More generally the Robin of the broadsides is a much less tragic, less heroic and in the last resort less mature figure than his medieval predecessor'. In most of the broadside ballads Robin Hood remains a plebeian figure, a notable exception being Martin Parker
Martin Parker (c. 1600 – c. 1656) was an English ballad writer, and probably a London tavern-keeper.
Life
About 1625 he seems to have begun publishing ballads, a large number of which bearing his signature or his initials, M.P., are preserved ...
's attempt at an overall life of Robin Hood, A True Tale of Robin Hood
A True Tale of Robin Hood is Child ballad 154, featuring Robin Hood and, indeed, presents a full account of his life, from before his becoming an outlaw, to his death. It describes him as the Earl of Huntington, which is a fairly late development ...
, which also emphasises the theme of Robin Hood's generosity to the poor more than the broadsheet ballads do in general.
The 17th century introduced the minstrel
A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who ...
Alan-a-Dale
Alan-a-Dale (first recorded as Allen a Dale; variously spelled ''Allen-a-Dale'', ''Allan-a-Dale'', ''Allin-a-Dale'', ''Allan A'Dayle'' etc.) is a figure in the Robin Hood legend. According to the stories, he was a wandering minstrel who became a ...
. He first appeared in a 17th-century broadside ballad
A broadside (also known as a broadsheet) is a single sheet of inexpensive paper printed on one side, often with a ballad, rhyme, news and sometimes with woodcut illustrations. They were one of the most common forms of printed material between th ...
, and unlike many of the characters thus associated, managed to adhere to the legend.[ The prose life of Robin Hood in Sloane Manuscript contains the substance of the Alan-a-Dale ballad but tells the story about ]Will Scarlet
Scarlet (also Scarlett, Scarlock, Scadlock, Scatheloke, Scathelocke and Shacklock) is a prominent member of Robin Hood's Merry Men. He is present in the earliest ballads along with Little John and Much the Miller's Son.
The confusion of surn ...
.
In the 18th century, the stories began to develop a slightly more farcical
Farce is a comedy that seeks to entertain an audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, ridiculous, absurd, and improbable. Farce is also characterized by heavy use of physical humor; the use of deliberate absurdity o ...
vein. From this period there are a number of ballads in which Robin is severely 'drubbed' by a succession of tradesmen including a tanner, a tinker, and a ranger.[ In fact, the only character who does not get the better of Hood is the luckless Sheriff. Yet even in these ballads Robin is more than a mere simpleton: on the contrary, he often acts with great shrewdness. The tinker, setting out to capture Robin, only manages to fight with him after he has been cheated out of his money and the ]arrest warrant
An arrest warrant is a warrant issued by a judge or magistrate on behalf of the state, which authorizes the arrest and detention of an individual, or the search and seizure of an individual's property.
Canada
Arrest warrants are issued by a j ...
he is carrying. In '' Robin Hood's Golden Prize'', Robin disguises himself as a friar
A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...
and cheats two priests out of their cash. Even when Robin is defeated, he usually tricks his foe into letting him sound his horn, summoning the Merry Men to his aid. When his enemies do not fall for this ruse, he persuades them to drink with him instead (see Robin Hood's Delight
Robin Hood's Delight is Child ballad 136. It is a story in the Robin Hood canon which has survived as, among other forms, a late seventeenth-century English broadside ballad, and is one of several ballads about the medieval folk hero that form par ...
).
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Robin Hood ballads were mostly sold in "Garlands" of 16 to 24 Robin Hood ballads; these were crudely printed chap books aimed at the poor. The garlands added nothing to the substance of the legend but ensured that it continued after the decline of the single broadside ballad. In the 18th century also, Robin Hood frequently appeared in criminal biographies and histories of highwaymen compendia.
Rediscovery: Percy and Ritson
In 1765, Thomas Percy (bishop of Dromore) published ''Reliques of Ancient English Poetry
The ''Reliques of Ancient English Poetry'' (sometimes known as ''Reliques of Ancient Poetry'' or simply Percy's ''Reliques'') is a collection of ballads and popular songs collected by Bishop Thomas Percy and published in 1765.
Sources
The basis ...
