1. Richard Todd and Joan Rice

Bolsover Mine

One day in Bolsover in the county of Derbyshire in the 1820’s, two pitmen were busy sinking an exploratory coalmining shaft into a side of a hill, when suddenly the earth gave way, revealing a yawning gap. It was the entrance to a cave.

After they had tentatively climbed down into this new discovery, amidst the dust and loose rocks, their lanterns began to reveal what appeared to be old swords, bows and iron pots with the wood ash and half-charred logs from an old fireplace. Against a wall was a rack of bows and belts, broadswords and quivers full of arrows. As the orangey light from their lanterns moved around and the dust began to settle, their eyes suddenly came upon the gruesome sight of the remains of a skeleton wrapped in an old woollen habit, one hand holding a crucifix, the other a chisel, propped up against the cave wall. Above its head were roughly scratched a long list of names on the cavern walls. At the top it said, these died that we might live. Requiescant in pace. Below it painfully said, I was the last, Michael Tuck.

After the two miners had climbed out and nervously clambered to the top, there came a great rock fall and the cave promptly collapsed under hundreds of tons of rock, completely burying the new shaft and all their equipment. The cave has never been located since. When the pitmen described to the local people from Bolsover village what they had witnessed, they laughed and dismissed the miners’ story as pure fantasy.

This incident is reported in the book, Robin Hood: His Life and Legend (1979) by Lord Bernard Miles. Lord Miles is a distinguished actor, writer and founder of the Mermaid Theatre in London.

Will Scarlet

“Rake away the gold leaves, roll away the red,
And wake Will Scarlett from his leafy forest bed.”
(Alfred Noyes, Sherwood 1904)

Overlooking the village of Blidworth in Nottinghamshire stands the church of St. Mary of the Purification. Up until the reign of Richard III (1483-1485) the medieval church on this site, was known as the Chapel of St. Lawrence. It was at one time completely surrounded by Sherwood Forest and can trace its history right back to Saxon times and even the Druids. At Blidworth Dale, King John had a hunting seat and nearby is Queens Bower, the site of a Tudor encampment during the reign of Elizabeth I.

Blidworth and St. Mary’s church have many connections to the Robin Hood legend and near a hill on which the village stands is a cave, where the outlaws are said to have stored their food. One of the local traditions states that Will Scarlet knew every path through these parts of the forest and lies buried in an unmarked grave against the old church wall, after being killed by one of the sheriff’s men. Today, in the churchyard, under some old yew trees, an apex stone originally part of the collapsed fragments of the old medieval church tower, acts as a tombstone to Robin’s loyal henchman.

In Disney’s Story of Robin Hood (1952), it was Anthony Forwood who played Robin’s cousin Will Scarlet. The character never develops in the movie and remains merely a member of the ‘merrie’ men who helps rescue Scathelok and Stutely from Nottingham Square. But it is interesting to note that all three of these characters are probably variations of just one original shadowy member of Robin Hood’s medieval band of outlaws.

Robyn stode in Bernesdale,
And lenyd hym to a tre;
And bi hym stode Litell Johnn,
A gode yeman was he.

And also dyd good Scarlok,
And Much, the myller’s son;
There was non ynche of his bodi,
But it was worth a grome.

Will Scarlok, (Scalok, Scadlock, Scatheloke, Scathelok, Scarlet, Scarlett) is one of the most mysterious of all Robin’s men. His name, like Little John and Much the Millers Son, could be an alias and all three appear as early as stanza 4 in the Gest of Robyn Hode. He appears by the side of Robin Hood in most of the early ballads. In Robin Hoode his Death as Will Scarlett he advises his leader to take fifty of his best bowman to Church Lees, when Robin is ill and needs to be ‘let blood.’

But Robin is scornful and tells him that if he is afraid he should stay at home!

And thou be feard, thou William Scarlett
Att home I read thee bee:
And you be wrothe, my deare master,
You shall never heare more of mee.

It is as Will Scadlock that he informs Robin Hood of the ‘curtall frier’ in the ballad The famous Battle between Robin Hood and the Curtall Fryer:

God blessing on thy heart, said Robin Hood,
That hath such a shot for me;
I would ride my horse a hundred miles,
To finde one could match thee.

That caused Will Scadlock to laugh,
He laught full heartily:
There lives a curtal friar in Fountains Abby
Wil beat both him and thee.

