''Robyn and Gandeleyn'' is an English

ballad 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 ...

. The poem is in Sloane Manuscript 2593, a document of lyrics and carols which dates from around 1450. It was first

printed Printing is a process for mass reproducing text and images using a master form or template. The earliest non-paper products involving printing include cylinder seals and objects such as the Cyrus Cylinder and the Cylinders of Nabonidus. The e ...

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 ...

in his 1790 collection ''Ancient Songs''. It was later republished in the second half of the 19th century in an anthology of traditional English and Scottish ballads by

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 ...

known as the

Child 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 '' ...

, where it is Child Ballad 115. Child also divided the continuous text into seventeen stanzas. The ballad has attracted interest from scholars of

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 ...

due to the similarity of Robyn's name and the involvement of both precise archery and a dangerous forest as motifs. Despite this similarity, Child and other scholars generally believe that the ballad is not directly connected to Robin Hood's legend. If it really is a reference to Robin Hood, it would be one of the earliest attested stories, along with ''

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. ...

''.

Plot

Robyn kills a deer, but is then shot and killed by an arrow. His servant Gandeleyn looks about for the killer and finds Wrennok of Donne, a young archer (described as a "little boy"). They exchange words, and Gandeleyn says they shall shoot at a mark of each other's hearts. Wrennok fires first but his shot misses. Gandeleyn fires second and cleaves his heart in two, killing Wrennok. The ballad concludes with Gandeleyn declaring Wrennok cannot boast of killing both Robyn and his servant.

Analysis

In general, most scholars believe the Robyn in this ballad to be unrelated to the more famous

. There appear to be more differences than similarities between Robyn and Gandeleyn and Robin and Little John. Despite the belief it is unlikely to be directly related, the ballad is often included in collections of Robin Hood literature due to being a relevant example of folklore of perceptions of the medieval greenwood as a place of sudden violence and duels over affairs of honor. Child's division into stanzas is generally thought to work well enough. The work largely has a

rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB r ...

of ABCB, also known as a

ballad stanza In poetry, a ballad stanza is a type of a four-line stanza, known as a quatrain, most often found in the folk ballad. The ballad stanza consists of a total of four lines, with the first and third lines written in the iambic tetrameter and the secon ...

, although there are several six-line stanzas that integrate awkwardly. The work may have been recited rather than sung, and thus is closer to a poem than a song. Transcription errors, such as a presumably accidental repetition of two lines, leads to suspicion that the Sloane manuscript 2593 was copied hastily and potentially inaccurately, but any differences with an older, lost version can only be speculated on. Other opinions have been offered as well, often suggesting that the Robyn described may have been a

poacher Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set a ...

and thus the ballad was about poaching. A thin possibility holds out a connection to '' The Tale of Gamelyn'', a story found in some manuscripts that included '' The Canterbury Tales'', but there is nothing to connect Gamelyn and Gandeleyn aside from their similar names. The author Robert Graves offered the eccentric view that the ballad was really about birds, and described the New Year's hunting of a wren (=Wrennok?) in vengeance for a robin (=Robyn?) murdered in midsummer.

References

External links

''Robyn and Gandelyn''Introduction
*, Child's version {{Francis James Child Child Ballads Robin Hood ballads Sloane Manuscript 2593 Middle English poems 15th-century poems