Recordings & Info 132. Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood
CONTENTS:
1) Alternative Titles
2) Traditional Ballad Index
3) Child Collection Index
4) Wiki
5) Mainly Norfolk
6) Folkopedia
ATTACHED PAGES: (see left hand column)
1) Roud No. 333: Robin Hood and the Peddler (70 Listings)
Alternative Titles
The Bold Peddler
Gamble Gold
Traditional Ballad Index: Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood, The [Child 132]
DESCRIPTION: Robin Hood and Little John meet a pedlar. Neither Robin nor John can out-wrestle the pedlar. They exchange names, and the pedlar (Gamble Gold, a murderer) proves to be Robin's cousin. They celebrate the reunion in a tavern
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST_DATE: 1775
KEYWORDS: Robinhood fight return robbery family outlaw
FOUND_IN: Britain(England(South,North),Scotland(Aber)) US(NE) Canada(Mar)
REFERENCES: (12 citations)
Child 132, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (1 text)
Bronson 132, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (14 versions+ 2 in addenda)
BarryEckstormSmyth pp. 457-461, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (1 songster text plus extensive notes)
Flanders/Brown, pp. 217-218, "Bold Robing Hood" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #14}
Flanders/Olney, pp. 67-69, "Bold Robin Hood and the Pedlar" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #3}
Flanders-Ancient3, pp. 101-106, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (2 texts plus a fragment, 2 tunes) {Bronson's #3, #14}
Creighton/Senior, pp. 67-69, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #7}
Creighton-NovaScotia 6, "Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (1 text, called "Pedlar Bold" by the singer, 1 tune) {Bronson's #12}
Leach, pp. 383-385, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (1 text)
Niles 46, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood" (1 text, 1 tune)
Vaughan Williams/Lloyd, p. 88, "Robin Hood and the Pedlar" (1 text, 1 tune) {Bronson's #5, emended}
DT 132, RHPEDLAR* RHDPDLR2
Roud #333
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(381), "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838; also Harding B 11(380), Harding B 11(382), "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood"
Murray, Mu23-y4:007, "The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood," J. Catnach (London), 1813-1838
CROSS_REFERENCES:
cf. "Jock the Leg and the Merry Merchant" [Child 282] (plot)
cf. "Robin Hood Newly Revived" [Child 128] (theme)
ALTERNATE_TITLES:
The Bold Peddler
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.
Child considered this a variation of "Robin Hood Newly Revived" [Child 128], but Bronson argues that this is not so. Stephen Knight, however, points to what he considered an intermediate version in Child's additions and corrections; he thinks this text an orally shorted version of "Robin Hood Newly Revived." - RBW
Child Collection- Child Ballad 132: The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood
Child --Artist --Title --Album --Year --Length --Have Rec
132 A.L. Lloyd Robin Hood and the Bold Pedlar The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 4 [Reissue] 196? No
132 A.L. Lloyd Robin Hood and the Bold Pedlar The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) - Vol. 2 1956 4:55 Yes
132 A.L. Lloyd Robin Hood and the Bold Pedlar Bramble Briars & Beams of the Sun 2011 No
132 Barry Dransfield Robin Hood and the Pedlar Barry Dransfield 1972 4:03 Yes
132 Belle Luther Richards Bold Robin Hood and the Pedlar (1) The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
132 Belle Luther Richards Bold Robin Hood and the Pedlar (2) The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
132 Belle Luther Richards Robin Hood and the Pedlar The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
132 Ben Henneberry Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood (1) The Helen Creighton Collection No
132 Ben Henneberry Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood (2) The Helen Creighton Collection No
