Recordings & Info 126. Robin Hood & the Tanner
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
4) Wiki
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 332: Robin Hood and the Tanner (23 Listings)
Alternative Titles
Robin Hood and Aurthur O'Bland
In Nottingham there lived a jolly Tanner
Traditional Ballad Index: Robin Hood and the Tanner [Child 126]
DESCRIPTION: Robin Hood meets a tanner in the woods; they fight. After two hours Robin blows his horn. Little John comes running; Robin says the other has tanned his (Robin's) hide. Little John offers to continue the battle; Robin says no, praising the tanner's skill.
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1657 (Stationer's Register)
KEYWORDS: Robinhood fight
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South)) US(SE)
REFERENCES: (9 citations)
Child 126, "Robin Hood and the Tanner" (1 text)
Bronson 126, "Robin Hood and the Tanner" (3 versions+ 2 in addenda)
Davis-Ballads 31, "Robin Hood and the Tanner" (1 text, 1 tune entitled "Robin Hood and Arthur O'Bland") {Bronson's #3}
Leach, pp. 372-376, "Robin Hood and the Tanner" (1 text)
Sharp-100E 4, "Robin Hood and the Tanner" (1 text, 1 tune)
Lomax-FSNA 94, "Robin Hood and Arthur O'Bland" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
BBI, RZN12, "In Nottingham there lived a jolly Tanner"
DT 126, RHOODTAN*
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. 118-122, "Robin Hood and the Tanner" (1 text, very close to the 1670 garland)
Roud #332
NOTES: 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.
Bronson, in searching for the tunes of the Child Ballads, notes that many are the same tune, and that tune is most likely to be "Arthur A Bland." Which, if it is anything, is this. So this may be one of the "core" Robin Hood ballads. Except -- all this is based on a few tag lines, which are often unreliable.
The Opies (Opie-Oxford2, #12) speculate that the Arthur a Bland of this song may be the Arthur O'Bower of their nursery rhyme #12:
Arthur O'Bower has broken his band
And he comes roaring up the land;
The King of Scots with all his power
Cannot stop Arthur of the Bower.
This seems to be based solely on similarity of names, however. I would not be surprised if Arthur O'Bower has some deeper significance -- but I can't see any reason to link him to Robin Hood. - RBW
Child Collection Index- Child Ballad 126: Robin Hood and the Tanner
Child-- Artist-- Title-- Album-- Year-- Length-- Have
126 A.L. Lloyd Robin Hood and the Tanner The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 2 [Reissue] 196?
No
126 A.L. Lloyd Robin Hood and the Tanner The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 1 1956 No
126 A.L. Lloyd Robin Hood and the Tanner Bramble Briars & Beams of the Sun 2011 No
126 Broadside Electric Robin Hood and the Tanner Amplificata 1997 5:40 Yes
126 Bob Lewis Robin Hood and the Tanner Old Songs & Bothy Ballads - There's Bound to Be a Row 2010 No
126 Bob Lewis Robin Hood and the Tanner Drive Sorrows Away 2010 No
126 English Heritage Robin Hood and the Tanner A Minstrel's Music 1998 2:47 Yes
126 Estampie Robin Hood and the Tanner Under the Greenwood Tree 1997 1:09 Yes
126 Martin Best Bonny Sweet Robin + Robin Hood and the Tanner William Shakespeare - Ages of Song 1979 No
126 Michael Raven & Joan Mills Robin Hood and the Tanner Flowers of Picardy 1995 No
126 Michael Raven & Joan Mills Robin Hood and the Tanner The Dutch Connection 1976 No
126 Richard Searles Robin Hood and the Tanner Scarborough Faire 1997 No
126 Roy Harris Robin Hood and the Tanner The Bitter and the Sweet 1972 3:56 Yes
126 Roy Harris & Notts Alliance Robin Hood and the Tanner English Garland - Topic Sampler No 8 1972 No
126 Sherwood Rise Robin Hood and the Tanner From the Wood 1981 2:57 Yes
126 St. George's Canzona Robin Hood and the Tanner A Medieval Banquet 1994 No
126 St. George's Canzona Robin Hood and the Tanner A Tapestry of Music for Robin Hood and his King 1976 No
126 Steve Jordan Robin Hood and the Tanner Folk Songs from Hampshire and Dorset 2005 No
126 Wallace House Robin Hood and the Tanner Robin Hood Ballads 1953 3:26 Yes
Robin Hood and the Tanner: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robin Hood and the Tanner is Child ballad 126.
Synopsis
A tanner, Arthur a Bland, goes to Sherwood. Robin Hood appears and accuses him of poaching. They fight. Robin blows on his horn, summoning his men, and tells them that the man is certainly a tanner, as he has tanned his hide. They take him into the band.
In some variants, Arthur is related to Little John.
Recordings
Broadside Electric recorded a version of this ballad on their 1995 album Amplificata.
External links
Robin Hood and the Tanner
Robin Hood and the Tanner with commentary