HKA-001672
Literary Tradition
The Green Knight’s Challenge at Arthur’s Court
The Green Knight's Challenge at Arthur's Court in British folklore and historical tradition.
Open archive record →The Hawthorn Archive
The Hawthorn Archive
Stories, customs and beliefs preserved as individual records, with place and context kept attached wherever the evidence allows.
HKA-001671
Literary Tradition
A Gest of Robyn Hode in Early Print
An early printed Robin Hood narrative and what it reveals about the transmission of the outlaw legend.
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HKA-001669
Literary Tradition
Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham
The Sheriff of Nottingham as Robin Hood's opponent in the developing English ballad tradition.
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HKA-001668
Literary Tradition
The Robin Hood Garland and Early Ballad Tradition
How Robin Hood ballads circulated in printed garlands, and why the texts are literary evidence rather than a biography.
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HKA-001667
Practice
Hawthorn Haws in Autumn Rural Life
The autumn haws of the common hawthorn and their place in rural life, hedgerow ecology and traditional use.
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HKA-001666
Folk Custom
The Hawthorn and the May Queen
A record of hawthorn blossom in May Queen festivities, distinguishing changing seasonal customs from claims of an unchanged ancient rite.
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HKA-001665
Folk Custom
The Hawthorn Flowering Calendar and the Name May
Common hawthorn, Crataegus monogyna, is also called May or may-tree. Its flowers often appear in late spring, but the date changes with weather, altitude and location. The folk name therefore identifies a seasonal association…
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HKA-001664
Folk Custom
Hawthorn Hedges as Living Field Boundaries
Hawthorn has long been used as a thorny living hedge to enclose fields, guide movement and manage livestock. Hedges were maintained through cutting and laying, so the claim that British people never cut hawthorn…
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HKA-001663
Folk Custom
The May Blossom and Courtship Customs
May blossom appears in accounts of seasonal courtship and May Queen customs. Flowers, greenery and outdoor celebration brought young people together, but the precise practices varied by place and period. Later summaries sometimes describe…
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HKA-001657
Folk Custom
May Blossom in Seasonal Garlands
Hawthorn blossom, traditionally called May, was among the greenery associated with spring festivities in Britain. Garlands and decorated branches featured in changing May Day customs, including celebrations organised around a May Queen. The timing…
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HKA-001655
Literary Tradition
The Victorian Miniature Winged Fairy
The familiar image of a tiny fairy with wings became especially prominent in nineteenth-century British painting, illustrated books and theatre. The visual form proved enduring in children’s publishing. Earlier British fairy narratives vary considerably…
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HKA-001654
Literary Tradition
Richard Doyle and Victorian Fairy Illustration
Richard Doyle was among the nineteenth-century British illustrators whose elaborate fairy imagery helped establish the pictorial language of small supernatural figures, flowers, woods and playful miniature worlds. Victorian fairy illustration belongs to a later…
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