Will Scarlet’s background, like Robin and the rest of his band, is never explained, so it was left to the later ballad makers to construct a popular story around his origins for the new expanding printing presses. In Robin Hood and the Newly Revived Robin discovers a ‘deft young man as ever walkt on the way’:

His doublet it was of silk, he said, His stockings like scarlet shone, And he walkt on along the way, To Robin Hood then unknown.

Robin watches the smartly dressed, young stranger shoot deer and is impressed with his skill:

Well shot, well shot,quoth Robin Hood then,
That shot it was shot in time;
And if thou wilt accept of the place,
Thou shalt be a bold yeoman of mine.

But the young man rudely tells Robin to go away and eventually a swordfight ensues.

The stranger he drew out a good broad sword,
And hit Robin on the crown,
That from every haire of bold Robins head
The blood ran trickling down.

God a mercy, good fellow! quoth Robin Hood then,
And for this thou hast done;
Tell me, good fellow, what thou art,
Tell me where thou doest woon.

The stranger then answered bold Robin Hood,
I’le tell thee where I did dwell;
In Maxfield was I bred and born,
My name is Young Gamwell.

Young Gamwell had killed his fathers steward and fled to the ‘English wood’ to seek his uncle, Robin Hood. After much rejoicing the two of them make their way back to Little John.

I met with a stranger, quoth Robin Hood then,
Full sore he hath beaten me:
Then I’le have a bout with him, quoth Little John,
And try if he can beat me.

Oh no, quoth Robin Hood then,
Little John, it may [not] be so;
For he’s my own dear sisters son,
And cousins I have no mo.

But he shall be a bold yeoman of mine,
My chief man next to thee;
And I Robin Hood, and thou Little John,
And Scarlet he shall be.

As themes were re-worked and adapted in the later tales, names became changed and new elements introduced. In this case it seems the character Gamwell, later to become Will Scarlet, has been re-moulded from Gamelyn an outlaw in the earliest surviving English outlaw ballad, the Tale of Gamelyn (c.1350). In turn the name Gamelyn possibly evolved from the servant Gandelyn, in the mysterious old English carol about the New Year Wren hunt, Robyn and Gandelyn.

A later variation of the story of Robin Hood finding his long lost cousin, can be found in The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood (c. 1846). By this time, when the stranger introduces himself, his name had transformed into Gamble Gold!

We come across Scadlock with Robin Hood and Little John in the unusual ballad Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon (c.1660) in which he helps free the city of London by slaying the Prince of Aragon and an infidel Turk, marries a princess and finds his long lost noble father. In the much earlier Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne it is as Scarlett that he is pursued by the sheriff’s men:

And Scarlett a ffote flying was,
Over stockes and stone,
For the sheriff with seven score men
Fast after him is gone.

The prolific Tudor playwright Anthony Munday (c.1553-1633) settled upon using both characters, a Scarlet and a Scathlock- the sons of Widow Scarlet- for his influential production The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington in (c.1600). A device also used by Howard Pyle in his classic Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (1883), where we find a Will Scarlett and a Will Scatheloke.

The character Will Stutely/Stutly appears in only two prominent later ballads, Robin Hood and Little John, where he Christens the giant stranger (a role played out by Will Scarlet in The Story of Robin Hood) and the other is the story of his freedom from the gallows in Robin Hood rescuing Will Stutly. On both occasions his name seems to be yet another derivation from Scathelok/Scarlet. The evidence of the evolution of this, was later found amongst the recently discovered ‘Forresters Manuscript,’ where the tale of this outlaws rescue from the hangman's noose is known as Robin Hood and Will Scathelok.

The anonymous compiler of the Sloane Manuscript (included on this blog under Robin Hood History) writing in about 1600 added to all this confusion with Scarlock included in a role later played out by Alan-a-Dale:

Scarlock, he induced, upon this occacion: one day meting him, as he walked solitary, and lyke to a man forlorne, because a mayd to whom he was affianced was taken from by the violence of her friends, and giuen to another that was auld and welthy.

The cross-over between Will Scarlet and Allan-a-Dale re-appears yet again in the Warner Brothers 1938 film The Adventures of Robin Hood. Patric Knowles, dressed in red, plays a rather dandy Will Scarlet to Errol Flynn’s Robin and during the fight scene with Little John, thinks nothing of picking up his lute and strumming a merry tune.