'', including ballads from the 17th-century Percy Folio
The Percy Folio is a folio book of English ballads used by Thomas Percy to compile his '' Reliques of Ancient Poetry''. Although the manuscript itself was compiled in the 17th century, some of its material goes back well into the 12th century. It ...
manuscript which had not previously been printed, most notably Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne
Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne is Child Ballad 118, part of the Percy collection. It introduces and disposes of Guy of Gisborne who remains next to the Sheriff of Nottingham the chief villain of the Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary he ...
which is generally regarded as in substance a genuine late medieval ballad.
In 1795, Joseph Ritson
Joseph Ritson (2 October 1752 – 23 September 1803) was an English antiquary who was well known for his 1795 compilation of the Robin Hood legend. After a visit to France in 1791, he became a staunch supporter of the ideals of the French Rev ...
published an enormously influential edition of the Robin Hood ballads ''Robin Hood: A collection of all the Ancient Poems Songs and Ballads now extant, relative to that celebrated Outlaw''. 'By providing English poets and novelists with a convenient source book, Ritson gave them the opportunity to recreate Robin Hood in their own imagination,'[Dobson and Taylor (1997), p. 54.] Ritson's collection included the Gest and put the Robin Hood and the Potter
Robin Hood and the Potter is Child ballad 121, and among the oldest existing tales of Robin Hood.
The device of disguising himself as a potter may have been taken from the older legends of Hereward the Wake.
Synopsis
Robin Hood demands a toll of ...
ballad in print for the first time. The only significant omission was Robin Hood and the Monk
Robin Hood and the Monk is a Middle English ballad and one of the oldest surviving ballads of Robin Hood.
Original work and later publications
The work was preserved in Cambridge University manuscript Ff.5.48, albeit heavily damaged by wear. ...
which would eventually be printed in 1806. In all, Ritson printed 33 Robin Hood ballads (and a 34th, now commonly known as Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon
Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon is Child ballad 129. The song portrays Robin Hood in a tale of chivalrous adventures, such as are uncommon in his ballads, and has seldom been featured in later tales.Holt, J. C. ''Robin Hood'' p 165 (1982) Tha ...
that he included as the second part of Robin Hood Newly Revived
Robin Hood Newly Revived is Child ballad 128, and an origin story for Will Scarlet.
Synopsis
Robin Hood and Little John
Little John is a companion of Robin Hood who serves as his chief lieutenant and second-in-command of the Merry Men. H ...
which he had retitled “Robin Hood and the Stranger”). Ritson's interpretation of Robin Hood was also influential, having influenced the modern concept of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor as it exists today. Himself a supporter of the principles of the French Revolution
The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...
and admirer of Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine (born Thomas Pain; – In the contemporary record as noted by Conway, Paine's birth date is given as January 29, 1736–37. Common practice was to use a dash or a slash to separate the old-style year from the new-style year. In th ...
, Ritson held that Robin Hood was a genuinely historical, and genuinely heroic, character who had stood up against tyranny in the interests of the common people. J. C. Holt has been quick to point out, however, that Ritson "began as a Jacobite and ended as a Jacobin," and "certainly reconstructed him obin
Obin, real name Josephine Komara, is a textile designer from Indonesia. She is sometimes called a "national treasure" due to her passion for and promotion of traditional Indonesian batik techniques. Her work has achieved worldwide recognition, ...
in the image of a radical."
In his preface to the collection, Ritson assembled an account of Robin Hood's life from the various sources available to him, and concluded that Robin Hood was born in around 1160, and thus had been active in the reign of Richard I. He thought that Robin was of aristocratic extraction, with at least 'some pretension' to the title of Earl of Huntingdon, that he was born in an unlocated Nottinghamshire village of Locksley and that his original name was Robert Fitzooth. Ritson gave the date of Robin Hood's death as 18 November 1247, when he would have been around 87 years old. In copious and informative notes Ritson defends every point of his version of Robin Hood's life. In reaching his conclusion Ritson relied or gave weight to a number of unreliable sources, such as the Robin Hood plays of Anthony Munday and the Sloane Manuscript. Nevertheless, Dobson and Taylor credit Ritson with having 'an incalculable effect in promoting the still continuing quest for the man behind the myth', and note that his work remains an 'indispensable handbook to the outlaw legend even now'.
Ritson's friend Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...
used Ritson's anthology collection as a source for his picture of Robin Hood in ''Ivanhoe
''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' () by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. Set in England in the Middle Ages, this novel marked a shift away from Scott’s prior practice of setting st ...
