116-586: 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 member of Robin's band of outlaws , the " Merry Men ". He is a relatively late addition to the legend; he first appeared in a 17th-century broadside ballad, Child Ballad 138, " Robin Hood and Allan-a-Dale ", and, unlike many of
232-447: A 15th-century physician using a golden artifact to heal his patients, their failures were attributed to the fickleness of magic. As for English folktales, some such as Weber argue that they were passed down for the purpose of reflecting the grim realities of a child's life and hence instilled valued English morals and aesthetics. Others such as Tatar would counter that these folktales' fantasies were so removed from reality that they were
348-615: A Robin Hood ballad is the 15th-century " Robin Hood and the Monk ". This is preserved in Cambridge University 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. The first printed version is A Gest of Robyn Hode ( c. 1500), a collection of separate stories that attempts to unite
464-515: A Robin Hood game was in 1426 in Exeter , 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. The earliest surviving text of
580-513: A brutal outlaw, ballads revelling in his violent retaliation to threats. Robin Hood fought to protect himself and his group the Merry Men , regardless the class, age, or gender of their enemy. In stories such as ' Robin Hood and the Widow's Three Sons ' and ' The Tale of Gamelyn ', the joyful ending is in the hanging of the sheriff and the officials; in ' Robin Hood and the Monk ' , Robin Hood kills
696-470: A century after the publication of the Gest. 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: loke ye do no husbonde harme That tilleth with his ploughe. No more ye shall no gode yeman That walketh by gren-wode shawe; Ne no knyght ne no squyer That wol be a gode felawe. And in its final lines
812-454: A child was happy, healthy, and good. English folklore also included beliefs of the supernatural , including premonitions , curses , and magic , and was common across all social classes. It was not regarded with the same validity as scientific discoveries, but was made to be trusted by the repeated accounts of a magician or priest's clients who saw the ritual's spectacle and so believed in its efficacy. Even when such rituals failed, such as
928-409: A demon. Lob , also called loby, looby, lubbard, lubber, or lubberkin, is the name given to a fairy with a dark raincloud as a body. It has a mischievous character and can describe any fairy-like creature from British folklore. It can be confused with Lob Lie-By-The-Fire , a strong, hairy giant which helps humans. Beowulf is an anonymous Old English historical epic of 3182 lines which describes
1044-524: A form of escapism, imaginative expression, and linguistic appreciation. Most folklorists would agree that the purpose of English folklore is to protect, entertain, and instruct on how to participate in a just and fair society. Folklorists have developed frameworks such as the Aarne–Thompson-Uther index which categorise folktales first by types of folktales and then by consistent motifs. While these stories and characters have differences according to
1160-473: A game of hide-and-seek during her wedding breakfast, hid in a chest in an attic and was unable to escape. She was not discovered by her family and friends, and suffocated. The body was allegedly found many years later in the locked chest. Standing stones are man-made stone structures made to stand up. Some small standing stones can also be arranged in groups to form miniliths. Similar to these geological artefacts are hill figures . These are figures drawn into
1276-545: 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. English folklore English folklore consists of the myths and legends of England , including
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#17327721805981392-410: A holed stone or adder stone, is a type of stone, usually glassy, with a naturally occurring hole through it. Such stones have been discovered by archaeologists in both Britain and Egypt. In England it was used as a counter-charm for sleep paralysis , called hag-riding by tradition. A petrifying well is a well which, when items are placed into it, they appear to be covered in stone. Items also acquire
1508-538: A lasting impact on English culture , literature , and identity . Many of these traditional stories have been retold in various forms, from medieval manuscripts to modern films and literature. To this day, traditional folk festivals such as May Day , Plough Monday , Bonfire Night , Allhallowtide , and Harvest festival continue to be practised. Morris dancing , Mummers' plays , and Maypole dancing remain popular forms of folk traditions, often depicting or echoing themes or stories from English folklore. Before England
1624-654: A later common proverb, "many men speak of Robin Hood and never shot his bow", in Friar Daw's Reply ( c. 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. Robin Hood is also mentioned in a famous Lollard tract dated to the first half of the fifteenth century (thus also possibly predating his other earliest historical mentions) alongside several other folk heroes such as Guy of Warwick , Bevis of Hampton , and Sir Lybeaus . However,
1740-486: 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 ,