So the malleable character of Will Scarlet continues to show his various faces down the centuries. In more modern times we have seen the flamboyant Patric Knowles version, to the dark, (scarlet inside) menacing, Ray Winstone portrayal in TV’s Robin of Sherwood 1984.

More recently Christian Slater, with his Californian twang, played Will Scarlet as a maladjusted teenager in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves 1991. Slater explains his character in the movie:

Several things were put into the script after I was cast. For instance, the fact that Robin Hood recently screwed up my life when I was younger. His father dated my mother and I was the result. I came forth into the world as Robin’s half-brother. There is one point in the film when I have to tell Robin the truth. So it adds an edge to the whole movie for me.

There is disagreement surrounding the historical meaning of the unusual name, Scatheloke. Jim Lees (Mr Robin Hood) in his book The Quest For Robin Hood explains that the nickname is derived from scathe– to burn or harm, and locke meaning hair. So from this we get red head! But Professor Stephen Knight interprets the name in a more dramatic fashion. He says that it is more likely to mean lock-smasher, a name very appropriate for a hunted outlaw.

Which brings us to any historical evidence for a real outlaw with that name. There have been a number of interesting, although rather vague discoveries. A Schakelock is recorded in Scotland in 1305 and in December 1316 a Schakelock is mentioned as a soldier in Berwick town garrison. In November, two years later a William Scarlet is listed amongst the pardons for felonies.

In the Wakefield Court Rolls in Yorkshire an Adam Schakelok is recorded on 10th April 1317 as holding land at Crigleston and in the Assize Rolls a person known as W. Shakelok/W. Scathelok is recorded between the years of 1372 and 1381.

But the most fascinating discovery is the William Shyreloke, a novice of St. Mary’s Abbey York (the very abbey at the heart of the epic poem, the Gest of Robyn Hode) mentioned between 1286-7. According to Abbey documents he was thrown out because of a crime imputed to him!

© Clement of the Glen 2006-2007

(To see all posts about Will Scarlet please click on the label marked Will Scarlet in the right-hand panel or below).

Time Magazine 30th June 1952

(Time Magazine, Monday June 30th 1952. Taken from The New Pictures section):

Robin Hood (Walt Disney; RKO Radio) again fights for king, country and fair Maid Marian (Joan Rice) in a first-rate, all-live-action Walt Disney production. This Technicolored version of the old legend is a flavorful blend of fast movement, robust acting and authentic atmosphere, photographed in real English settings.

Robin Hood (Richard Todd) and his merry men in Lincoln green are still roaming the bosky shades of Sherwood Forest, eating sweet venison, quaffing sparkling ale, and speeding their grey-goose shafts with skill and cunning. And when King Richard the Lionhearted (Patrick Barr) goes off to the Crusades, and his villainous brother Prince John (Hubert Gregg) and the scurvy sheriff of Nottingham (Peter Finch) try to usurp the throne, Robin and his men engage these medieval hoods in many a stout bout to the twang of bowstrings and the knock of cudgels.

In the title role, Richard Todd is neither so athletic as Douglas Fairbanks was in 1922 nor so dashing as Errol Flynn in 1938; but he is a bold, bouncing and right jolly fellow, who is more faithful to the "beardless whelp" of tradition than were his screen predecessors. He is surrounded by a group of stalwart character actors: James Robertson Justice as Little John; James Hayter as portly Friar Tuck; Martita Hunt as Queen Eleanor; Elton Hayes as the roving minstrel Allan-a-Dale; Hal Osmond as Midge the Miller; Anthony Forwood as Will Scarlet. Even the production credits have a Robin-Hoodish lilt: Producer Perce Pearce, Director Ken Annakin, Cameraman Guy Green.

An Interview With Richard Todd

In October 2006 the BBC broadcast a new series of Robin Hood. Filmed in Budapest, with a Hungarian crew, these 13 part episodes were yet another evolution of the legend. With a fairly young, mostly unknown cast, it was aimed at the early Saturday evening, family viewing slot, left vacant by the hugely successful Dr Who series. It was written by Dominic Minghella and starred Jonas Armstrong as Robin Hood, Lucy Griffiths as Maid Marian and Keith Allen as the Sheriff of Nottingham. It received mixed reviews but was successful enough to be granted a second series, which is currently in production (although filming has been held up due to Jonas Armstrong having fractured a metatarsal in his foot during a fight scene).