132 Ben Henneberry Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood (3) The Helen Creighton Collection No
132 Ben Henneberry Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood (4) The Helen Creighton Collection No
132 Benji Kirkpatrick The Bold Pedlar Dance in the Shadow 1998 4:49 Yes
132 Brass Farthing Gamble Gold and Robin Hood More Songs About Dogs and Beer 2010 No
132 Carrie Grover Robin Hood and the Pedlar Old Mother Hippletoe - Rural and Urban Children's Songs 1978 2:43 Yes
132 Caswell Carnahan Robin Hood and the Pedlar New Leaves on an Old Tree + Borderlands 1995 3:24 No
132 Caswell Carnahan Robin Hood and the Pedlar New Leaves on an Old Tree 1981 3:24 Yes
132 Denny Smith Robin Hood and the Pedlar Band of Gold 2000 No
132 Ed McCurdy Robin Hood and the Bold Pedlar Bad Men and Heroes 1955 2:29 Yes
132 Ed McCurdy Robin Hood and the Bold Pedlar Elektra Folk Sampler 2 1956 No
132 Ed McCurdy Robin Hood and the Bold Pedlar Badmen, Heroes and Pirate Songs and Ballads 1957 No
132 Ed McCurdy Robin Hood and the Bold Pedlar A Treasury of Folk Songs for Children 1962 No
132 Ed McCurdy & Michael Kane Robin Hood and the Pedlar The Legend of Robin Hood 1973 4:01 Yes
132 Emily & Hazel Askew Robin Wood and the Pedlar Six By Two 2005 4:57 Yes
132 Faeryharper Gamblegold <website> 2007 :22 Yes
132 Geordie Roberston The Bold Pedlar Scottish Tradition 5: The Muckle Sangs - Classic Scottish Ballads 1992 1:33 Yes
132 George Robertson Robin Hood and the Pedlar (1) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
132 George Robertson Robin Hood and the Pedlar (2) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
132 George Robertson Robin Hood and the Pedlar (3) The James Madison Carpenter Collection 1927-1955 No
132 Jon Pfaff Robin Hood and the Pedlar It's Jon Goddammitt! 1998 No
132 Margaret MacArthur Robin Hood and the Pedlar Ballads Thrice Twisted 1999 3:14 Yes
132 Mrs. Edward Gallagher Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood (1) The Helen Creighton Collection No
132 Mrs. Edward Gallagher Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood (2) The Helen Creighton Collection No
132 Mrs. Edward Gallagher Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood (3) The Helen Creighton Collection No
132 Oliver Bootle Robin Hood and the Pedlar Bold Oliver Bootle 1997 No
132 Peter Shepheard Robin Hood and the Pedlar Old Songs & Bothy Ballads - Nick-knack on the Waa 2008 No
132 Sharon Harrington Bold Robin Hood The Helen Hartness Flanders Collection No
132 Shepheard, Spiers & Watson Robin Hood and the Pedlar Over the High Hills 2012 No
132 Steeleye Span Gamble Gold (Robin Hood) All Around My Hat 1975 3:41 Yes
132 Steeleye Span Gamble Gold (Robin Hood) Recollections 1981 No
132 Steeleye Span Gamble Gold (Robin Hood) A Parcel of Steeleye Span - Their First Five Chrysalis Albums 1972-1975 2009 3:40 Yes
132 Steve Chandler Gamble Gold The Span of Time 2005 5:10 Yes
The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood is Child ballad 132, featuring Robin Hood. It is a traditional version of Robin Hood Newly Revived.
Synopsis
A pedlar meets Robin Hood and Little John and tells them what he has in his pack. Little John demands half of it. They fight. The pedlar winning, Robin laughs and says he has a man who could defeat him. They fight, and the pedlar wins again, and refuses to hold his hand, or tell his name, until they had told them theirs. They do, and he says his name is Gamble Gold, and he is fleeing because he killed a man in his father's lands. Robin identifies him as his mother's sister's son, and they go to the tavern and drink together.
A version of this song was recorded by Ed McCurdy in the mid-1950s on Elektra Records' "Folk Sampler." In this version the peddler identifies himself as "Gambolling Gold of the gay green woods."
A version of the song entitled Gamble Gold (Robin Hood) was recorded on the 1975 Steeleye Span album, All Around My Hat.
See also:
The bold pedlar may make another appearance in the earlier Robyn and Gandeleyn.