1856-413: A malevolent genius loci inhabiting fields, marshes or other topographical features. The household boggart causes objects to disappear, milk to sour, and dogs to go lame. They can possess small animals, fields, churches, or houses so they can play tricks on the civilians with their chilling laugh. Always malevolent, the boggart will follow its family wherever they flee. In Northern England, at least, there
1972-585: A monk and his young helper. Paradoxical to English values of strict adherence to the law and honour, Robin Hood was glorified in ballads and stories for his banishment from society. Robin Goodfellow , or Puck, is a shape-changing fairy known for his tricks. Since some English superstition suspected that fairies were demons, 17th century publications such as 'Robin Good-Fellow, his Mad Prankes and Merry Jests' and 'The Anatomy of Melancholy' portrayed him as
2088-626: A moral imperative stemming from Christian values . They frequently explore the relationship between humans and the natural world, as seen in the legends of the Green Man or Herne the Hunter , or the consequences of human actions, as illustrated in tales like the Lambton Worm . Additionally, English folklore has been influenced by historical events, such as the witch trials of the early modern period, which are reflected in stories like that of
2204-546: 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 used Ritson's anthology collection as
2320-464: A play by George Peele first performed in 1590–91, incorporates a Robin Hood game played by the characters. Llywelyn the Great , the last independent Prince of Wales , is presented playing Robin Hood. Fixing the Robin Hood story to the 1190s had been first proposed by John Major in his Historia Majoris Britanniæ (1521), (and he also may have been influenced in so doing by the story of Warin); this
2436-579: A popular folk figure in the Late Middle Ages , and his partisanship of the common people and opposition to the Sheriff are some of the earliest-recorded features of the legend, whereas his political interests and setting during the Angevin era developed in later centuries. The earliest known ballads featuring him are from the 15th century. There have been numerous variations and adaptations of
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#17327721805982552-560: A source for his picture of Robin Hood in Ivanhoe , written in 1818, which did much to shape the modern legend . 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 in Volume II of his Popular Ballads and Songs From Tradition . In 1846,
2668-404: A term used to refer to male and female healers, magicians, conjurers, fortune-tellers, potion-makers, exorcists, or thieves. Such people were respected, feared and sometimes hunted for their breadth of knowledge which was suspected as supernatural. The wild hunt was a description of a menacing group of huntsmen which either rode across the sky or on lonely roads. Their presence was a hallmark of
2784-526: 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 . 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. The play identifies Robin Hood as Robert, Earl of Huntingdon , following in Richard Grafton's association of Robin Hood with
2900-602: Is Robin Hood and Little John 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 's attempt at an overall life of Robin Hood, A True Tale of Robin Hood , which also emphasises
3016-449: Is a yeoman . 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". Artisans (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
3132-560: Is a combination of Odysseus ' Argos and Hades ' Cerberus from Greek mythology , and Fenrir from Norse mythology . The first collection of sightings of the black dog around Great Britain, Ethel Rudkin's 1938 article reports that the dog has black fur, abnormally large eyes, and a huge body. The black dog is a common motif in folklore and appears in many traditional English stories and tales. They often denote death and misfortune close at hand and appear and disappear into thin air. A boggart is, depending on local or regional tradition,
3248-537: Is a folk explanation of strange, flickering lights seen around marshes and bogs . Some perceive them as souls of unbaptized infants which lead travellers off the forest path and into danger, while others perceive them as trickster fairies or sprites . King Arthur is the legendary king of the Britons, the Once and Future King and True Born King of England. The origins of King Arthur and his exploits are vague due to
3364-678: 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." 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
3480-640: Is combined with that of Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar . In Pierce Egan the Younger 's story Robin Hood and Little John , Alan is given the name Sir Allan Clare; he is an armed knight, not a minstrel, and he is the brother of the Maid Marian . His sweetheart is Lady Christabel, the daughter of the Sheriff of Nottingham , who wants to give her to an old knight friend of his. The "Allan-a-Dale" name
3596-486: Is depicted differently according to where he is engraved and who carves him; on a church he may symbolise either inspiration or lust, or he may symbolise an ancient protector of travellers in a forest. The phrase originated from 'whifflers' who dressed in leaves or hair to make way for processions during pageants from the 15th to 18th centuries. There was a belief that those born at the chime hours could see ghosts. The time differed according to region, usually based around