One of the special guests invited along by the BBC in Lincolnshire to see the pilot episode of their new series, was the man who had played Robin Hood for Walt Disney 54 years earlier, the veteran British actor Richard Todd.

This is the interview Richard Todd gave with Rod Whiting of BBC Radio Lincolnshire about making Walt Disney’s ‘The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men.’

Richard Todd: This went much against my instincts because I was an actor and you see I thought, Robin Hood, No! No! No! I don’t want to do that, hanging by my tail from trees and all that sought of thing. And Walt Disney came over to England and we had lunch together and he told me that he wanted a quick witted, quick thinking, quick moving, welter-weight. I really had a ball on that film. It was nothing like what you are able to do today. It doesn’t hold a candle to this in many ways.

Rod Whiting: What do you think about the new programme?

Richard Todd: From what I have seen it’s excellent. I told you. We couldn’t hold a candle to it. In the days when I made Robin Hood. Yeah! I think it’s extremely good. It’s very intelligent, its bright, its beautifully photographed, it has tremendous production values. Whether it will be intriguing for audiences, I wouldn’t know. As I said just now, I’m a bit old fashioned and I think I’m still a child at heart. I want to see Robin Hood! You know the Robin Hood that I have been nurturing in my mind for the odd ninety years. Or whatever it is I’ve been alive.

Rod Whiting: Not some chap with a beard then?

Richard Todd: (laughs) No! No! No! What happened to Friar Tuck? Does he come in sometime?

Rod Whiting: I think he will. I think he will at some stage.

Richard Todd: And Little John?

Rod Whiting: Yes. I think he’s about to make his appearance.

Richard Todd: Oh Good! Good!

Rod Whiting: Joan Rice was Maid Marian in your film.

Richard Todd: Yes.

Rod Whiting: And you know I was horrified to read that the biography of Joan Rice is nothing more than ‘A pert English actress....’

Richard Todd: She wasn't an actress.

Rod Whiting: Right.

Richard Todd: Poor little girl. I mean goodness knows why Walt and the others chose her. She was a waitress in a Lyons Corner House in London. She had never acted. She was a pretty little thing. She was a nice little thing. She tried her best. She did her best. It wasn’t there.

Rod Whiting: But you did have a chap called Bill Owen in the film.

Richard Todd: Oh a lot of other people that would be remembered today.

Rod Whiting: Peter Finch?

Richard Todd: Peter Finch, James Robertson Justice, James Hayter.

Anthony Forwood

Anthony Forwood played the part of Will Scarlet in Disney’s Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men. ‘Tony’ was born in the seaside town of Weymouth in Dorset on 3rd October 1915and in 1939 he started courting the husky-voiced Welsh actress Glynis Johns, whom he later married. Their only child, Gareth was born in London in 1945. (Gareth Forwood was later to appear in films such as Ghandi in 1982). But it was during the filming of Robin Hood in 1952 that their marriage began to break up. Glynis was to appear, the following year, as a young Mary Tudor in the Walt Disney production of The Sword and the Rose.
Anthony Forwood’s early films included :

Man in Black (1949)
Traveller’s Joy (1949)
Meet Simon Cherry (1949)
The Black Widow (1951)
Colonel March Investigates (1952)
Appointment in London (1952)
The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men (1952)

In 1939 Tony had met Dirk Bogarde who was later to become one of the biggest British matinee idols of the 1950’s. They struck up a relationship that would last over fifty years, but they both kept their personal lives very private. Bogarde was said to guard his intimate life like a Rottweiler! John Coldstream sums up in his authorised biography on Bogarde:

The truth is that no one will ever know what the precise relationship between the two men was.
Anthony Forwood’s later films included:

The Gambler and the Lady (1952)
Knights of the Round Table (1953)
Mantrap (1953)
Five Days (1954)

Tony started off by chauffeuring for Bogarde, who often simply referred to him at that time as Forwood! They later lived in a mansion together, near Pinewood Studios, in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. But Bogarde repeatedly denied that their relationship was anything other than friendship. He described Tony Forwood as a tremendously intelligent, controlling influence. This became more apparent when his former chauffeur now started being referred to as his ‘personal manager.’ Tony also kept a unique record of their life together on 16mm film (recently shown in a documentary about Bogarde’s life) which included the pair of them entertaining film stars like Elizabeth Taylor, Gregory Peck and Jean Simmons.