'', written in 1818, which did much to shape the modern legend.
Child ballads
In the decades following the publication of Ritson's book, other ballad collections would occasionally publish stray Robin Hood ballads Ritson had missed. In 1806, Robert Jamieson published the earliest known Robin Hood ballad, ''Robin Hood and the Monk
Robin Hood and the Monk is a Middle English ballad and one of the oldest surviving ballads of Robin Hood.
Original work and later publications
The work was preserved in Cambridge University manuscript Ff.5.48, albeit heavily damaged by wear. ...
'' in Volume II of his ''Popular Ballads and Songs From Tradition''. In 1846, the Percy Society
The Percy Society was a British text publication society. It was founded in 1840 and collapsed in 1852.
The Society was a scholarly collective, aimed at publishing limited-edition books of rare poems and songs. The president was Lady Braybrooke, a ...
included The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood in its collection, ''Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England''. In 1850, John Mathew Gutch
John Mathew Gutch (1776-1861) was an English journalist and historian.
Life
John Mathew, eldest son of John Gutch, was born in 1776, probably at Oxford, and was educated at Christ's Hospital, where he was the schoolfellow of Samuel Taylor Coler ...
published his own collection of Robin Hood ballads, ''Robin Hood Garlands and Ballads, with the tale of the lytell Geste'', that in addition to all of Ritson's collection, also included Robin Hood and the Pedlars and Robin Hood and the Scotchman.
In 1858, Francis James Child
Francis James Child (February 1, 1825 – September 11, 1896) was an American scholar, educator, and folklorist, best known today for his collection of English and Scottish ballads now known as the Child Ballads. Child was Boylston professor of ...
published his ''English and Scottish Ballads'' which included a volume grouping all the Robin Hood ballads in one volume, including all the ballads published by Ritson, the four stray ballads published since then, as well as some ballads that either mentioned Robin Hood by name or featured characters named Robin Hood but weren't traditional Robin Hood stories. For his more scholarly work, ''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads
The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as ''T ...
'', in his volume dedicated to the Robin Hood ballads, published in 1888, Child removed the ballads from his earlier work that weren't traditional Robin Hood stories, gave the ballad Ritson titled ''Robin Hood and the Stranger'' back its original published title Robin Hood Newly Revived
Robin Hood Newly Revived is Child ballad 128, and an origin story for Will Scarlet.
Synopsis
Robin Hood and Little John
Little John is a companion of Robin Hood who serves as his chief lieutenant and second-in-command of the Merry Men. H ...
, and separated what Ritson had printed as the second part of ''Robin Hood and the Stranger'' as its own separate ballad, Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon
Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon is Child ballad 129. The song portrays Robin Hood in a tale of chivalrous adventures, such as are uncommon in his ballads, and has seldom been featured in later tales.Holt, J. C. ''Robin Hood'' p 165 (1982) Tha ...
. He also included alternate versions of ballads that had distinct, alternate versions. He numbered these 38 Robin Hood ballads among the 305 ballads in his collection as Child Ballads Nos 117–154, which is how they're often referenced in scholarly works.
''The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood''
In the 19th century, the Robin Hood legend was first specifically adapted for children. Children's editions of the garlands were produced and in 1820, a children's edition of Ritson's ''Robin Hood'' collection was published. Children's novels began to appear shortly thereafter. It is not that children did not read Robin Hood stories before, but this is the first appearance of a Robin Hood literature specifically aimed at them. A very influential example of these children's novels was Pierce Egan the Younger
Pierce Egan the Younger (1814 – 6 July 1880) was an English journalist and novelist. The son of Pierce Egan, the author of '' Life in London'', he associated with his father in several of his works.
Early life
He was born in London, and his mo ...
's ''Robin Hood and Little John'' (1840).[Egan, Pierce the Younger (1846). ''Robin Hood and Little John or The Merry Men of Sherwood Forest.'' Pub. George Peirce, London.] This was adapted into French by Alexandre Dumas
Alexandre Dumas (, ; ; born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (), 24 July 1802 – 5 December 1870), also known as Alexandre Dumas père (where '' '' is French for 'father', to distinguish him from his son Alexandre Dumas fils), was a French writer ...
in ''Le Prince des Voleurs'' (1872) and ''Robin Hood Le Proscrit'' (1873). Egan made Robin Hood of noble birth but raised by the forestor Gilbert Hood.
Another very popular version for children was Howard Pyle
Howard Pyle (March 5, 1853 – November 9, 1911) was an American illustrator and author, primarily of books for young people. He was a native of Wilmington, Delaware, and he spent the last year of his life in Florence, Italy.
In 1894, he began ...
's ''The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
''The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire'' is an 1883 novel by the American illustrator and writer Howard Pyle. Pyle compiled the traditional Robin Hood ballads as a series of episodes of a coherent narrative. For ...
'', which influenced accounts of Robin Hood through the 20th century.["Robin Hood: Development of a Popular Hero]
". From The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester
The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees.
The University of Roc ...
. Retrieved 22 November 2008. Pyle's version firmly stamp Robin as a staunch philanthropist, a man who takes from the rich to give to the poor. Nevertheless, the adventures are still more local than national in scope: while King Richard's participation in the Crusades is mentioned in passing, Robin takes no stand against Prince John, and plays no part in raising the ransom to free Richard. These developments are part of the 20th-century Robin Hood myth. Pyle's Robin Hood is a yeoman and not an aristocrat.
The idea of Robin Hood as a high-minded Saxon
The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic
*
*
*
*
peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...
fighting Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
lords also originates in the 19th century. The most notable contributions to this idea of Robin are Jacques Nicolas Augustin Thierry
Augustin Thierry (or ''Jacques Nicolas Augustin Thierry''; 10 May 179522 May 1856) was a French historian. Although originally a follower of Henri de Saint-Simon, he later developed his own approach to history. A committed liberal, his approach ...
's ' (1825) and Sir Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet, playwright and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'', ''Rob Roy (n ...
's ''Ivanhoe
''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' () by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. Set in England in the Middle Ages, this novel marked a shift away from Scott’s prior practice of setting st ...
'' (1819). In this last work in particular, the modern Robin Hood—'King of Outlaws and prince of good fellows!' as Richard the Lionheart calls him—makes his debut.[Allen W. Wright]
"Wolfshead through the Ages Revolutions and Romanticism"
Forresters Manuscript
In 1993, a previously unknown manuscript of 21 Robin Hood ballads (including 2 versions of The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield
The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield is Child ballad 124, about Robin Hood. The oldest manuscript of this English broadside ballad, according to the University of Rochester, dates back to 1557, and a fragment of the ballad appears also in the Percy Foli ...
) turned up in an auction house and eventually wound up in the British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...
. Called The Forresters Manuscript, after the first and last ballads, which are both titled Robin Hood and the Forresters, it was published in 1998 as ''Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript''. It appears to have been written in the 1670s. While all the ballads in the Manuscript had already been known and published during the 17th and 18th centuries (although most of the ballads in the Manuscript have different titles then ones they have listed under the Child Ballads), 13 of the ballads in Forresters are noticeably different from how they appeared in the broadsides and garlands. 9 of these ballads are significantly longer and more elaborate than the versions of the same ballads found in the broadsides and garlands. For 4 of these ballads, the Forresters Manuscript versions are the earliest known versions.
20th century onwards
The 20th century grafted still further details on to the original legends. The 1938 film ''The Adventures of Robin Hood
''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' is a 1938 American Technicolor swashbuckler film from Warner Bros. Pictures. It was produced by Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blanke, directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, and stars Errol Flynn, Olivia de H ...
'', starring Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Thomson Flynn (20 June 1909 – 14 October 1959) was an Australian-American actor who achieved worldwide fame during the Golden Age of Hollywood. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles, frequent partnerships with Olivia ...
and Olivia de Havilland
Dame Olivia Mary de Havilland (; July 1, 1916July 26, 2020) was a British-American actress. The major works of her cinematic career spanned from 1935 to 1988. She appeared in 49 feature films and was one of the leading actresses of her time. ...
, portrayed Robin as a hero on a national scale, leading the oppressed Saxons in revolt against their Norman overlords while Richard the Lionheart fought in the Crusades; this movie established itself so definitively that many studios resorted to movies about his son (invented for that purpose) rather than compete with the image of this one.[Allen W. Wright,]
Wolfshead through the Ages Films and Fantasy
"
In 1953, during the McCarthy era
McCarthyism is the practice of making false or unfounded accusations of subversion and treason, especially when related to anarchism, communism and socialism, and especially when done in a public and attention-grabbing manner.