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3712-594: Is generally regarded as in substance a genuine late medieval ballad. In 1795, Joseph Ritson 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,' Ritson's collection included
3828-802: Is given to his estates in Sherwood Forest ; he is not given a major role after he and Christabel are married by Little John (who takes the place of the Bishop of Hereford ), though he helps the Merry Men from time to time. Alan plays a prominent role in some later plays, children's novels, films, and television shows. Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. He stole from
3944-452: 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 he is carrying. In Robin Hood's Golden Prize , Robin disguises himself as a friar 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
4060-409: Is no broadside version of Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne or of Robin Hood and the Monk , 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
4176-568: 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 's Robin Hood and Little John (1840). This was adapted into French by Alexandre Dumas in Le Prince des Voleurs (1872) and Robin Hood Le Proscrit (1873). Egan made Robin Hood of noble birth but raised by
4292-418: Is shown by their weapons: they use swords rather than quarterstaffs . 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 . The political and social assumptions underlying the early Robin Hood ballads have long been controversial. J. C. Holt influentially argued that the Robin Hood legend
4408-512: Is the plot of " Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne ", 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
4524-515: Is traditionally depicted dressed in Lincoln green . Through retellings, additions, and variations, a body of familiar characters associated with Robin Hood has been created. These include his lover, Maid Marian ; his band of outlaws, the Merry Men ; and his chief opponent, the Sheriff of Nottingham . The Sheriff is often depicted as assisting Prince John in usurping the rightful but absent King Richard , to whom Robin Hood remains loyal. He became
4640-402: Is unknown). Robin Hood was a vicious outlaw who expressed the working-class' disenchantment with the status quo. Through Robin Hood, the forest (called the "greenwood" by folklorists) transformed from the dangerous, mystical battleground of Arthur to a site of sanctuary, comradery, and lawlessness. Rather than a philanthropic thief of the rich, Robin Hood's tales began in the 15th century as
4756-481: The Gest sums up: he was a good outlawe, And dyde pore men moch god. 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 " His men are more at his byddynge/Then my men be at myn. " Their social status, as yeomen,
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4872-527: The Green Man and Black Shuck . These tales and traditions have been shaped by the historical experiences of the English people, influenced by the various cultures that have settled in England over centuries, including Celtic , Roman , Anglo-Saxon , Norse , and Norman elements. The stories within English folklore often convey themes of justice, loyalty, bravery, and the supernatural, and often contain
4988-555: The Pendle witches . During the Renaissance in the 16th century, England looked to more European texts to develop a national identity. English folklore has continued to differ according to region, although there are shared elements across the country. The folktales, characters and creatures are often derived from aspects of English experience, such as topography , architecture , real people, or real events. English folklore has had
5104-644: The Percy Society 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 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
5220-479: The Sheriff of Nottingham are already clear. Little John , Much the Miller's Son , and Will Scarlet (as Will "Scarlok" or "Scathelocke") all appear, although not yet Maid Marian or Friar Tuck . The friar 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
5336-691: The Wild Hunt which originates from wider Europe, and Herne the Hunter which relates to the Germanic deity Woden . The Abbots Bromley Horn Dance may represent a pre-Christian festival and the practice of Well dressing in the Peak District , which may date back to Anglo-Saxon or even Celtic times. May Day celebrations such as the Maypole survive across much of England and Northern Europe . Christmas practices such as decorating trees ,
5452-403: The 305 ballads in his collection as Child Ballads Nos 117–154, which is how they're often referenced in scholarly works. 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
5568-665: 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 fighting Norman lords also originates in the 19th century. The most notable contributions to this idea of Robin are Jacques Nicolas Augustin Thierry 's Histoire de la Conquête de l'Angleterre par les Normands (1825) and Sir Walter Scott 's Ivanhoe (1819). In this last work in particular,