Together Dirk Bogarde and Tony Forwood moved during the 1970’s to a 15th century farmhouse in Provence, in the South of France. Bogarde began writing some successful books, but he also began witnessing Tony’s terrible protracted fight with Parkinson's disease and bowel cancer. When Tony’s health became critical, they moved back to London in 1987. But sadly Tony passed away on the 18th May 1988.
After witnessing his partners slow tragic death, Dirk Bogarde became active in promoting voluntary euthanasia for terminally patients in Britain. Dirk died in 1999 and in the year 2000 his ashes were taken back to the farm in Provence, where he had spent some of the happiest days of his life-with Anthony Forwood.
We had a terrific fifty years together and nothing can take any part of that away.(Dirk Bogarde)
© Clement of the Glen 2006-2007
(To see all posts about Anthony Forwood please click on the label marked Anthony Forwood in the right-hand panel or below).

A Gest Of Robyn Hode

Regular readers of this blog, will have come across the mention of the poem ‘A Gest of Robyn Hode.’ This is probably the most important of all the surviving literature about the outlaw hero, and is an attempt by an anonymous author in the early fifteenth century, to string together in an epic poem of 456 four-line stanzas, possibly four, far older ballads. The language is of antique quality and by internal evidence it appears that part of the story might date from about c.1400-1450.

‘Gest’ is taken from the Latin res gestae, things done ‘A Story Of Robin Hood’. But some believe, in this case, it could also mean a ‘guest’ of Robin Hood. No single manuscript copy of this saga exists, but proof of its popularity can be found by the existence of various early printed fragments from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, providing us with our earliest sources for the text.

One of the substantial fragments, which only supplies half the text, discovered in Ayrshire in 1785, is now in the National Library of Scotland. Formally known as the Lettersnijder Edition of A Gest of Robyn Hode, it has been attributed to the printing press of Jan van Doesbroch in Antwerp about 1510.

A complete version is preserved in the library of Cambridge University titled, A Lyttel Geste of Robyn Hode Explycit, Kynge Edwarde and Robyn hode and Lytell Johan. Enprented at London in flete strete at the sygne of the sone by Wynken de Worde. This was the work of William Caxton’s apprentice Jan Van Wynken or Wynken de Worde who inherited Caxton’s press on his death in 1491. De Worde did not move his business into Fleet Street until 1500, so by dating his other work of the period it is possible to put his production of the Lyttel Geste to around 1515.

Amongst many various other surviving editions are fragments from early printers such as William Copland, Richard Pynson and Edward White. These printed versions were all derived, directly or indirectly from a single written source, who wrote it is unknown.

The tone of the Gest is elevated, though Robin is described as a ‘yeoman’, his chivalry seems to mock that of King Arthur. He sends his men out on a ‘quest’, he washes and wipes his hands before eating and his courtesy and regard for the Virgin Mary is always stressed.

The first ‘fytte,’ or division opens;

Lythe and Lysten, gentylmen
That be of frebore blode;
I shall you tell of a good yeman,
His name was Robyn Hode.

Robyn was a proude outlawe,
Whyles he walked on grounde;
So curteys an outlawe as he was one
Was never none yfounde.

The setting is in Barnsdale and Robin says he will not dine until he has a guest; some bold baron, bishop, abbot, knight or squire who can pay for the best. Little John, Will Scarlock, Much the millers son and the rest are told:

Thereof no force, than sayde Robyn;
We shall do well inowe;
But loke ye do no husbonde harme
That tylleth with his ploughe.

No more ye shall no gode yeman
That walketh by grene wode shawe;
Ne no knight ne no squyer
That wol be a gode felawe.

These bisshoppes and these archebishoppes,
Ye shall them bête and bynde;
The hye sheriff of Notyingham,
Hym holde ye in your mynde.

Little John, Much and Will set off to ‘walke up to the Saylis and so to Watlinge Strete’ to find a guest to dine with their master. They return with a downcast knight who accepts their invitation to dine. He is courteously received by Robin and after a good dinner, he is asked to pay, as was the outlaws custom. But he confesses he has only ten shillings (50p). Little John checks the knight’s bags and finds he is telling the truth.

