Folklore of Yorkshire (29 page)

Anybody accustomed to the legend as it is told today is likely to be surprised by the content of the ballads. Popular characters such as Maid Marian and Friar Tuck are missing, whilst as much emphasis is placed on Little John and Will Scarlett as Robin himself. Furthermore, many familiar themes are conspicuous by their absence. There is no suggestion that Robin was a Saxon peasant fighting Norman oppressors; instead he is repeatedly described as a yeoman, and doubtless the legend’s popularity was aided by the growing influence of that class during the late Middle Ages. Similarly, the pagan overtones imputed by Victorian folklorists and emphasised in some modern adaptations are negligible. Although Robin is opposed to the Church as an institution, he remains personally faithful, especially to the Virgin Mary.

Perhaps most noticeably, Robin’s redistributive tendencies are barely hinted at in the early ballads. Although he is presented as an honest thief who only robs from the rich, there is little evidence of him giving to the poor. This aspect of the legend does not seem to have emerged until the seventeenth century. Nonetheless, the medieval sources still portray Robin as something of an anti-authoritarian figure, with the principle targets of their ire being corrupt institutions, including the Church and regional authorities such as the Sheriff of Nottingham. The persistence of the legend through the late Middle Ages suggests that there was widespread hostility towards such bodies during that period, and the ballads ably reflected such sentiments.

There is some dispute over the antiquity of many of the ballads. Whilst several can be securely dated to the late fifteenth century, their venerability is very much an artefact of preservation. It is possible that some ballads which do not survive in print before the seventeenth century, were actually contemporary with or predated the fifteenth-century examples. For instance, the earliest surviving manuscript of the ballad ‘Robin Hood and Guy of Gisbourne’ comes from the mid-seventeenth century, but its similarities to a fragment of a play dated to 1475 indicate that it had probably been in circulation since that period at least. Conversely, one of the most significant early ballads, ‘A Gest of Robyn Hode’ – the earliest printings of which date to the 1490s – shows evidence of having been compiled from shorter ballads, individual versions of which do not survive in print until much later.

The ‘Gest’ is distinctive amongst the early ballads in that it has an epic structure and appears to attempt to relate a complete ‘life’ of Robin Hood. Where most ballads simply narrate single episodes, the ‘Gest’ features a number of instalments concluding with the death of the hero. It is also one of the most notable sources to locate Robin’s activities in Barnsdale. Whilst the early ballads ‘Robin Hood and the Potter’ (
c
. 1500) and ‘Robin Hood & Guy of Gisbourne’ both refer to the region, the ‘Gest’ includes a wealth of topographic description which corresponds exactly with the actual geography; and even though action is divided between Barnsdale and Sherwood, as J.C. Holt observes, ‘The legendary Barnsdale is by far the most detailed … Barnsdale seems real. Sherwood is somewhat like “the wood near Athens” of
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
.’

The area referred to as Barnsdale is roughly defined and the title largely redundant today. Unlike Sherwood, it was not a royal hunting forest and the ‘greenwood’ aspects of the Robin Hood legend do not feature in the episodes set there. Generally speaking, however, the term refers to an area between Pontefract and Doncaster, defined by the River Aire at Ferrybridge to the north and the Doncaster-Wakefield Road to the south. It is bisected west-east by the River Went and north-south by the Great North Road. This highway originated with the Romans and its route has remained one of England’s primary cross-country thoroughfares – today the A1 substantially follows its former course.

In the ‘Gest’ the Great North Road is referred to by the colloquial term ‘Watling Street’, and Robin and his men are described waylaying travellers upon it. Reference is also made to their lookout at ‘Saylis’, which has been identified by Professors Dobson and Taylor as a spot named Sayles Plantation on seventeenth-century maps of the area. This wooded hilltop overlooks a steep valley where the Great North Road once crossed the River Went, and it would undoubtedly have been a favourable position for outlaws to operate from. The place at which the road crosses the river has since developed into the town of Wentbridge, where today a blue plaque commemorates the legendary outlaw’s association with the area.