5684-531: 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 ), but these may have been originally two distinct types of performance. Alexander Barclay in his Ship of Fools , writing in c. 1500, refers to ' some merry fytte of Maid Marian or else of Robin Hood ' – but the characters were brought together. Marian did not immediately gain
5800-467: The English revival in the 19th century. During the English folksong revival , English artists scrambled to compose a national identity consisting of England's past folksongs and their contemporary musical influences. Authors such as Francis James Child , Arthur Hugh Clough , and Chaucer made English folksong supranational due to the willingness to import other languages' words, pronunciations, and metres. Other examples of non-Christian influences include
5916-717: 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
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#17327721805986032-586: The Gest and put the Robin Hood and the Potter ballad in print for the first time. The only significant omission was Robin Hood and the Monk 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 that he included as the second part of Robin Hood Newly Revived which he had retitled "Robin Hood and
6148-506: The Grimm brothers collected were integrated into the English school curriculum throughout the 19th century as educators of morality. Although English folklore has many influences, its largest are Christian, Celtic and Germanic. Non-Christian influences also defined English folklore up to the eleventh century, such as in their folksongs, celebrations and folktales. An example is the 305 ballads collected by Francis James Child published during
6264-414: 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 ). 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
6380-602: 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 , 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 . He also included alternate versions of ballads that had distinct, alternate versions. He numbered these 38 Robin Hood ballads among
6496-568: The Scotchman . In 1858, Francis James Child 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 , in his volume dedicated to
6612-473: 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 and admirer of Thomas Paine , Ritson held that Robin Hood was a genuinely historical, and genuinely heroic, character who had stood up against tyranny in
6728-415: 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 (or Marion) apparently stems. A "Robin and Marion" figured in 13th-century French ' pastourelles ' (of which Jeu de Robin et Marion c. 1280
6844-490: The adventures of its titular character, prince Beowulf of Geats . The story goes that Beowulf slays Grendel , a monster who has tormented the hall of Hrothgar King of the Danes for twelve years. Grendel's mother seeks to gain revenge and Beowulf slays her also, after which Beowulf becomes king of the Danes himself. After 50 years, Beowulf's people are tormented by a dragon and Beowulf dies while slaying her. Original speculation
6960-470: 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 . 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,
7076-606: The bawdy Maid Marian of the May Games. She does not appear in extant versions of the ballad. James VI of Scotland was entertained by a Robin Hood play at Dirleton Castle 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 (published 1601). These plays drew on
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#17327721805987192-400: The branches of trees about to bloom to symbolise the birth of new life. Eventually the flowers were replaced with ribbons and May day became a day for celebration and dancing in which a May queen and sometimes a May king would be crowned to also symbolise fertility. A parish ale is a type of party in the parish usually held to fundraise money for a particular purpose. Plough Monday
7308-529: 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 four of these ballads, the Forresters Manuscript versions are the earliest known versions. The 20th century grafted still further details on to the original legends. The 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood , starring Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland , portrayed Robin as
7424-403: The characters thus associated, managed to adhere to the legend. In this tale, Robin rescues Alan's sweetheart from an unwanted marriage to an old knight. They stop the bishop from proceeding with the ceremony, and Robin Hood, dressed in the bishop's robes, marries Alan to his bride. In other versions it is Little John or Friar Tuck who performs the ceremony. Another variant appears in which
7540-646: The countryside by digging into the ground and sometimes filling it in with a mineral of a contrasting colour. Examples are the Cerne Abbas Giant , the Uffington White Horse , and the Long Man of Wilmington and are the focus for folktales and beliefs. The Green Man is a description originating in 1939 which describes the engraved sculpture of a face with leaves growing from it in English architecture. His presence symbolises nature, but he
7656-463: 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 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
7772-417: The decline of the single broadside ballad. In the 18th century also, Robin Hood frequently appeared in criminal biographies and histories of highwaymen compendia. In 1765, Thomas Percy (bishop of Dromore) published Reliques of Ancient English Poetry , including ballads from the 17th-century Percy Folio manuscript which had not previously been printed, most notably Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne which
7888-467: 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 , his anti-clericalism , and his particular animosity towards
8004-468: 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
8120-403: The episodes into a single continuous narrative. After this comes " Robin Hood and the Potter ", contained in a manuscript of c. 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
8236-410: The folktale types of English folklore. Dragons are giant winged reptiles that breathe fire, poison and acid. They are usually associated with treasure rooms, waterfalls, and hollowed out tree stumps. A Wyvern is a smaller relative of dragons with two legs rather than four. It also has smaller wings and cannot breathe fire. The black dog is a creature which foreshadows calamity or causes it. It
8352-423: The forestor Gilbert Hood. Another very popular version for children was Howard Pyle 's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood , which influenced accounts of Robin Hood through the 20th century. 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
8468-574: The fragmentary Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham ( c. 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
8584-404: 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
8700-449: 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 and written by the poet, priest and courtier John Skelton . Skelton himself is presented in the play as acting the part of Friar Tuck. Some scholars have conjectured that Skelton may have indeed written
8816-418: The greenwood. The oldest surviving ballad, Robin Hood and the Monk , 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
8932-406: The harvest, or a way to mock nearby farms which had not yet collected their harvest. There has been a recent resurgence in their creation led by Minnie Lambeth in the 1950s and 1960s through her book A Golden Dolly: The Art, Mystery, and History of Corn Dollies . A superstition among children was that, if the first word uttered in the month was " Rabbit !", then that person would have good luck for
9048-414: The hero is not Alan but Will Scarlet , but Alan has taken over the role completely. Howard Pyle uses this tale in his book The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood , but changes several details. He gives Alan's sweetheart the name Ellen, and introduces Friar Tuck into the story; Tuck is sought out specifically as the only priest who will perform the wedding in defiance of the bishop, and therefore, this tale
9164-702: The house if their gifts are called payments, or if the owners of the house misuse them. Brownies make their homes in an unused part of the house. A dwarf is a human-shaped entity that dwells in mountains and in the earth, and is associated with wisdom, smithing, mining, and crafting. The term had only started to be used in the 19th century as a translation for the German, French, and Scandinavian words which describe dwarfs. Ogres are usually tall, strong, violent, greedy, and remarkably dull monsters and they originate from French culture. In folktales they are likely to be defeated by being outsmarted. The Will-o'-the-wisp
9280-416: The household of Sir John Paston . This fragment appears to tell the story of Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne . 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 and a version of the first part of the story of Robin Hood and the Potter . (Neither of these ballads is known to have existed in print at
9396-429: 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 [Robin] 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
9512-403: 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. The first clear reference to "rhymes of Robin Hood" is from the alliterative poem Piers Plowman , thought to have been composed in the 1370s, followed shortly afterwards by a quotation of
9628-566: The late-12th-century king Richard the Lionheart , Robin being driven to outlawry during the misrule of Richard's brother John while Richard was away at the Third Crusade . 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
9744-506: The line is "Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John" in Act 5 scene 3 of Henry IV, part 2 . In Henry IV part 1 Act 3 scene 3, Falstaff refers to Maid Marian , implying she is a by-word for unwomanly or unchaste behaviour. Ben Jonson produced the incomplete masque The Sad Shepherd, or a Tale of Robin Hood in part as a satire on Puritanism . It is about half finished and his death in 1637 may have interrupted writing. Jonson's only pastoral drama, it
9860-453: 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
9976-693: The many reproductions of his character. The Historia Brittonum and the Annales Cambriae reference many battles of an Arthur, Annales Cambriae also referencing Mordred , a rival, and Merlin , a wise mentor. Although these sources have been used as proof for Arthur's origins, their credibility has been disputed as mythology rather than history. As English folklore has progressed, King Arthur's retellings have been classified into romances such as Malory 's Morte Darthur , chronicles such as Geoffrey 's Historia Regum Britanniae , and fantasies such as Culhwch ac Olwen (whose author