External links
The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood
The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood, with historical notes
Mainly Norfolk: Robin Hood and the (Bold) Pedlar / Gamble Gold
[Roud 333; Child 132; Ballad Index C132; trad.]
Robin Hood and the Pedlar is a ballad from Ralph Vaughan Williams' and A.L. Lloyd's Penguin Book of English Folk Songs.
A.L. Lloyd sang Robin Hood and the Bold Pedlar on his and Ewan MacColl's 1956 anthology on the Riverside Label The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (The Child Ballads) Volume II, All of his tracks from this series were reissued in 2011 on the Fellside album Bramble Briars and Beams of the Sun.
Barry Dransfield sang Robin Hood and the Pedlar in 1972 on his eponymous Polydor album, Barry Dransfield.
Steeleye Span recorded this ballad in a shortened version (8 of 15 verses) they called Gamble Gold (Robin Hood) on their best-selling album, All Around My Hat.
Benji Kirkpatrick sang The Bold Pedlar in 1999 on his WildGoose CD Dance in the Shadow.
Emily & Hazel Askew sang Robin Hood and the Pedlar in 2005 on their first WildGoose CD, Six By Two.
Peter Shepheard sang Robin Hood and the Pedlar at the Fife Traditional Singing Festival in Collessie, Fife, in May 2007. This recording was published a year later on the festival's anthology Nick-Knack on the Waa (Old Songs & Bothy Ballads Vol. 4).
Lyrics
Steeleye Span sing Gamble Gold
There chanced to be a pedlar bold,
A pedlar bold he chanced to be;
He rolled his pack all on his back
And he came tripping o'er the sea.
By chance he met two troublesome blades,
Troublesome blades they chanced to be,
One of them was Robin Hood
The other was little John so free.
Chorus (after every other verse)
Gentlemen on high born blood,
Gamble Gold and Robin Hood
“Oh pedlar, pedlar what's in the pack?
Come speedily and tell to me!”
“I've several suits of the gay green silk
And silken bow strings two of three.”
“If you have suits of the gay green silk
And silken bow strings two of three,
Then by my body,” cries Robin Hood,
“Half your pack belongs to me!”
“Oh no, oh no,” says the pedlar bold,
“No that can never be.
There's never a man in Nottingham
Can take one half my pack from me!”
The Robin Hood he drew his sword
And the pedlar by his pack did stand;
They fought till the blood in streams did flow
And he cried, “Pedlar hold, hold your hand!”
“Oh pedlar, pedlar what's thy name?
Come speedily and tell to me!”
“I'm Gamble Gold of the gay green woods,
I've travelled far beyond the sea.”
“If you're Gamble Gold of the gay green woods
Then my cousin you must be!
Let us away to a tavern near
And bottles crack most merrily.”
From Folkopedia
132: The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood;
The first appearance of this popular ballad is in 'Captain Delaney's Garland' of 1775 [BL 1346.m.7(9)] where it is titled 'Robin Hood and the Proud Pedlar'. Child gives this and an oral version from Dixon's 'Ancient Poems and Ballads' where Dixon refers to having seen stall copies. Though not widely printed in the nineteenth century, Catnach, Pitts and some of their contemporaries printed it early in that century and it was still being printed on broadsides as late as Sanderson of Edinburgh who was still printing well into the twentieth century. All of the full versions, stall copies and oral, have the same fifteen stanzas.
Child saw it as a traditional variation Of 'Robin Hood Newly Revived' No. 128. It appears to be a rewrite of that ballad, possibly by a broadside hack. The garland version has Robin Hood's cousin named 'Gamwell' which is the same as in 128, whereas Dixon and the nineteenth century broadsides all have 'Gamble Gold'.
The ballad has been found in oral tradition in Sussex (four pretty full versions), Surrey, Essex and London, and in Scotland. In America it has turned up in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Again some of the American versions obviously derive from the garland version, having 'Gamwell' as the cousin or some similar name. The 'Gamble Gold' version also appears in 'The American Songster', Cozzens, New York, c1850.
Bronson gives fourteen versions placed into three tune groups and six subgroups.