Robin Hùď Rescues Wilkin

I have recently introduced the multi talented Adele Treskillard. She is a regular visitor to this site and a keen researcher into the legend of Robin Hood. Her own website is at http://adele.epictales.org/ and it is here that you will see not only the first chapter of her current book Wolf’s Bard, but information on her family folk group known as Wren Song. They are a Celtic band focusing on traditional Scottish and Irish music. Gaelic sean-nos style songs and Scottish ballads mingle in their performances, blending voice and bodhran with tin whistle, harp, bagpipe, fiddle, keyboard, guitar and mandolin



Adele’s father Robert is a software developer, graphic designer, amateur comic book artist and an author of an Arthurian novel, Merlin’s Blade. He lives with his wife in St. Louis, Missouri with their three talented children. Robert’s web site is at http://robert.epictales.org/


Wren Song is currently putting together their first CD and information on their performances can be found at http://www.wrensong.org/


Adele describes her recent research thus:


“Through many long hours and days and months of research I have gotten down into the heart-depth of the Robin Hood legend. I have looked at English folk-plays, children's games, nursery rhymes, dusty ballad collections (400 years dust, I mean), and place name legends, plus taking into account Gaelic and Welsh folklore.


In reconstructing ballads from the various songs which run parallel to each other, I first have to straighten my sequences out into a logical sequence and work out the correct wordings and structures of the verses by comparisons between the differing versions, then I happily must go searching to fill in the gaps that will assuredly still be there when all is said and done, then I get to put it to music (which involves picking tunes etc) and hey presto, there it is. A bit like climbing up a cliff!”


Below is Adele’s clever reconstruction of an ancient Robin Hood ballad. Perhaps very soon we will be able to listen to it with music by Wren Song:


Robin Hùď Rescues Wilkin


© 2009 arrangement by Adele Treskillard


Sources: Child variants # 249, 212A, (Bronsons) 104, 107, 209, 99, 169, 280, 279. Other ballads used: Fair Eleanor & the Brown Girl from The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, Vol. 2 1952. Also Robin Hood & the Old Man from Robert Jamieson’s Popular Ballads and Songs from Tradition, Manuscripts and Scarce Editions, 1806. More ballads: Bold Robin Hood & the Three Squires (Bronsons), Robin Hood Rescuing Will Scathelocke, Forester MS, Robin Hood & the Beggar (#1), Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly, Little John a Begging, and Robin Hood and Queen Catherine.


In summer time when leaves grow green
It is a seemly sight to see
How Robin Hùď himself has dressed
And all his yeomandry.


A silver-laced scarlet cloak
And bows of yew, with strings of silk
Black hats white feathers all alike
And goodly steeds that be like milk


He decked his men in Lincoln green
Himself in scarlet red
Fair of his breast then was it seen
When his silver arms were spread


In his mantle of green, most brave to be seen,
Robin rides to fair London
The first one that they met with
Was a jolly beggar man


"Come change thy apparel with me, old man,
In faith thou shalt have mine;
Here are twenty pieces of good broad gold
Go drink it in ale or wine."


“Thou thine apparel is light Lincoln green
And mine gray russet and torn,
Wherever you go, wherever you ride,
Laugh neer an old man to scorn."


But Robin did on the old man’s shirt
Was torn at the hand
“By th’ faith of my body,” bold Robin can say,
“It’s the clothing that makes a man!”


But Robin did on the old man's shoes,
And they were clout full clean
Then Little John swore a solemn oath
“These’re good for thorns keen!”


Then he put on the old man's hat,
It goggled on the crown
"The first bold bargain that I come at,
It shall make thee come down!"


But Robin did on the old man’s cloak,
Was patched blue, black, and red;
He had thought no shame all the day long
To bear the bags of bread.


Then he put on the old man's breeks,
Was patched from ballup to side:
"By the truth of my body," bold Robin can say,
"This man loved little pride."


Then he put on the old man's hose,
Were patched from knee to waist:
“When I look on my legs,” said Robin,
“Then for to laugh I list.”


When Robin Hùď got on the beggar’s clothes,
He looked round about;
"Methinks," said he, "I seem to be
A beggar brave and stout.


“For now I have a bag for my bread,
So have I another for corn;
I have one for salt, and another for malt,
And here’s one for my horn.”


“But yonder,” said Robin, “is Ringlewood,
An outwood all and a shade,
And thither I rede you, my merry men all,
The ready way to take.


And when you hear my little horn blow
Come raking all on a rout
You bend your bows, and stroke your strings,
Set the gallow-tree about!”


Now Robin Hùď is to London gone,
With a link a down and a down,
And there he met with the proud sheriff,
Was walking along the town.


“An asking, an asking,” said jolly Robin
“An asking ye’ll grant to me
What will you give to a silly old man
To-day will your hangman be?"


"Some suits, some suits," the sheriff he said,
"Some suits I'll give to thee;
Some suits, some suits, and pence thirteen
Today's a hangman's fee."


But Robin he leap, and Robin he throw,
He lope over stock and stone
But those that saw Robin Hood run
Said he was a liver old man


When Wilkin came out at the dungeon-stair,
He was both red and rosy;
But when he cam to the gallows-foot,
He was colored like the lily.


When Robin leapt up the gallows stairs,
Among the chieftains many,
Black cloth is tied over Gilbert’s face,
And the gallows making ready.


Robin mounted the gallows so high
Then he stepped to his brethren two
“Gilbert and Wilkin, before you die
I needs shall borrow you.”


