Robin Hood and the Shepherd [Child 135]

DESCRIPTION: Robin comes upon a shepherd and demands to know the contents of his bag and bottle. The shepherd defies him. They fight. The shepherd wins. Robin blows his horn. Little John answers the call but the shepherd thrashes him as well.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1663 (garland)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood fight shepherd
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Child 135, "Robin Hood and the Shepherd" (1 text)
Bronson 135, comments only
Ritson-RobinHood, pp. 142-145, "Robin Hood and the Shepherd" (1 text)
Barry/Eckstorm/Smyth-BritishBalladsFromMaine p. 451, "Robin Hood and the Shepherd" (brief notes only)
Olson-BroadsideBalladIndex, RZN1, "All gentlemen and yeomen good"
ADDITIONAL: Stephen Knight, editor (with a manuscript description by Hilton Kelliher), _Robin Hood: The Forresters Manuscript_ (British Library Additional MS 71158), D. S. Brewer, 1998, pp. 34-37, "Robin Hood and the Sheapard" (1 text, shorter than Child's text based on the garlands)
MANUSCRIPT: {MSForresters}, London, British Library MS. Additional 71158, the "Foresters Manuscript," item6
Roud #3985
NOTES [126 words]: For background on the Robin Hood legend, see the notes on "A Gest of Robyn Hode" [Child 117].
Fully half the Robin Hood ballads in the Child collection (numbers (121 -- the earliest and most basic example of the type), 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 130, 131, 132, (133), (134), (135), (136), (137), (150)) share all or part of the theme of a stranger meeting and defeating Robin, and being invited to join his band. Most of these are late, but it makes one wonder if Robin ever won a battle.
Knight, p. 34, does make the interesting note that this is one of the few ballads of Robin meeting his match in which nothing happens afterward -- it is just a story about a fight. Child considered to be a particularly feeble example of the genre as a result. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: C135

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