The knight then tells them his son had killed a ‘knight of Lancashire’ and to buy his pardon, the knight’s lands had been pledged for the sum of £400 to the Abbot of St. Mary’s Abbey in York. He explains that he has no friends, he could only pledge his own word, by the honour of Our Dear Lady.

As the knight had no money, he cannot repay the loan, so Robin lends him the £400, new clothes, a horse, boots, spurs and Little John to be his squire.

In the second fytte the Abbot of St. Mary’s awaits the knight’s return, with a sheriff, high cellarer (Treasurer) and a ‘crooked’ justice. They eagerly await this day as his lands are to become forfeit. Only the prior warned them that it was wrong to despoil a knight wrongfully of his lands.

The knight turns up deliberately poorly dressed and when he asks the justice to support him, he replies:

I am holde with the abbot, sayd the justice,
Both by cloth and fee.

For a while the knight lets them believe they have triumphed and there is a lot of play on the abbot’s lack of charity. Then the knight disdainfully counts out £400 and returns home .

His lady met hym at the gate,
At home in Verysdale.

The knight then starts raising the money he owes Robin. A year later, clothed all in ‘whyte and rede’, he sets off, with a hundred bowman in his retinue, with a present of a hundred sheaves of arrows, a hundred bows together with the loan of £400. But on his way to find Robin in Barnsdale;

As he went at a bridge ther was a wraste-lyng,
And there taryed was he,
And there was all the best yemen
Of all the west countree.

The knight and his retainers save a yeoman from murder ‘for love of Robyn Hode’ over an unfair contest.

We now reach the third fytte, which switches back to Little John ‘that was the knightes man,’ who is involved in an archery contest with the sheriff’s men. Calling himself Reynolde Grenelef of Holderness, he wins and the sheriff, amazed at his kill takes him into his service for a year..

Later a quarrel with the cook ensues and the two of them end up robbing the sheriff of his silver and £300, which they take to Robin Hood. Meanwhile the sheriff is out hunting and Little John finds him and says:

Yonder I sawe a right fayre harte,
His coloure is of grene,
Seven score of dere upon a herde
Be with hym all bydene.

The sheriff is betrayed by his man and led to the outlaws camp.

Sone he was to souper sette,
An served well with silver white,
And whan the sheriff sawe his vessel,
For sorowe he might nat ete.

The sheriff is then forced to eat poached venison, served on his own looted silver plate. After their guests dinner, they remove the sheriff’s furred mantle and rich coat and give him a cloak of Lincoln Green to sleep on, with the outlaws ‘under the grene wode tree.’ After a very uncomfortable night he says:

Lat me go, than sayd the sheriff,
For saynte charite!
And I woll be thy best frende
That ever yet had ye.

Robin Hood extracts an oath from the sheriff on his sword, that he will never harm him.

Shalt thou never awayte me scathe,
By water ne by lande.

So the Sheriff is released and allowed to return home.

Fytte four returns to the story of the knight, where once again Robin sends Little John, Much and Scathelok up to the Sayles and Watling Street to look for a ‘guest.’ They see two ‘blacke monkes’ riding by Barnsdale, with a retinue of fifty two men. Little John with an arrow ready, bids them stand, but the monks’ retinue fled.

With only his page and groom left, one of the monks is led to the outlaw’s lodge. Robin courteously removed his hood, but the monk churlishly leaves his head covered. Robin asks him how much money he has, twenty marks, the monk replies. But after searching his bags they find £800. All the money, declared the outlaws, for which ‘Our Lady’ had stood pledge and the monk, they discovered, was the high cellarer of St. Mary’s Abbey, York.

Robin is relieved, as he thought Our Lady was angry with him, because she had not sent his pay.

Have no doute, mayster, sayd Lytell Johan,
Ye have no need, I saye
This monke it hath brought, I dare well swere,
For he is of her abbay.


And she was a borowe, sayd Robyn,
Betwene a knight and me,
Of a lytell money that I hym lent,
Under the grene wode tree.

Robin took all he had and bid the cellarer farewell.

Grete well your abbot, sayd Robyn,
And your pryour, I you pray,
And byd hym send me such a monke
To dyner every day.