“I have a horn in my pocket,
I got it from Robin Hùď,
And still when I set it to my mouth,
For thee it blows great good."


“O wind thy horn,” High Sheriff he says,
“Of thee I have no doubt;
I wish that thou give such a blast,
Till both thine eyes fly out.”


He set his horn unto his mouth
And he has blown both loud and shrill
Till five hundred bold archers
Came skipping o'er the hill


Robin’s casten down his bags of bread
Let aa' his mealpocks faa'
And in a sark of red and green
He stood out-o'er them aa'!


"Who are you?" said the Sheriff
"That comes so speedilie?"
"These men are mine, and none of thine,
They've come for their comrades three!"


Then they shot east, and they shot west,
Their arrows were so keen,
That the sheriff and his company
No longer might be seen.

Robyn and Gandelyn

Historians often slip into their various tomes on Robin Hood, the ‘ballad’ Robyn and Gandelyn and then try to dismiss it; by saying that ‘no way can the Robyn of the lyric be identified with the outlaw Robin Hood.’ But I feel it cannot be ruled out-but more on that later. In the meantime let’s look at this controversial and enigmatic tale.The unique manuscript dated from about 1450 was preserved in the Sloane MS 2593 and was first published by Joseph Ritson in 1790, and has been reprinted many times since. Francis. J. Child in his monumental English and Scottish Ballads (1858) (Vol. III, pp.12-13) pointed out that in regards to Robyn and Gandelyn, 'thought is free'. Child also goes on to quote Thomas Wright in his Songs and Carols, who remarks on the similarity of the name Gandelyn to Gamelyn in the tale assigned to the Cook in some manuscripts of the Canterbury Tales, and on the resemblance of the ‘Tale of Gamelyn’ to the Robin Hood story.
Walter Skeat (Oxford, 1893, p. ix) believed that the Robyn of this poem was Robin Hood, and that Gandeleyn is a mere corruption of Gamelyn from the Tale of Gamelyn. Douglas Gray, in his The Robin Hood Poems (1984) just described the ‘carol’ as ‘mysterious and evil’.

Below is a modern translation:

ROBYN AND GANDELYN

Robin lies in the greenwood wrapped in a shroud.

I heard the singing of a clerk,

All at the yonder wood's end,

Of good Robin and Gandelyn;

There was no other company.

Strong thieves those children were not,

But bowmen good and honorable;

They went to the woods to get some meat,

If God would send it to them.

All day went those children two,

And flesh they did not find,

Until it was again evening;

The children desired to go home.

Half a hundred of fat fallow deer

They came upon,

And all were fair and fat enough,

And blemishes there were none;

"By dear God," said good Robin,

"Of these we shall have one."

Robin bent his jolly bow,

Therein he set an arrow;

The fattest deer of all,

Its heart he cleft in two.

He had not flayed the deer,

Not half out of the hide,

When there came a shrewd arrow out of the west,

That felled Robin's pride.

Gandelyn looked east and west,

Be every side:

"Who has slain my master?

Who has done this deed?

I shall never go out of the greenwood

Till I see his sides bleed."

Gandelyn looked east and looked west,

And sought under the sun;

He saw a little boy

They call Wrennok of Donne.

A good bow in his hand,

A broad arrow therein,

And four and twenty good arrows,

Tied in a bundle:

"You beware, beware,

Gandelyn,

You shall have some of the same.

"Beware, beware, Gandelyn,

Of this you will get plenty.

""Ever one for another," said Gandelyn;

"Misfortune have he who should flee."

"Where shall our mark be?"Said Gandelyn.

"Each at the other's heart,"

Said Wrennok again.

"Who shall give the first shot?" Said Gandelyn:

"I shall give the one before."Said Wrennok again.

Wrennok shot a full good shot,

And he shot not too high;

Through the clothes of his breeches,

It touched neither thigh.

"Now you have given me one before,"

All thus to Wrennok he said,

"And through the might of our Lady

A better one I shall give you."

Gandelyn bent his good bow,

And set therein an arrow;

He shot through his green kirtle,

His heart he cleft in two.

"Now shall you never boast,

Wrennok,

At ale nor at wine,

That you have slain good Robin,

And his knave Gandelyn."

"Now shall you never boast,

Wrennok,

At wine nor at ale,

That you have slain good Robin,

And Gandelyn his servant."

Robin lies in the greenwood wrapped in a shroud.

No matter how many times I read this ballad- or carol as it sometimes called, I see something different in it. There is certainly an intoxicating mixture of elements. I love it. It takes us right back to our medieval past and possibly earlier. There are many who link it with the ancient ritual of hunting the Wren. Robert Graves (English and Scottish Ballads, 1957, pp. 149-50) thought that: 'Although this seems to be a ballad about Robin Hood the Archer, its real subject is the ‘New Year's hunting of the wren in vengeance of the robin murdered at midsummer'

The ‘Annual Wren Hunt’ is an ancient tradition wrapped in folk-lore and mythology, best described thus:

“At Yule, the Robin, symbolic of the waxing year, Kills the Wren, the bird symbolic of the waning year, A wren used to be sacrificed at midwinter solstice. It would be carried on a bed of holly and taken from house to house to ask for money. (To bury the wren) meaning to bury winter.”

So the wren was the symbol of the old year, a tradition that has possibly descended from Celtic mythology, killed by the robin, representing the new year. In Ireland, the men would hunt the wren on St. Stephen's Day, the day after Christmas. Christian legend said that the wren gave away the Christian martyr, St. Stephen as he hid in the furze from the Jews. This mythological association with treachery is a probable reason why in past times the bird was hunted by Wrenboys on St. Stephen's Day.

The boys would chase down the birds, beating them from bushes with long sticks and general carousing. Once the bird was dead, the boys would carry it around the town, singing. The song, of which there are many variations, asked for donations from the townspeople. Often, the young men gave a feather from the bird to patrons for good luck. The money was used to host a dance for the town, held that night. The Wren was then put on top of a pole which was decorated with ribbons, wreaths, and flowers and was the centre of the dance.

So in this haunting ritualistic piece I believe we can not only see glimpses of our ancient past, but also-from the shrouded ‘ good and honorable’ Robin, poaching deer in the forest with his ‘jolly bow’ -we also witness the evolution of the legend of the outlaw Robin Hood.

What do you think?

The Robin Hood Ballads

The way was long,
The wind was cold,
The minstrel was infirm and old,
His harp, his sole remaining joy,
Was carried by an orphan boy.
One of regular visitors to this site, Adele Treskillard is a modern day minstrel and author who sings with her group, known as Wren’s Song http://adele.epictales.org/. She has a keen interest in Robin Hood research, particularly with the evolution of those early medieval ballads about the outlaw and we have had long discussions vie email about their content. So I have decided to post an article I did for a Robin Hood Forum many years ago about the ballads concerning his exploits and the many other forgotten outlaw tales.

From our warm, centrally heated and double glazed homes, it is almost impossible to imagine what life was like for our medieval ancestors. On those dark, freezing cold evenings there was no doubt very often little to do except talk around the fire or sleep. So the minstrels (from ‘ministralis’ meaning dependant) who were kept by the great landlords must have sometimes been treated like our ‘pop’ stars of today.
Merry it is in halle to hear the harpe,
The minstrelles synge,
The jongleurs carpe.
Their ballads can be best described rather like modern day ‘soap operas’. These ‘talkyngs’ held the beliefs and aspirations of those who told the story and were created to entertain. This is important to remember. Like our modern day ‘soaps’, they did not survive if they were not popular. When the minstrel told how Robin hanged the sheriff or cut him in pieces, they were not describing a historical event, but we can be sure they were the vain dreams of many men gathered around the fire.

The violence of those early Robin Hood ballads is ruthless:
John smote off the munkis hed,
No longer wolde he dwell;
So did Much the litull page,Ffor ferd lest he wolde tell.
And could you imaging Hollywood allowing Errol Flynn to do this to Basil Rathbone?
He tooke Sir Guy’s head by the hayre,
And sticked itt on his bowes end:
‘Thou has beene traytor all thy life,
Which thing must have an ende.’

Robin pulled forth an Irish knife,
And nicked Sir Guy in the fface,
That he was never on a woman borne
Cold tell who Sir Guye was.
That is not the Robin Hood I grew up reading about. Little John even shoots the sheriff in the back!
But he cold neither soe fast goe,
Not away soe fast runn,
But Litle John, with an arrow broade,
Did cleave his heart in twin.
Like many Robin Hood enthusiasts, I try to pull those early ballads apart, scrutinize the names and try to fix them into a historical context. But, by the time the existing ballads of Robin Hood came to be written down, the outlaw hero was already a figure of traditional narrative.

His world seems to be of the later Middle Ages, but he doesn’t seem to belong to any particular year or event. He has no ancestry, he remains impersonal and illusive and perhaps this is the key as to why his popularity has lasted for eight centuries. Robin’s legend is unique, because it exists without its text. His story can be manipulated to become anything, from a yeoman, disinherited nobleman, or a native Saxon fighting evil Normans.

So what evidence is there to suggest he ever lived? No one ever said they saw or knew him. No surviving chronicles exist that prove he existed. The early chroniclers-centuries later- only seem to use references from the ballads. So we come back to the work of those minstrels and entertainers for any evidence. But did the audiences of those early Robin Hood ballads, in their wealthy household, or market place or tavern, even care if this outlaw ever lived?
Whoever wants to hear more must open his purse.
My biggest disappointment, when I first started reading about the Robin Hood legend, was to discover how much of his story appears to have been ‘borrowed’ from other outlaw ballads. This led Professor Francis Child (1825-96) the great American Philologist, in his monumental ‘English and Scottish Popular Ballads’ to describe our hero as ‘absolutely a creation of ballad muse.’
There is indeed striking similarities between the stories of Robin Hood and the ballad heroes of an earlier date. The legend of Fulk Fitzwarin survives in a single manuscript, probably of the reign of Edward I (1239-1307) and contains at least two almost identical stories that later appear in the 15th Century ‘Geste of Robyn Hode’. Fulk’s brother John confronts ten merchants and the truthfulness of their answers determines whether or not they keep their goods.


In the ‘Geste of Robyn Hode’, Little John and Much stop the two monks and do the same. Later on Fulk Fitzwarin and his men ambush King John in Windsor Forest, where the King begs for mercy and swears to restore to Fulk his entire inheritance. In the ‘Geste’ King John’s role is played by the Sheriff of Nottingham, otherwise the story is substantially the same.