10092-552: The modern Robin Hood—'King of Outlaws and prince of good fellows!' as Richard the Lionheart calls him—makes his debut. In 1993, a previously unknown manuscript of 21 Robin Hood ballads (including two versions of " The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield ") turned up in an auction house and eventually wound up in the British Library . Called The Forresters Manuscript , after the first and last ballads, which are both titled Robin Hood and
10208-477: The next traveller to come down the road if he happens to be poor. Of my good he shall haue some, Yf he be a por man. 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 's Annales of England (1592), about
10324-435: The nobility, such as in Richard Grafton's Chronicle at Large ; Anthony Munday presented him at the very end of the century as the Earl of Huntingdon 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
10440-674: The people of England continued to be passed down through oral tradition . During the Renaissance , artists captured these customs in the written word; such as Shakespearean plays' reflections of English folklore through their witches, fairies, folk medicine, marriage and funeral customs, superstitions, and religious beliefs. The Grimm brothers' publications such as German Legends and Grimms' Fairy Tales were translated from their original German and distributed across Europe in 1816. Their stories inspired publishers such as William Thoms to compile legends from within English folklore and without to compose an English identity. The stories that
10556-401: The perception of the countryside as a wild and mystical place. On May Day , the first day of May, a tall, decorated pole is put up as a symbol of fertility called a maypole . The maypole may represents a phallic object impregnating the earth at the end of spring to ensure a bountiful summer, but this association is very late. The maypoles were decorated originally with flowers and carved from
10672-431: The region of their origin, these motifs are such that there is a national identity of folktales through which these regions have interacted. There are likely many characters and stories that have never been recorded and hence were forgotten, but these folktales and their evolutions were often a product of contemporary figures, places, or events local to specific regions. The below are only a small fraction of examples from
10788-413: The region's mythical creatures , traditional recipes , urban legends , proverbs , superstitions , dance , balladry , and folktales that have been passed down through generations, reflecting the cultural heritage of the country. This body of folklore includes a diverse array of characters, such as heroic figures like Beowulf or Robin Hood , legendary kings like Arthur , and mythical creatures like
10904-486: The reign of Henry VIII , was briefly popular at court . 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;
11020-530: 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
11136-485: The rest of the month. Variants include: "rabbit, rabbit, rabbit!", "rabbit, rabbit, white rabbit!", and "white rabbit!". After a person died, a poor person was hired to take on their sins by eating before or after the funeral over their body- a sin-eater . The sin-eater would hence ensure that the recently deceased would be taken to heaven. Sir Francis Drake's Drum is a legend about the drum of an English admiral who raided Spanish treasure fleets and Spanish ports. He
11252-466: The rich and gave to the poor . According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman . 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 before returning to England to find his lands taken by the Sheriff . In the oldest known versions, he is instead a member of the yeoman class. He
11368-417: The same ballad, Much the Miller's Son casually kills a "little page " in the course of rescuing Robin Hood from prison. 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 , 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
11484-534: The significance of holly , and Christmas carolling were born from the desire to escape from the harshness of winter around Europe. These combine to form a folklore which teaches that, through an upright and virtuous character, a person can achieve a successful life. Lullabies , songs, dances, games, folktales, and superstitions all imparted a religious and moral education, and form a person's sense of justice and Christianity. Children's games would often contain counting songs or gamifications of manners to ensure that
11600-401: The story about Will Scarlet . In the 18th century, the stories began to develop a slightly more farcical 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
11716-569: The story over the subsequent years, and the story continues to be widely represented in literature, film, and television media today. Robin Hood is considered one of the best-known tales of English folklore . 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
11832-433: The subversive aspects of the legend, and see in the medieval Robin Hood ballads a plebeian literature hostile to the feudal order. 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 times, and during
