In the footsteps of Robin Hood
The legend
The
first time that Robin Hood is mentioned in English literature is in a
throw-away line in William Langland's Piers Plowman of c
1377. He makes a much bigger impact in A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode,
a 13,900-word ballad that was printed in about 1500 but written earlier.
How much earlier is a bone of contention among historians and literary
critics, and perhaps even more contentiously, it sets the story largely
in Yorkshire.
The Geste
This is divided into eight sections, known as fyttes:
1 The tale opens in Robin Hood's camp in Barnsdale, in Yorkshire, with Robin, Little John, Will Scarlet and Much the miller's son preparing a meal. Robin sends his men to lie in wait by the Great North Road and catch a fellow diner. They waylay a threadbare knight. Robin offers him his hospitality but, once he's eaten, tells him he's got to pay for his meal.
It emerges that the knight is penniless. His son has killed a man, and to pay the heavy fine, the knight has taken out a vast loan from the monks at St Mary's Abbey in York. Unless he repays this the next day, he will lose everything. Because the knight has been honest, Robin sends him on his way with £400 to pay the debt.
Robin gave the knight an enormous amount. According to How much is that?, the money conversion website of Economic History Services, the £400 referred to in the ballad published in 1500 would be worth £262,055.56 today.
2 The abbot and monks of St Mary's hope that the knight will fail to show up – they are essentially loan sharks. But in the nick of time, he arrives. Expecting him to be empty-handed, the abbot shows him no respect and leaves him kneeling like a servant. But he gets a shock when the knight hands over the full amount of his debt.
3 Meanwhile, Little John goes to Nottingham and enters an archery contest. The sheriff is impressed and drafts Little John into his service. After spending some months with him, Little John causes trouble, fights and, recruiting the sheriff's cook, makes off with the sheriff's treasure.
Later, Little John and the cook lure the sheriff into a meeting with Robin Hood. In exchange for his freedom, the sheriff promises not to harm Robin.
4 Back in the greenwood, Robin's men carry out a carbon-copy of their first ambush. This time, their dinner guest is none other than a monk from St Mary's. Unlike the truthful knight, the monk pleads poverty but is found to have £800 with him. Justice prevails and Robin doubles his money. The knight told the truth and was helped; the monk lies and loses everything. When the knight shows up again, Robin gives him another £400.
5 Robin and his men are brilliant archers. To trap them, the sheriff of Nottingham organises a competition to win a gold and silver arrow, knowing that, no matter how they might try to disguise themselves by wearing hoods, whoever splits a wand to win must be an outlaw. Robin wins the contest, and he and his men are ambushed and Little John is wounded. They take refuge at the castle of the knight, now named as Sir Richard at the Lee.
6 The sheriff travels to ask the king for assistance. On his return, he captures Sir Richard, whose wife goes to Robin for help. Robin rescues the knight, takes down the sheriff with a single shot, beheads him with his sword and flees to the forest.
7 Edward – 'our comely king' – comes to sort out these rebels in the north. With his men disguised as monks and himself as an abbot, he deliberately allows himself to be captured in the forest. But when he sees that Robin is a loyal subject, he forgives the outlaws and makes friends with their leader. They have an archery contest, which Robin loses. The knight reveals the king's true identity, and Edward takes Robin into his service.
8 As a joke against the people of the town, the king and his men disguise themselves as outlaws and, with Robin, ride into Nottingham. Robin serves the king for 15 months. Then, broke and bored, he returns to Barnsdale and reunites his band. After 22 years, Robin goes to be bled by his cruel cousin, the prioress of Kirklees, who allows him to bleed to death.
Then and now
The tales of Robin Hood that we are familiar with today differ strongly
from those of the Geste. According to historian J C Holt, the main
differences from the modern stories are:
- When fighting, Robin and his men use swords and bows and arrows, not staffs.
- Maid Marian is absent. She enters the picture through the stories devised for the 16th-century May Games.
- Edward is the only king mentioned. Richard Lionheart is introduced to the tales much later.
- Robin is a yeoman, not a peasant, nobleman or knight.
- There is no mention of Robin being a Saxon taking part in the resistance to the Norman conquerors.
- Robin is not struggling against landlords and the rich, nor is he part of a peasant revolt against the social and economic structure oppressing the people of the time.
- There is little giving to the poor after robbing the rich.
- The famous incident of Robin shooting an arrow to mark his grave is missing. That is, in fact, an 18th-century tale.
Find out more
Websites
A Gest of Robyn Hode
www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/gest.htm#3
Part of the Robin
Hood Project. Edited version of the poem, with modern-day translations
of some of the Middle English terms plus notes on the substance of the
poem. For a complete 'translation' of the poem, see the version on the
Geoffrey
Chaucer Page.
Robin Hood: Spotlight of the month
www.boldoutlaw.com/robspot/1197.html
A useful summary of A Lytell Gest of Robyn Hode, plus a brief
look at the historical/literary arguments about it and its influence on
various children's books and novels and on the television series Robin
of Sherwood.
Books
Rhymes of Robyn Hood: An introduction to the English outlaw by
R B Dobson and J Taylor (Sutton Publishing, rev ed 1997) £14.99
Thirteen of the surviving ballad texts are reproduced in this volume,
with accompanying commentary and a selection of related poems and play
extracts. Together they illustrate the development of the Robin Hood myth
from his medieval portrayal as a common criminal to the romantic idealisation
of pre-industrial 'merrie England' in the nostalgia of the 19th century.
Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales edited by Stephen Knight, Thomas
Ohlgren and others (Western Michigan University Press, 2000). Out of print;
may be available from second-hand bookshops.
Over 700 pages filled with ballads, plays and historical background. Much
of it can be found on the Robin
Hood Project website.