The tale of the Saxon outlaw known as Hereward and the Potter is almost identical to the ballad ‘Robin Hood and the Potter.’ The only difference is that William the Conqueror has become the Sheriff of Nottingham. This story-line also appears in the 13th Century ballad of ‘Eustace the Monk’ (c.1170-1217) who also flourished during the reign of King John. Eustace lives in the forest with a band of men and through many disguises the outlaw manages to trick and ridicule the Count of Bologne and lure him into the forest, where he is ambushed but eventually freed. Victims are brought to Eustace’s camp and asked how much they carry. If they tell the truth they are allowed to keep it, if not the outlaws keep the difference. Sound familiar?
Always in these outlaw legends the champion of justice is the master outlaw. In the ‘Tale of Gamelyn,’ probably written about the middle of the fourteenth century we have the familiar outlaw code:
Whil Gamelyn was outlawed, had he no cors:
There was no man for him ferde the wors.
But abbots and priouris, monk and chanoun.
The audiences of the middle ages seemed to thoroughly enjoy stories of concealment and trickery. Fulk disguises himself as an old monk, a merchant and a charcoal burner. Hereward is disguised as a potter and a fisherman. Eustace the Monk wears the clothes of a potter, shepherd, pilgrim, charcoal burner, woman, leper, carpenter and minstrel. William Wallace became a potter, pilgrim a woman (twice) and a beggar. Robin Hood dressed up as a potter, butcher, beggar, shepherd, old woman, fisherman, Guy of Gisborne etc. These became the stock-in-trade tales of those early entertainers.

Some of the Robin Hood ballads seem to have changed very little and probably remain close to their medieval originals, others are not. Out of thirty-eight poems and songs published by Francis Child between the years 1882-1898 only five surviving ballads and a fragment of a play about Robin Hood seem to originate from the middle ages.

So for me, starting out on my historical quest for the ‘real’ outlaw Robin Hood, this was all a crushing blow. How much of his legend has even a grain of historical truth? Even the story of the firing of his last arrow seems to have been lifted from ancient mythology. The search was going to be a lot harder than I thought!

So my look back at the early outlaw ballads was a reality check. But I have continued my quest for the truth behind the legend of Robin Hood. It has opened up many doors into various aspects of the rich tapestry of our nation’s history. On this web site I will continue to post about the Robin Hood Places, Robin Hood History and of course the Robin Hood Ballads. But it must never be forgotten that it was those many mysterious, anonymous, often-illiterate minstrels and entertainers; the touring ‘pop stars’ of their time, that first spawned the countless incarnations of the legend that we know today.

I will finish with a proverb from c.1400-25 that is a warning to all those who join with me, through this web site, on the long and winding trail of the greenwood outlaw:For mani, manime seith, spekith of Robyn Hood that schotte never in his bowe.Please click on the Labels Robin Hood Places, Robin Hood Ballads and Robin Hood History for more information.

The Lost Rhymes of Robin Hood

There is no doubt amongst most scholars that there were earlier and ‘shorter’ tales of Robin Hood originally in existence. What we have are chance survivals. The Geste as we all know was a series of separate stories strung together, a pastiche. The author seems to have combined, often quite clumsily, ‘Robin Hood and the Knight,’ ‘Robin Hood, Little John and the Sheriff’: ‘Robin Hood and the King’; and 'Robin Hood’s Death.’ What went before we will probably never know.

But an interesting point was made by Dr Peter Coss (Holt.p.192) that the story of ‘Robin Hood and the Knight’ might have evolved from an earlier, independent story of a crusading knight or pilgrim, returning from the Holy Land. This once against highlights the thorny question of what is original in the surviving Robin Hood medieval ballads. Particularly when, as Maurice Keen points out ‘ many of the episodes can be shown to belong to a stock of popular legends, which do not attach to any one story or even to one cycle of stories in particular.’

One wonders what might have been on those manuscripts that Bishop Percy found being burnt in Humphrey Pitt's house at Shifnal, Shropshire, by the housemaid who was using them to light the fire!

But we live in hope. In about 1320 somebody wrote out an Anglo Norman poem in ordinary prose. It eventually found its way to the British Museum, but nobody read it because it had been carelessly labelled. It was ‘Fulk Le Fitz Waryn!’

Please click on Robin Hood Ballads for more information.

Robin Hoode his Death

I have posted this for Adele Treskillard who has a strong interest in the Robin Hood legend and the site of his grave. The link to her excellent web site can be found amongst my favourite blog links.

In the eighteenth century, Thomas Percy (1729-1811), Bishop of Dromore, rescued a manuscript from a Shropshire house, which contained two of the most intriguing Robin Hood ballads, ‘Robin Hoode his Death’ and ‘Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne.’ These are chance survivals. ‘Robin Hoode his Death’ appears to have been known to the compiler of the ‘Geste’ and ‘Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne’ is connected with the dramatic fragment of the late fifteenth century.

This mid-seventeenth century copy of ‘Robin Hoode his Death’ is in a mutilated state with sections of the ballad badly torn away in three places.

The ballad begins:
‘I will never eate nor drinke,’ Robin Hood said,
‘Nor meate will doo me noe good,
Till I have beene att merry Church Lees,
My vaines for to let blood.’

‘That I reade [advise] not,’ said Will Scarllett,
‘Master, by the assente of me,
Without halfe a hundred of your best bowman
You take to goe with yee.

Robin will only take Little John to carry his bow. But John insists that Robin should carry his own bow and shoot for pennies, which they eventually do all day long.

They two bolde children shotten together
All day theire selfe in ranke,
Untill they came to blacke water,
And over it laid a planke.

Upon it there kneeled an old woman,
Was banning Robin Hoode;
‘Why dost thou bann Robin Hoode?’ said Robin

(Half a page missing)

…………………………………………………….

‘To give to Robin Hoode;
Wee weepen for his deare body,
That this day must be let bloode.’

