A Gest of Robyn Hode in Early Print
A record in The Hawthorn Archive, preserving folklore with its place, type and source context attached.
A Gest of Robyn Hode is an important early witness to the English outlaw tradition. Surviving printed editions preserve a long narrative that draws together episodes involving Robin, his companions, a knight and representatives of authority. The work shows that the legend had developed a substantial literary life before its best-known modern retellings.
Its value as evidence lies in the history of storytelling and printing. A ballad narrative is not a court record, and the characters’ actions cannot simply be treated as documented events. Comparing the Gest with shorter ballads helps readers see how different strands of the tradition were transmitted.
Record type: Literary tradition. Region: England. Evidence: surviving early printed text. Source trail: early editions of A Gest of Robyn Hode in British Library collections; Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads.