"Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar" is

Child Ballad 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 '' ...

number 123, about

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 ...

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 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 ...

the story also appears in May Day plays and there is good reason to think that it goes back to at least the fifteenth century. The outlaws have a good hunt. Robin Hood says there is no match for

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, alo ...

within a hundred miles; Will Scadlock tells him that 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 ...

at Fountains Abbey can. Robin sets out to see this monk. He finds him by a riverside and forces the monk to carry him over, except that the friar throws him in halfway across. They battle until Robin asks a favor: to let him blow on his horn. When the friar agrees, Robin's men appear, with bows in hand. The friar asks a favor: to let him whistle. When Robin agrees, many fierce dogs appear. In the later version, Little John shoots twenty of them, and the Friar agrees to make peace with Robin. In the earlier version, Robin Hood good-humoredly refuses further combat; in both earlier and later versions Robin invites him to join the band.

Adaptions

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 ...

used this tale in his ''

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 ...

'' as part of the tale of

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 ...

: Robin needed a priest who would perform the wedding ceremony in defiance of authority, 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 surnam ...

proposed

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 ...

.Michael Patrick Hearn, "Afterword", Howard Pyle ''The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood'', p. 384

Thirteen months

The

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 ...

version of the ballad begins with the stanza: :But how many merry monthes be in the yeere? :There are thirteen, I say; :The midsummer moone is the merryest of all, :Next to the merry month of May.

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was a British poet, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were both Celtic ...

in his ''English and Scottish Ballads'' used this stanza to support his argument for pagan survivals in the Robin Hood legend, and for the popular survival of a supposedly pagan thirteen-month calendar.

References

External links

''INTRODUCTION TO ROBIN HOOD AND THE CURTAL FRIAR''
Child Ballads Robin Hood ballads {{Folk-song-stub