The knight arrived later to find that his debt is already paid. But Robin gave him an extra £400 interest that St. Mary had sent him.

Fytte five describes an archery contest held by the sheriff of Nottingham for the best archers of the north. The prize was an arrow of silver and gold. Robin Hood and his men take part.

Thryes Robyn shot about,
And alway he slist the wand,
And so dyde good Gylberte
Wyth the whyte hande.

Lytell Johan and good Scatheloke
Were archers good and fre;
Lytell Much and good Reynolde,
The worste wolde they not be.

Robin Hood wins the prize, but is recognised and his men are ambushed. Little John is shot in the knee and he begs Robin to kill him rather than let him fall into the sheriff’s hands. But Robin carries him to the castle (double ditched and walled) of the knight they had lent the money to. Who for the first time is given a name-‘Syr Rychard at the Lee.’

The sixth fytte begins with Sir Richard’s castle under siege. The sheriff demands the knight hands over Robin Hood. But he refuses until he knows the king’s will. So the sheriff rides off to London to put the matter to the king.

I wil be at Notyngham, saide our kynge,
Within this fouteenyght,
And take I wyll Robyn Hode,
And so I wyll that knight.

The Sheriff returns to Sir Richard’s ‘double dyched’ castle to find that Robin and his men have eluded him. So, while the knight is out hawking, the sheriff ambushes him.

Toke he there this gentyll knight,
With men of armys stronge,
And led hym to Notyngham warde,
Bounde bothe fote and hande.

Sir Richard’s wife then sets off ‘on a gode palfrey’ to the green wood to inform Robin, who gathers his men together. They find the ‘proude’ sheriff in a Nottingham street.

Robin bent a full goode bowe,
An arrowe he drowe at wyll;
He hit so the proude sherife,
Upon the grounde he lay full still.

And or he might up aryse,
On his fete to stonde,
He smote of the sheriffs hede,
With his bright bronde.

Robin releases the knight, who returns to the greenwood with them.

In the seventh fytte, the king comes to Nottingham and seizes the knights lands.

The kynge came to Notynghame,
With knyghtes in grete araye,
For to take that gentyll knyght
And Robin Hode, and yf he may.

He asked men of that countre
After Robyn Hode,
And after that gentyll knight,
That was so bolde and stout.

The king finds not only the sheriff dead, but the deer in his forests killed. He declares that ‘Syr Rycharde at the Le’s’ lands are forfeit and that he will pass them over to anyone who will cut off his head. But after six months in Nottingham the king is no nearer finding Robin Hood either, until a forester suggests a way in which to do it.

The king is to dress as an abbot and take only five knights with him similarly dressed to lure out the outlaws.

The forester led the disguised king a mile into the forest and soon they were waylaid by Robin and his men.

Robyn toke the kynges hors,
Hastely in that stede,
And sayd, Syr abbot, by your leve,
A whyle ye must abyde.

We be yeman of this foreste,
Under the grene wode tre;
We lyve by our kynges dere,
Other shyft have not we,

And ye have chyrches and rentes both,
And gold full grete plente,
Gyve us some of your spendynge,
For saynt charyte.

The ‘abbot’ explains that he has been at the royal court for a fortnight and it has been an expensive business, leaving him with only £40. Robin divides the money up, with half to his men and the rest given back to the ‘abbot’, who tells him that King Edward bids him to come to Nottingham. After seeing the royal seal, Robin declares:

I love no man in all the worlde
So well as I do my kynge;
Welcome is my lords seale;
And, monke, for thy tydynge.

With a blow on his horn, Robin Hood’s men appear and kneel before their leader, which amazes the disguised king, who declares that the outlaws men are more obedient than his own!

After a feast, they hold an archery contest at which Robin excels. But later he misses the target and has to receive a punch from an opponent. The ‘abbot’ is chosen and reluctantly delivers such a blow that it knocks Robin to the ground.

Robin Hood and Sir Richard suddenly realise who he is.

There is pith in thyn arme, sayd Robyn
I trowe thou canst well shete.
Thus our kynge and Robyn Hode
Togeder gan they met.

Robyn beheld our comly kynge
Wystly in the face,
So dyde Syr Rycharde at the Le,
And kneled downe in that place.

