Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly is Child ballad 141, 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 dep ...

Synopsis

Robin Hood is brought news that 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, ...

surprised Will Stutely, and though he killed two of the Sheriff's men, he was captured. They set out to rescue him, confirm the story from a

palmer Palmer may refer to: People and fictional characters * Palmer (pilgrim), a medieval European pilgrim to the Holy Land * Palmer (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Palmer (surname), including a list of people and ...

, and arrive as he is being brought out. Will Stutly offers to fight the sheriff's men, with his bare hands, if need be, but the sheriff is resolved to hang him.

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 ...

jumps out to cut his bonds and give him a sword. Robin's men rouse up, and the sheriff and his men flee, and Robin's men go back to Sherwood.

Influences

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 ...

believed this to be derived from

Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires or Robin Hood and the Widow's Three Sons is a traditional ballad about Robin Hood, listed as Child ballad 140 and Roud 70. Synopsis Robin meets an old woman lamenting that her sons will hang for poaching the king' ...

.Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires (Child 140)
/ref>

Adaptations

The entire tale was used by

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 ...

in his '' Merry Adventures of Robin Hood'', often with no more changes than rendering the verse as prose. An anonymous "brave young man" was identified as David of Doncaster, as part of his development of that character.

References

External links

''Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly''
Child Ballads Robin Hood ballads {{Folk-song-stub