One of the most substantial episodes of the ‘Gest’ moves from this base at Barnsdale to the city of York, and exemplifies many of the principle themes of the early ballads. After intercepting a knight on the Great North Road and inviting him to eat with them, the outlaws demand to know how much money he is carrying. The knight says only ten shillings and a search by Little John confirms this. Robin inquires how his penury came about and the knight explains that his son killed two men, forcing him to spend all of his money and mortgage his land to St Mary’s Abbey in York, in order to save his boy from the gallows.

At hearing of such injustice, Robin loans the knight the £400 he needs to recover his land and sends Little John to York with him. Upon reaching St Mary’s, the knight feigns that he does not have the funds and begs the abbot’s mercy. The abbot refuses, at which the knight reveals his ruse and pays the abbot, with the admonishment that had the priest been more lenient, he would have been further rewarded. After the knight obtains money with which to repay Robin, he is delayed on his journey by his effort to save a yeoman who is in danger of being harmed by an angry crowd.

Meanwhile, back in Barnsdale, Robin has waylaid a monk from St Mary’s and again demands to know how much his guest is carrying. The monk, however, lies and claims that he only has twenty marks, when he actually has £800. Robin discovers his deception and claims it all, declaring that as he had not yet been repaid by the knight, St Mary’s owed him the £400 he had lent and must have courteously doubled it! The dishonest monk is sent on his way penniless, and when the knight finally arrives to repay Robin, the outlaw refuses to take it on the grounds that anybody who helps a yeoman is a friend.

This narrative amply illustrates the ballads’ animosity towards the wealth and corruption of the Church, represented by the merciless abbot and the dishonest monk. Moreover, it portrays Robin as a fundamentally honest thief. It is implied that had the monk only told the truth about the amount of money he was carrying, the outlaws would not have seized it. Meanwhile, Robin not only refuses to steal from the honest knight but offers to lend him assistance. He later declines the knight’s attempts to repay him when his band no longer need the money, on grounds that reinforce the ballads’ affinity with the emergent yeoman class. Doubtless these were all sentiments which a late medieval audience would have lapped up, contributing greatly to the ballads’ popularity.

Another prevalent feature of the earlier ballads is the combat narrative and in a period when quarterstaff contests were a favourite local pastime, whilst archery practice was compulsory for all men between the ages of fifteen and sixty, these aspects were also a noteworthy factor in the legend’s wide appeal. Perhaps most common are the ‘Robin meets his match’ tales, in which a local character is shown equalling Robin’s skill and is subsequently asked to join the outlaws’ band. These stories seem to have been designed to flatter regional pride, conveying the message that the named locality is special because it produced an opponent capable of giving Robin Hood, one of the most skilled combatants who ever lived, a run for his money.

Two notable examples of such ballads take place in Yorkshire. The first is ‘The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield’, the earliest reference to which occur in the Stationers’ Register for 1557-9. A pinder is an obsolete medieval profession, an officer of the lord of the manor charged with looking after the town pinfold: an enclosure in which animals that had strayed onto common land were held until they were recovered by their owners, upon the payment of a fine. It was a position of petty authority but at the start of the ballad, the eponymous ‘jolly pinder’ boasts that such was his power, not even a baron would dare to trespass at Wakefield.

Robin, Little John and Will Scarlett overhear his remark, and determine to take the pinder down a notch and confront him. The pinder asks them to leave the common and return to the highway, but when they refuse, a melee ensues. Despite being outnumbered three-to-one, the pinder is true to his word and proves a match for the outlaws, who are so impressed by his skill in combat, that they ask him to join them. The pinder offers them some food and replies that he will wait until Michaelmas when his wage from the lord of the manor is due, and then proceed to join them in the greenwood.

The second example is ‘Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar’ which takes place in the vicinity of Fountains Abbey, a Cistercian monastery founded in 1132, near Ripon in North Yorkshire. The earliest surviving version of the ballad is a garland from 1663, although similarities to the play fragment from 1475 suggest that it may have circulated for some considerable time before that printing. A medieval origin is also suggested by the involvement of the friar, as this order of Christian mendicants was abolished in England during the Protestant Reformation. Some later sources have identified the friar in this tale with Friar Tuck, although the name is never used in the original ballad.

In the ballad, Robin speculates that there is no match for Little John within 100 miles, to which Will Scarlett replies that there is rumour of a friar near Fountains Abbey who could best him. Robin finds the friar beside the River Skell and, pretending to be a weary traveller, asks to be carried across the water. The friar agrees, but halfway across throws the outlaw from his back and challenges him to a duel. The two fight with swords for a considerable time until an exhausted Robin begs a favour: to let him blow his horn. The friar assents and Robin uses the horn to summon his men, who appear on the bank with their bows. The friar then begs a favour from Robin: to let him whistle. Robin agrees and the Friar summons a pack of hunting-dogs. Admitting that he is well-matched, Robin refuses to fight further and asks the friar to join his band.

Whilst both ‘The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield’ and ‘The Curtal Friar’ represent typical examples of the early ballads’ milieu, Yorkshire is also the scene for two of the most unique episodes in the canon. The ballad known as ‘Robin Hood’s Fishing’ (or ‘Robin Hood’s Preferment’) is the only narrative with a nautical theme and despite this departure from the familiar environment, it was seemingly one of the most popular ballads during the seventeenth century, circulating widely in broadside and garland form. It is possibly a late invention, with the coastal setting suggesting that the legend had spread far from its original territory by the time of the ballad’s composition. Certainly, no references or analogues exist before an entry in the Stationers’ Register for 1631.

‘Robin Hood’s Fishing’ sees the hero grow weary of life in the greenwood and retire to Scarborough, on the North Yorkshire coast, where he takes work as a fisherman. Unsurprisingly, life as an outlaw has not prepared him for such a trade and he is mocked by the crew, who deny him a share of their catch. After several days at sea, the fishing boat is pursued by a French warship; the crew fear they will be captured and taken to France as prisoners, but Robin takes up his bow and picks off most of the French sailors, before boarding the ship with his sword to finish the job. There he discovers £12,000 in gold, which he offers to split with the fishermen. They refuse on the grounds that Robin won it himself, at which he vows to use the spoils to found a haven for the dispossessed.

Although ‘Robin Hood’s Fishing’ might be atypical in its setting, stylistically and thematically it is consistent with many other ballads. The tone is knock-about picaresque and the narrative concludes with a familiar display of Robin’s graciousness and largesse. Far more unusual is the account of Robin’s death, one of the most momentous episodes in the canon and tonally quite unlike any other ballad. A fatalistic atmosphere pervades the narrative and it closes on a downbeat note – it is the only episode to end in Robin’s defeat, and a terminal one at that. Whilst many of the earliest tales of Robin Hood were comedies, without consequences or connection to any wider context, the narrative of the outlaw’s death brings a stark and tragic nemesis.

There are two principle sources for the death narrative. The first is the final segment of the ‘Gest’, but whilst this can be securely dated to the late fifteenth century, the account is synoptic and lacks much in the way of detail or motivation. A fuller account is found in the ballad ‘Robin Hood’s Death’, which regrettably only exists in a damaged fragment of indeterminate date. This manuscript was discovered by Bishop Percy in the 1760s, and dates from the mid-seventeenth century. However, there is internal evidence to suggest that the ballad itself was composed much earlier, probably in the late Middle Ages, and may have been the original source for the truncated version of the narrative which appears in the ‘Gest’.

In ‘Robin Hood’s Death’, after living many years as an outlaw, an elderly Robin falls ill and announces his intention to travel to Kirklees Priory, near Huddersfield, to have his blood let – a common medieval cure for a variety of maladies. Will Scarlett warns him against the journey, reminding him that he must travel close to the home of the antagonistic Roger of Doncaster, to which Robin replies that he has nothing to fear, as the prioress is his cousin and would never allow harm to come to him. Nonetheless, he is persuaded to take Little John along with him, but as the two proceed, the foreshadowing grows darker when they encounter an old woman at the crossing of a river, who curses Robin’s name.