Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales

Although nearly everyone has heard the name of Robin Hood, few have actually read any medieval tales about the legendary outlaw. Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren set out to correct this discrepancy in their comprehensive collection of all pre-seventeenth-century Robin Hood tales. The editors include such other "outlaw" figures as Hereward the Wake, Eustache the Monk, and Fouke le Fitz Waryn to further contextualize the tradition of English outlaw tales. In this text the figure of Robin Hood can be viewed in historical perspective, from the early accounts in the chronicles through the ballads, plays, and romances that grew around his fame and impressed him on our fictional and historical imaginations. This edition is particularly useful for classrooms, with its extensive introductions, notes, and glosses, enabling students of any level to approach the texts in their original Middle English.



Stephen Thomas Knight was until September 2011 Distinguished Research Professor at Cardiff University in the School of English, Communications and Philosophy; and is currently a Vice-Chancellor's Fellow of the University of Melbourne and Honorary Research. Thomas H. Ohlgren is Emeritus Professor of English and Medieval Studies at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, where he has taught since 1969 when he received his Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan. His scholarship focuses on the earliest surviving written accounts of Robin Hood, ranging from the chronicles of Andrew of Wynton (c. 1420), John Bower (c. 1440), John Major (1521) and Richard Grafton (1569), to the early ballads and plays, which include Robin Hood and the Monk, Robin Hood and the Potter, the Gest of Robyn Hode as well as several short plays. Ohlgren is less interested in finding the original, historical figure, which he believes does not exist, than in tracing the evolution of the medieval outlaw tale, such as Hereward the Wake, Eustace the Monk, and Fulk fitz Warin, which contain characters, plot elements, and themes too close to be accounted for by coincidence.



Illustrations General Introduction The Chronicler's Robin Hood Introduction From Andrew of Wyntoun's Orygynale Chronicle (c. 1420) From Walter Bower's Continuation of John of Fordun's Scotichronicon (c. 1440) From John Major's Historia Majoris Britanniae (1521) From Richard Grafton's Chronicle at Large (1569) Early Ballads and Tales Robin Hood and the Monk Robin Hood and the Potter A Gest of Robin Hood Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne The Tale of Gamelyn Robyn and Gandelyn Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesley Robin Hood Plays Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham Robin Hood and the Friar and Robin Hood and the Potter Introduction to the Munday Plays The Downfall of Robert, Earle of Huntington, by Anthony Munday From The Death of Robert, Earle of Huntington, by Anthony Munday Robin Hood and His Crew of Souldiers Later Ballads Introduction Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield Robin Hood and Little John Robin Hood and Allin a Dale Robin Hood and Maid Marian Robin Hood and Will Scarlet Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham Robin Hood Rescues Three Young Men Little John a Begging Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valour, and Marriage Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow Robin Hood and the Bishop Robin Hood's Golden Prize Robin Hood and Queen Catherin Robin Hood's Fishing The Death of Robin Hood A True Tale of Robin Hood Robin Hood and the Pedlars Other Outlaw Tales in Prose Translations Hereward the Wake, translated by Michael Swanton From Eustache the Monk, translated by Thomas E. Kelly From Fouke le Fitz Waryn, translated by Thomas E. Kelly