And so dyde all the wylde outlawes,
Whan they se them knele:
My lorde the kynge of Englonde,
Now I knowe you well.

Robin asks the king for mercy for his men and himself. The king pardons them on condition that they leave the forest and come to court, ‘and there dwell with me.’

The king and the outlaws return to Nottingham dressed in Lincoln Green liveries. The townspeople panic, believing that the king has been slain.

Than every man to other gan say,
I drede our kynge be slone;
Come Robyn Hode to the towne, i wys,
On lyve he lefte never one.

Full hastly they began to fle,
Both yeman and knaves,
And olde wyves that might evyll goo,
They hypped on theyr staves.

Order is restored when they see the king. After a merry feast Sir Richard at the Lee is summoned by the king and his lands are restored to him.

After little more than a year at court, Robin has spent all his money, ‘to gete hym grete renowne,’ and only two of his men, Little John and Scathelok have deserted him. One day he sees young men out shooting and laments.

Somtyme I was an archere good,
A styffe and eke a stronge;
I was compted the best archere
That was in mery Englonde.

Alas! Then sayd good Robyn,
Alas and well a woo.
Yf I dwele lenger with the kynge,
Sorowe wyll me sloo.

Robin then went to the king and begs leave to go on a pilgrimage, barefoot and wearing a flannel shirt, to a chapel he has built in Barnsdale of ‘Mary Magdaleyne.’
The king gives him leave to be away for one week. But once in Barnsdale, he returns to his old ways.

Robyn slewe a full grete harte;
His horne than gan he blow,
That all the outlawes of that forest
That horne could they knowe.

‘Seven score of wyght yonge men,' flock to him and there in Barnsdale he stayed for twenty two years.

Robyn dwelled in grene wode
Twenty yere and two;
For all drede of Edwarde our kynge,
Agayne wolde he not goo.

The author then briefly tells of Robin Hood’s death, how he was beguiled by the ‘pryoresse of Kyrkesly, that nye was of hys kynne.’

For the love of a knyght,
Syr Roger of Donkesly,
That was her owne speciall:
Full evyll mote they the!

Feeling ill, Robin Hood visits Kirklees to be let blood by his relative, the Prioress of Kirklees.

Syr Roger of Donkestere,
By the pryoresse he lay,
And there they betrayed good Robyn Hode,
Through theyr false playe.

Cryst have mercy on his soule,
That dyed on the rode !
For he was a good outlawe,
And dyde pore men moch god.

This glimpse of Robin Hood, in one of the earliest surviving ballads, throws up more questions than answers. There is no Maid Marian or Friar Tuck. Barnsdale Forest in Yorkshire, seems to be the home of the outlaws and places like the Sayles, St Mary’s Abbey and Doncaster are clearly defined.

Although Nottingham is mentioned, the name of Sherwood Forest, Robin’s traditional home does not appear in the text. When Little John, Much and Scathelok are sent up to the Saylis to watch Watling Street and look into Barnsdale– clearly placing the activity in Yorkshire –they are told by Robin to ‘hold the High Sheriff of Nottingham’ in their mind, - this is a strong indication of how different ballads have been meshed together by the author to form the ‘Geste.’. The Sheriff of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire had no jurisdiction over Yorkshire. Another examples of this can be seen by the knight, who up until the fifth fytte is known only as ‘gentyll’, then suddenly he acquires the name ‘Syr Rychard at the Lee.’

Robin Hood is described as a proud, courteous, ‘yeoman,’ (a rank below knights and squires) who will not dine until he has a new guest, which seems to be a humorous imitation of the knightly tales of King Arthur and his Round Table.

The king mentioned in the 'Geste' is not Richard the Lionheart the monarch of modern day productions, but 'Edwarde, our kynge' and Robin’s devotion to ‘Oure Dere Lady’ (the Virgin Mary) is emphasised throughout this epic saga. Her ‘miracle’ is a major element of the story and this theme, a feature of the Roman Catholic Church, known as ‘the Marian Cult’, reached its peak in Western Europe during the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

Apart from four other surviving ballads and a couple of fragmentary plays, ( that we shall look at later) this epic poem is about as close as we can possibly get to the ‘original’ medieval legend of Robin Hood. His ancestry, and why he was outlawed are not explained, but his popularity would jettison him in various forms, right into the twenty-first century.


© Clement of the Glen 2006-2007