‘The dame prior is my aunts daughter,
And nie unto my kinne;
I know shee wold me noe harme this day,
For all the world to winne.’

Upon reaching Church Lees, Robin gives the Prioress twenty pounds in gold and promises her more if she needs it.

And downe then came dame prioresse,
Downe she came in that ilke,
With a pair off blood irons [lancing knives] in her hands
Were wrapped all in silke.

‘Sett a chaffing-dish to the fyer,’ said dame prioresse,
‘And strpp thou up thy sleeve:’
I hold him but an unwise man
That wil noe warning leeve [believe].’

Shee laid the blood irons to Robin Hoods vaine,
Alacke, the more pitye!
And pearct the vaine, and let out the bloode,
That full red was to see.

And first it bled, the thicke, thicke bloode,
And afterwards the thinne,
And well then wist good Robin Hoode
Treason there was within

‘What cheere my master?’ said Litle John;
‘In faith, John, little goode;’

(Half a page is missing)
.........................................................

Nine stanzas are now missing from the manuscript; next Robin appears to be talking to ‘Red Roger.’

‘I have upon a gowne of greene,
Is cut short by my knee,
And in my hand a bright browne brand
That will well bite of thee.’

As Robin tries to escape through a shot window, Red Roger thrusts him through the side with a sword. But Robin in return, strikes him ‘betwixt his head and his shoulders.’

Says, ‘Ly there, ly there Red Roger,
The dogs they must thee eate:
‘For I may have my houzle[ housel; receive the last sacraments], he said,
‘For I may both goe and speake.’

Little John asks Robin to give him leave to burn Church Lees to the ground.

‘That I reade not,’ said Robin Hoode then,
‘Litle John, for it may not be;
If I shold doe any widow hurt, at my latter end,
God,’ he said, ‘wold blame me;

‘But take me upon thy backe, Litle John,
And beare me to yonder streete,
And there make me a full fayre grave,
Of gravell and of greete [grit].

‘And sett my bright sword at my head,
Mine arrows at my feete,
And lay my vew-bow [yew-bow] by my side,
My met-yard [measuring rod] wi ………………………
(Half a page is missing)

Wynkyn de Worde

Above is a copy of the first page of the Wynkyn de Worde edition of ‘a lytell geste of Robyn hode and his meyne.’ (Cambridge University Library Ms. Sel.5.18). The date of this edition is difficult to put more precisely than between 1492 and 1534.

Wynkyn de Worde (Jan van Wynken) d.1534/5 was William Caxton’s journeyman who arrived in England about 1481. After Caxton’s death in 1491 de Worde took over his former master’s print shop in Westminster and in about 1500 moved his presses into ‘flete street at the sygne of the sone.’ Fleet Street later became known as the ‘spiritual home of British journalism.’

During his career de Worde published over 400 books in 800 editions, on subjects like religion, poetry, husbandry and household practice. But he also printed children’s books, Christmas carols, ballads and romantic novels for a mass audience, including this surviving edition of ‘A Gest of Robyn Hode’.

To read more about ‘A Gest of Robyn Hode’ please click on the Robin Hood Ballads and Robin Hood History labels.

The Play of ‘Robin Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham’

This fragment of a genuine medieval Robin Hood play is written on the upper half of a half sheet of paper (8’’x10’’) containing household accounts from East Anglia dated May 1475-August 1475 and is kept at Trinity College, Cambridge, MS.R.2. 64 (fragment)

This verse play of twenty-one lines is possibly founded on the ballad of ‘Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne,’ although in this document, Robin’s opponent is not mentioned. But included for the first time in the outlaw gang, is ‘ffrere Tuck’. The manuscript was once part of the collection of ‘Paston Papers’ and therefore could be the very play mentioned in 1473 in a letter by Sir John Paston, where he described a re-absconding servant hired to play Robin Hood and Saint George, who had ‘goon into Bernysdale.’

The speakers are not identified in the fragmentary text, so any re-construction is conjectural.

Knight: Syr sheryffe, for thy sake,
Robyn Hode wull I take.

Sheriff: I wyll the gyffe golde and fee;
This be-hest thou holde me. [If you keep this pledge with me]

(The Sheriff leaves and Robin Hood is challenged by the bounty-hunting knight)

Knight: Robyn Hode, ffayre and fre,
Under this lynde shote we.

Robin: With the shot y wyll
Alle thy lustes to full-fyll.

(Robin and the knight fight)

Knight: Have at the pryke! [I shoot at the target]

Robin: And I cleve the styke. [And I cleave the wand]

(Robin wins)

Knight: Let us caste [throw] the stone.

Robin: I graunte well, be Seynt John!

(Robin wins again)

Knight: Let us caste the exaltre.

(They toss a wooden axle)

Robin: Have a foot before the!
Syr Knyght, ye have a falle.

(They wrestle and Robin wins)

Knight: And I the, Robyn, qwyte; [I shall quit you Robin]
Owte on the! I blow myn horne.

Robin: Hit ware better be un-borne: [better not to have been born]
Lat us fight at outtraunce. [let us fight to the uttermost]
He that fleth, God gyfe hym myschaunce!

(Robin kills the knight)

Robin: Now I have the maystry here,
Off I smyte this sory swyre. (Robin cuts off the knight’s head)
This knyghtys clothis wolle I were,
And in my hode his hede woll bere. (Robin disguises himself as the knight)

We are now with two unknown members of Robin’s band of outlaws, probably Little John and Will Scarlet . Outlaw 1 seems to meet Outlaw 2 as he approaches a conflict in the forest between Robin’s men and the Sheriff.