11948-466: The theme of Robin Hood's generosity to the poor more than the broadsheet ballads do in general. The 17th century introduced the minstrel Alan-a-Dale . He first appeared in a 17th-century broadside ballad , 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
12064-455: The time, and there is no earlier record known of the "Curtal Friar" story.) The publisher describes the text as a ' playe of Robyn Hood, verye proper to be played in Maye games ', 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
12180-399: The times of monk's prayer which were sometimes marked by a chime. Crop circles are formations of flattened cereal. While they have been speculated to have mysterious and often extraterrestrial origins, most crop circles have been proven to be hoaxes. Those made by Doug Bower and Dave Chorley across England in 1991 have since started chains of copycats around the world. Cunning folk was
12296-439: The traditions of placing Robin Hood as the Earl of Huntingdon 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. With the advent of printing came the Robin Hood broadside ballads . Exactly when they displaced the oral tradition of Robin Hood ballads is unknown but the process seems to have been completed by
12412-595: The unquestioned role; in Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor, and Marriage , his sweetheart is "Clorinda the Queen of the Shepherdesses". Clorinda survives in some later stories as an alias of Marian. The earliest preserved script of a Robin Hood play is the fragmentary Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham This apparently dates to the 1470s and circumstantial evidence suggests it was probably performed at
12528-538: Was a custom in which, on the first Monday after Christmas , men visited people's doorsteps at night and asked for a token for the holiday. They carried whips and a makeshift plough and dug up the house's doorstep or scraper if the house refused to give them an item. Corn dollies are a form of straw work made as part of harvest customs of Europe before the First World War . Their use varied according to region: it may have been decorative, an image of pride for
12644-502: Was believed to have white magic which enabled him to turn into a dragon (as hinted by his name, Drake meaning dragon in Latin). When he died, the drum which he brought on his voyage around the world was sung about- that in England's peril, they could strike it and he would come to their aid. Eventually the legend evolved to be that the drum would strike itself in England's peril, and it has been heard struck since. A hagstone , also called
12760-536: Was confined to her chambers until death and roamed the halls of Raynham , named after the brown brocade she wears. Differing versions of the story attest that she was locked in by her husband, Lord Townsend, or by the Countess of Wharton. The Legend of the Mistletoe Bough is a ghost story which has been associated with many mansions and stately homes in England. The tale describes how a new bride, playing
12876-462: Was cultivated in the households of the gentry, and that it would be mistaken to see in him a figure of peasant 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
12992-679: Was founded in the year 927, Wessex and its surrounding areas' cultures were transformed by the invasion of the Danish King Guthrum between 865 and 878. The king of Wessex , King Alfred , prevailed against King Guthrum's troops in 878 and King Guthrum was baptised and became the ruler of East Anglia . This continued the process of the assimilation of Norse words into the English language. Eventually English folklore melded with Norse traditions such as in their iconography , which became more Greek, and in their clothing and folktales which adopted more Nordic elements. The folklore of
13108-404: Was that Beowulf was a Scandinavian epic translated to English, theorised due to the story's Scandinavian settings. However, Beowulf was cemented as an Old English epic through the study that heroes of folklore are not ordinarily natives of the country they save. The Brown Lady of Raynham is a story of the ghost of a woman of Norfolk , Lady Dorothy Walpole. After her adultery was discovered, she
13224-530: Was the belief that the boggart should never be named, for when the boggart was given a name, it could not be reasoned with nor persuaded, but would become uncontrollable and destructive. A brownie is a type of hob (household spirit), similar to a hobgoblin . Brownies are said to inhabit houses and aid in tasks around the house. However, they do not like to be seen and will only work at night, traditionally in exchange for small gifts or food. Among food, they especially enjoy porridge and honey. They usually abandon
13340-411: Was the period in which King Richard was absent from the country, fighting in the Third Crusade . William Shakespeare makes reference to Robin Hood in his late-16th-century play The Two Gentlemen of Verona . In it, the character Valentine is banished from Milan and driven out through the forest where he is approached by outlaws who, upon meeting him, desire him as their leader. They comment, "By
13456-593: 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 in 1660. Robin Hood did not appear on the Restoration stage, except for "Robin Hood and his Crew of Souldiers" acted in Nottingham on
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