Talk:Friar Tuck
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
What is a "Curtal Friar"? Bastie 14:21, 24 November 2005 (UTC)
Well, it's the title of the ballad which features Friar Tuck, although not by name. I've seen a few different meaning of the word. Here's what Stephen Knight and Thomas H. Ohlgren wrote in their notes to the ballad in Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales.
" The term curtal has raised discussion. Most feel it refers to a shorter gown, worn for mobility: friars were associated with travel among the ordinary people, which was both a source of corruption and also, as in the Robin Hood tradition, popular acceptability. A "tucked friar" is another way of expressing this, which has become the basis for the friar's usual name, Tuck. Child, however, feels that curtal goes back to curtilarius or "gardener" and that this had been the friar's role (III, 122)."
The story given on this page doesn't make a lot of sense. If he was a friar, what was he doing in a monastery? 84.70.231.152 18:14, 27 June 2006 (UTC)
- It's not the encyclopedia's place to make the information it reports sensible. Goldfritha 00:44, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