Outlaw 1: Welle mete, felowe myn,
What herst thou of gode Robyn?

Outlaw 2: Robyn Hode and his menye
With the sheryffe takyn be.

Outlaw 1: Sette on foote with gode wyll
And the sheryffe wull we kyll.

(The two outlaws watch the fight going on in the distance)

Outlaw 2: Be-holde wele Frere Tuke*
Howe he dothe his bowe pluke!

*First known mention of Friar Tuck amongst Robin Hood’s outlaw band

(The Sheriff enters with Friar Tuck and the other outlaws as prisoners: he addresses Little John and Scarlet)

Sheriff: Yeld yow, syrs, to the sheryffe,
Or ells shall your bowes clyffe. [be cut]

(Outlaws 1 and 2 surrender to the Sheriff)

Outlaw 1: Now we be bownden alle in same:
Frere Tuke, this is no game.

Sheriff: Come thou forth, thou fals outlawe,
Thou shall be hangyde and y-drawe. [hung and drawn]

Friar Tuck: Now, allas, what shall we doo?
We moste to the prysone goo.

Sheriff: Opyn the gatis faste anon,
And late theis thevys ynne gon. [and let these thieves go inside]

The Famous Battle Between Robin Hood And The Curtal Fryer

Shown above is the Broadside version of The Famous Battle between Robin Hood and the Curtal Fryer. To a new Northern Tune. This copy is held at the Bodleian Library in Oxford and was printed for F. Coles, T. Vere and W. Gilbertson in about 1660.

Robin Hood And The Potter

Another of the early Robin Hood ballads, Robin Hood and the Potter survives in only one manuscript (Cambridge University Library M.S. Ee.4.35 fos. 14v-19) and appears to have been taken down by recitation. The language is even more difficult than Robin Hood and the Monk and one page of the 24 page manuscript significantly details the expenses for the feast of the marriage of Henry VII’s daughter, Margaret Tudor, to James IV of Scotland on 8th August 1503. The scribe, writing in a ‘clear and bastard hand,’ seems to have omitted a line, but the rest is complete.

Two important features emerge from this story; firstly there is Robin Hood’s unusual dealings- in early ballads- with a woman, in this case the Sheriff’s wife and secondly the hero loses the battle with the potter. This sets the trend for the many later inferior ballads, where Robin challenges and loses to diverse rustics and tradesmen.

The ballad opens with the traditional forest opening:

In schomer, when the leves spryng
The bloschoms on every bowe,
So merey doyt the berdys syng
Yn wodys merey now.

Herkens, god yeman,
Comley, cortessey, and god,
On of the best that yever bare bou,
Hes name was Roben Hode.

Little John warns Robin of a proud potter he had encountered at ‘Wentbreg’ (probably Wentbridge in Yorkshire) who had hit him three times with a staff. They wager forty shillings that Robin can’t make him pay a levy for passing through Barnsdale.

Robin eventually meets the potter:

‘All thes thre yer, and more, potter,’ he seyde,
‘Thow hast hantyd thes wey,
Yet were tow never so cortys a man
On peney* of pavage to pay.’ *1 penny.

They start to fight, Robin with a sword and buckler and the potter with a ‘two-hand’ staff.

Togeder then went thes to yemen,
Het was a god seyt to se;
Thereof low Robyn hes men,
There they stod onder a tre.

But:

The potter, with a caward* stroke, * back-handed.
Smot the bokeler owt of hes honde.

And ar Roben meyt get het agen,
Hes bokeler at hes ffette,
The potter yn the neke hem toke,
To the gronde sone he yede.

The potter teaches Robin a lesson in good manners and Little John wins the bet. Robin, being so impressed with the potter’s skill, befriends him and talks him into exchanging clothes. So dressed as a potter, Robin rides into Nottingham, where he sells fivepenny pots for the price of threepence.

Yn the medys of the towne,
There he showed hes ware;
‘Pottys! Pottys!’ he gan crey foll sone,
‘Haffe hansell ffor the mare!’

Ffoll effen agenest the screffeys gate
Schowed he hes chaffare;
Weyffes and wedowes abowt hem drow,
And chepyd ffast of hes ware.

Eventually he only has five pots left, which he presents as a gift to the sheriff’s wife.

‘Ye schall haffe of the best,’ seyde Roben
And sware be the Treneyte;
Ffoll corteysley he gan hem call,
‘Come deyne with the screfe and me.’

So Robin goes to dine with the sheriff. While they eat, two of the sheriff’s men wager forty shillings over who is the best archer. A contest is held and Robin, still disguised as a potter is invited to join in.

All they schot abowthe agen,
The screffes men and he;
Off the marke he welde not ffayle,
He cleffed the preke on thre.* *He broke the wooden marker into three parts.

The screffes men thowt gret schame
The potter the mastry wan;
The screffe lowe* and made god game, *Laughed.
And seyde, ‘Potter, thow art a man;

They all wonder how a potter could be so skilled with a bow, so Robin reveals a bow to them given to ‘Robin Hood himself!’

‘Knowest thow Robyn Hode?’ seyde the screffe,
‘Potter, y prey the tell thow me;’
‘A hundred torne* y haffe schot with hem, *turns/bouts
Under hes tortyll-tre*.’ *trysting tree

Robin promises the sheriff to take him there. So next day Robin, still disguised as the potter, takes the sheriff deep into the forest. Robin then blows his horn and is soon surrounded by his band of outlaws. Little John laughs and asks Robin how he fared as a potter. The sheriff soon begins to regret his wish to see Robin Hood.

