Robin Hood and the Potter in the Early Ballads
A record in The Hawthorn Archive, preserving folklore with its place, type and source context attached.
Robin Hood and the Potter survives in a fifteenth-century manuscript and is an important early witness to the outlaw tradition. The narrative involves a potter, a change of identity and Robin’s dealings in Nottingham.
The story shows the flexibility of the ballad tradition. Robin’s behaviour includes wit and deception as well as generosity, and the setting brings ordinary trade and market life into the adventure.
The date of the manuscript helps establish when this version was written down. It does not demonstrate that the events took place. Evidence: medieval ballad manuscript. Source trail: Cambridge University Library, manuscript tradition of Robin Hood and the Potter; Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads.