Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar
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Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar is Child ballad number 123, about Robin Hood.
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[edit] Synopsis
The outlaws have a good hunt. Robin Hood says there is no match for Little John within a hundred miles; Will Scadlock tells him that a friar at Fountains Abbey can. Robin sets out to see this monk. He finds him by a riverside and forces the monk to carry him over, except that the friar throws him in half way across. They battle until Robin asks a favor: to let him blow on his horn. When the friar agrees, Robin's men appear, with bows in hand. The friar asks a favor: to let him whistle. When Robin agrees, many fierce dogs appear. Little John shoots twenty of them, and the Friar agrees to make peace with Robin. Robin invites him to join the band.
[edit] Adaptions
Howard Pyle used this tale in his Merry Adventures of Robin Hood as part of the tale of Allen A Dale: Robin needed a priest who would perform the wedding ceremony in defiance of authority, and Will Scarlet proposed the Friar.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ Michael Patrick Hearn, "Afterword", Howard Pyle The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, p 384 ISBN 0-451-52007-6