‘Had I west that befforen* *Known that before.
At Notynggam when we were,
Thow scholde not com yn ffeyre fforest
Of all thes thowsande eyre.*’ *Years.

‘That wot y well,’ seyde Roben,
‘Y thanke God that ye be here;
Thereffore schall ye leffe yowre hors with hos*, *Us.
And all yowre hother gere.’

The outlaws take all the sheriffs belongings and send him back to Nottingham on foot, telling him that he would have suffered a lot worse, if it had not been for his wife’s kindness and hospitality towards Robin.

Hether ye cam on hors ffoll hey*, * At rapid speed.

And hom schall ye go on ffote;
And gret well they weyffe at home,
The woman ys ffoll godde.

The sheriff’s wife laughs loud and long at her husband’s discomfort. The ballad ends with Robin paying for the pots.

Thes partyd Robyn, the screffe, and the potter,
Ondernethe the grene-wod tre;
God haffe Mersey on Roben Hodys sole,
And safe all god yemanrey!

A Mery Geste of Robyn Hoode

This is the title-page of William Copeland's edition of the 'Mery Geste of Robyn Hoode' printed in about 1560.

MERRIE CHRISTMAS

This is an excerpt from the festal Christmas ballad 'Robin Hood's Birth Breeding and Valour':


The mother of Robin said to her husband,
"My honey, my love, and my dear,
Let Robin and I ride this morning to Gamwel,
To taste of my brothers good cheer."

And he said, "I grant thee thy boon, gentle Joan,
Take one of my horses, I pray;
The sun is a rising, and therefore make haste,
For tomorrow is Christmas-day."

When Robin had mounted his gelding so grey,
His father, without any trouble,
Set her up behind him, and bad her not fear,
For his gelding had oft carried double.

And when she was settled, they rode to their neighbours,
And drank and shook hands with them all,
And then Robin gallopt and never gave ore,
Til they lighted at Gamwell Hall.

And now you may think the right worshipful squire
Was joyful his sister to see,
For he kist her and kist her, and swore a great oath,
Thou art welcome, kind sister, to me.

To-morrow, when mass had been said in the chapel,
Six tables were coverd in the hall,
And in comes the squire and makes a short speech,
It was "Neighbours, you're welcome all."

"But not a man here shall taste my March beer,
Till a Christmas carrol be sung."
Then all clapt their hands, and they shouted and sung,
Till the hall and the parlour did ring.

Now mustards, braun, roast beef and plumb pies
Were set upon every table,
And noble George Gamwell said,
"Eat and be merry,And drink, too, as long as you're able."

When dinner was ended, his chaplain said grace,
And "Be merry, my friends," said the squire,
"It rains and it blows, but call for more ale,
And lay some more wood on the fire."

I would like to wish you all a Merrie Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year.

A Gest of Robyn Hode

Above is one of the earliest images of Robin Hood. It comes from the first page of the Gest of Robyn Hode (c.1508) by Scotland’s pioneer printers Walter Chepman and Androw Myller. This Chepman & Myllar print of the Gest is in the National Library, Edinburgh. But this woodcut image of Robin Hood had also been used before, by one of the first printers of English books, Richard Pynson (1448-1529) as an illustration of the knight’s yeoman, in his edition of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (1491) shown below.

Robin Hood and the Monk

We have recently looked at the extremely complex Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode which was appearing in print by about 1510. But the earliest surviving Robin Hood ballad is the ‘talking of the munke and Robyn Hode’, or as it is more commonly known, Robin Hood and the Monk, which is dated at some time after 1450.

Dobson and Taylor in their ‘Rymes of Robyn Hood’ (1989) describe Robin Hood and the Monk as the 'supreme example in medieval English literature of the genre of yeoman minstrelsy.' And the great American collector of ballads, Professor Francis James Child (1825-1896) said, ‘too much could not be said in praise of this ballad, but nothing need be said.’

‘Robin Hood and the Monk’ can be found in a Cambridge University manuscript Ff.5.48. together with The Turnament of Tottenham, The Clerk and the Nightingale and various devotional pieces. The section containing the ballad of Robin Hood has been damaged by damp, but the main problem according to Dobson and Taylor, is the carelessness of the scribe when copying the text into the manuscript, leaving a quite lengthy passage missing, between stanzas 30-31. Although the late fifteenth century handwriting of the anonymous scribe, is described as ‘very clear’ and ‘cursive’ .

There are two important points to note. This tale would have actually been heard by audiences of the late fifteenth century before the ballads were transferred to print. Also, Robin Hood and the Monk is the only surviving early ballad that has no reference to the outlaw's Yorkshire haunts. It is set in mery Scherwode, where Little John knows every path.

The ballad begins:

In somer, when the shawes be sheyne,
And leves be large and long,
Hit is full mery in feyre foreste
To here the foulys song.


To se the dere draw to the dale,
And leve the hills hee,
And shadow hem in the leves grene,
Under the grene wode tre.

Hit befell on Whitsontide,
Erly in a May mornyng,
The sun up feyre can shyne,
And the briddis mery can syng.

It has been a fortnight since Robin has heard Mass, so he decides to make amends and take Little John with him to Nottingham.

Than spake Moche, the mylner sun,
Ever more wel hym betyde!
‘Take twelve of thi wyght yemen,
Well weppynd, be this side.
Such on wolde thi selfe slon,
That twelve dar not abyde.’

But Robin will take none but Little John to ‘beyre my bow’. On the way they quarrel over a game of ‘shooting a penny.’ Robin strikes Little John with his hand and his loyal companion draws his sword.