The term origina ...
, a Republican member of the Indiana Textbook Commission called for a ban of Robin Hood from all Indiana school books for promoting communism
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
because he stole from the rich to give to the poor.
Films, animations, new concepts, and other adaptations
Walt Disney's ''Robin Hood''
In the 1973 animated Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
film ''Robin Hood'', the title character is portrayed as an anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology.
Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...
fox voiced by Brian Bedford. Years before ''Robin Hood'' had even entered production, Disney had considered doing a project on Reynard the Fox
Reynard the Fox is a literary cycle of medieval allegorical Dutch, English, French and German fables. The first extant versions of the cycle date from the second half of the 12th century. The genre was popular throughout the Late Middle Ages, a ...
; however, due to concerns that Reynard was unsuitable as a hero, animator Ken Anderson adapted some elements from Reynard into ''Robin Hood
Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depic ...
'', making the title character a fox.
''Robin and Marian''
The 1976 British-American film ''Robin and Marian
''Robin and Marian'' is a 1976 British-American romantic adventure film from Columbia Pictures, shot in Panavision and Technicolor, that was directed by Richard Lester and written by James Goldman after the legend of Robin Hood. The film stars Sea ...
'', starring Sean Connery
Sir Sean Connery (born Thomas Connery; 25 August 1930 – 31 October 2020) was a Scottish actor. He was the first actor to portray fictional British secret agent James Bond on film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. Origina ...
as Robin Hood and Audrey Hepburn
Audrey Hepburn (born Audrey Kathleen Ruston; 4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was a British actress and humanitarian. Recognised as both a film and fashion icon, she was ranked by the American Film Institute as the AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars, t ...
as Maid Marian, portrays the figures in later years after Robin has returned from service with Richard the Lionheart
Richard I (8 September 1157 – 6 April 1199) was King of England from 1189 until his death in 1199. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Aquitaine and Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, and Count of Poitiers, Anjou, Maine, and Nantes, and was overl ...
in a foreign crusade and Marian has gone into seclusion in a nunnery. This is the first in popular culture to portray King Richard as less than perfect.
Muslim Merry Men
Since the 1980s, it has become commonplace to include a Saracen
upright 1.5, Late 15th-century German woodcut depicting Saracens
Saracen ( ) was a term used in the early centuries, both in Greek and Latin writings, to refer to the people who lived in and near what was designated by the Romans as Arabia Pe ...
(Arab
The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Western Asia, ...
/Muslim
Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...
) among the Merry Men, a trend that began with the character Nasir in the 1984 ITV ''Robin of Sherwood
''Robin of Sherwood'' is a British television series, based on the legend of Robin Hood. Created by Richard Carpenter, it was produced by HTV in association with Goldcrest, and ran from 28 April 1984 to 28 June 1986 on the ITV network. In th ...
'' television series. Later versions of the story have followed suit: a version of Nasir appears in the 1991 movie '' Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'' (Azeem) and the 2006 BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
).
as his son Ahchoo. The 2010 movie version ''
'', did not include a Saracen character. The 2018 adaptation ''
.
'' (''Thierry the Sling''). This successful series, which was also shown in Canada, Poland (''Thierry Śmiałek''), Australia (''The King's Outlaw''), and the Netherlands (''Thierry de Slingeraar''), transposes the English Robin Hood narrative into
.
The original ballads and plays, including the early medieval poems and the latter broadside ballads and garlands have been edited and translated for the very first time in French in 2017 by
. Until then, the texts had been unavailable in France.
of Robin Hood has been debated for centuries. A difficulty with any such historical research is that Robert was a very common
'' in the 12th century. The surname Hood (by any spelling) was also fairly common because it referred either to a hooder, who was a maker of
, or alternatively to somebody who wore a hood as a head-covering. It is therefore unsurprising that medieval records mention a number of people called "Robert Hood" or "Robin Hood", some of whom are known criminals.
Another view on the origin of the name is expressed in the
''hout'', pronounced /hʌut/, also meaning "wood"), and that the outlaw's name has been given as "Robin Wood".