‘Were thou not my maister,’ seid Litull John,
‘Thou shuldis by hit ful sore;
Get the a man wher thou wilt,
For thou getis me no more.’

They both go off in a temper.

While Robin is praying in the church of St. Mary’s in Nottingham, he is recognised by a ‘gret-hedid munke’ who runs off to inform the sheriff. On the way the monk orders all the town gates to be closed.

‘Rise up,’ he seid, ‘thou prowde schereff,
Buske the and make the bowne;
I have spyed the kynggis felon,
Ffor soothe he is in this town.’

The monk continues:

‘This traytur name is Robyn Hode,
Under the grene wode lynde;
He robbyt me onys of a hundred pound,
Hit shalle never out of my mynde.’

When the sheriff and his men arrive at St. Mary’s Church, Robin begins to wish he had not quarrelled with Little John. He manages to kill twelve with his two-handed sword, but becomes over powered when his sword breaks on the sheriff’s head.

Due to damage and a section missing from the manuscript we are suddenly in Sherwood Forest, where the outlaws fall swooning at the news of their leaders capture. But Little John tells them to pluck up their hearts :

‘He has servyd Oure Lady many a day,
And yet wil, securly;
Therfor I trust in Hir specialy;
No wyckud deth shal he dye.’

The monk and his page are then told to travel with a letter telling the news of the capture of Robin Hood to the king. But they eventually meet up with Little John and Much, who have spent the night at the house of Much's uncle. 'The hye way was full nere.'

John asks the monk of news about a ‘false outlaw’ who robbed Much and himself of 20 marks. The monk replies that Robin Hood once stole one hundred pounds from him and they may thank him for laying hands on the outlaw first.

The two yeoman then suggest that they should accompany the monk, as many outlaws are lurking about. So Little John leads the monk’s horse, whilst Much leads that of the page.

Suddenly Little John pulled the monk off his horse by the hood and let him fall to the ground.

‘He was my maister,’ seid Litull John,
‘That thou hase browght in bale;
Shalle you never cum at our kyng,
Ffor to telle hym tale.’

John smote of the munkis hed,
No longer wolde he dwell;
So did Moch the litull page,
Ffor ferd lest he wold tell.

John and Much then bury the monk and his page and set off with the letters to the king.

‘God yow save, my lege king!’
To speke John was full bolde;
He gaf hym the letters in his hond,
The kyng did hit unfold.

The kyng red the letters anon,
And seid, ‘So mot I the,
Ther was never yoman in mery Ingland
I longut so sore to se.’

They explain to the king that the monk had died on his way to London, so the monarch gives John and Much £20 and makes them yeoman of the Crown. The king then gave Little John a seal with instructions to the sheriff to let Little John and Much escort Robin Hood to London.

Little John and Much return to Nottingham, but find all the town gates locked. When Little John asks the porter why, he replies that it is through fear that Robin will be rescued by his men.


Litull John spyrred after the schereff,
And sone he hym fonde;
He oppyned the kingus prive seell,
And gaf hym in his honde.

The sheriff asks what has happened to the monk, Little John replies that the king has made him abbot of Westminster ‘a lorde of that abbay’.

The scheref made John gode chere,
And gaf hym wyne of the best;
At nyght thei went to her bedde,
And every man to his rest.

When the scheref was on slepe,
Dronken of wyne and ale,
Litul John and Moch for soothe
Toke the way unto the jale.

Little John calls the gaoler and tells him that ‘Robyn Hode had brokyn prison’.

The porter rose anon sertan,
As sone as he herd John calle;
Litul John was redy with a swerd,
And bare hym to the walle.

Robin is unbound and given a sword. Once outside the outlaws then make for the lowest point of the wall and jump to freedom.

Be that the cok began to crow,
The day began to spryng;
The scheref fond the jaylier ded,
The comyn bell made he ryng.

The sheriff causes the town (comyn) bell to be rung and makes it known that whoever can bring Robin Hood to him, ‘wheder he be yoman or knave’, shall have his reward.


The scheref made to seke Notyngham,
Both be street and stye,
And Robyn was in mery Scherwode,
As light as lef on lynde.

Once in the forest Little John explains that he has done his master a good turn for an evil one and it is time for him to leave. But Robin will not let him go and offers him leadership of the outlaw band. Little John declines, but says, ‘lat me be a fellow.’ Robin’s men then celebrate their leaders safe return.

They filled in wyne and made hem glad,
Under the levys smale,
And yete pastes of venison,
That gode was with ale.

Meanwhile the king hears how Robin Hood had escaped and the sheriff dared not come to see him.

Then bespake oure cumly kyng,
In an angur hye:
‘Little John hase begyled the schereff,
In faith so hase he me.’

The king explains that the sheriff might have died for his negligence had he not been tricked as well.

I made hem yemen of the crowne,
And gaf hem fee with my hond;
I gaf hem grith, seid oure kyng
Thorowout all mery Inglond.

Such yeoman as these, the king says, ‘in all Inglond ar not thre.’

‘He is trew to his maister,’ seid our kyng,
‘I sey, be swete Seynt John,
He lovys better Robyn Hode
Then he dose us ychon.

‘Robyn Hode is ever bond to hym,
Bothe in street and stalle;
Speke no more of this matter,’ seid oure kyng,
‘But John has begyled us alle.’

Thus endys the talking of the munke
And Robyn Hode I wysse;
God, that is ever a crowned kyng,
Bryng us all to his blisse!

Amen.