US & Canada Versions: 118 Robin Hood and Guy of Gisbourne
[The lone possible US version comes from the Brown Collection in 1914 (see below). The title was surely applied by someone from the Brown Collection and is not local. According to Davis, (TBVa, 1929) "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne" (Child, No. 118) is reported from North Carolina by Brown under the title of "Robin Hood and the Stranger." However by the time the Brown Collection was published this local title was changed!!! In my opinion this is most likely a version of "Robin Hood and Little John." In that version Little John is referred to as "the stranger."
The Traditional Ballad Index reports that the version in the Brown collection seems to "certainly derive" from this piece, but this is a stretch. It may be this, but it is only a disordered fragment, which looks to me to combine aspects of several Robin Hood ballads; the only real link with this is the reported title "Robin Hood and Guy of Gusborne."
R. Matteson 2012, 2015]
CONTENTS:
1) Robin Hood and Guy of Gusborne- Little (NC) 1914 Brown
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Brown Collection; Volume II, 1953.
32. Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne (Child 118)
The Robin Hood ballads, which bulk so large in the Child collection, have but few and weak echoes in American tradition — perhaps because life in America has never borne much resemblance to the social and economic conditions which produced the figures of Robin and his crew. The story of Robin and Guy, known even in England only from Percy's famous folio manuscript, has never been reported from American tradition until now. And our text, though it certainly derives from the same story, is vague and incomplete. Metrically it is so badly disordered as to seem, often, like a prose resume of (part of) the story; yet the rhymes show that the text derives from stanzaic form. One wonders how the text as reported here could ever have been sung to an air, but it is described as sung. Very likely the state of the text is due to imperfect recollection on the part of the reporter.
'Robin Hood and Guy of Gusborne.' Reported in December 1914 by G. C. Little of Marion, McDowell county, at that time a freshman in Trinity College, "as sung by Mr. C. A. Wilson, about sixty-five years of age, who lives near Marion."
1 Old Robin Hood was a bold, bold man.
In the green forest he had a great clan,
And the way he killed men, it was a sin to the land.
2 With his great bow he slew many a deer,
And when the people caught sight of him
They shook with fear.
3 One day, as they say, a stranger pass that way
And to bold Robin chanced to say,
'I'm in search of an outlaw bold
Who has committed many murders, so I'm told.'
4 'And if by chance to find, this outlaw shall be mine.'
5 After they had gone quite a way on that fine day
The stranger to Robin did boldly say,
'Pray ye, good fellow, tell me thy name,
For such a guide as you deserves fame.'
6 And it was then that he learned
That his guide was the outlaw bold
Who had committed the murders
Of which he had been told.
7 And it was there that this stranger of old
Was slain by the outlaw bold
Who lived in the merry green wood of old.
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Excerpt from The British Traditional Ballad in North America
by Tristram Coffin 1950, from the section A Critical Biographical Study of the Traditional Ballads of North America
118. ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE
Texts: Brown Coll.
Local Titles: Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne.
Story Types: A: A distorted text tells how Robin Hood lived in the forest killed men and deer, and frightened people. One day a stranger speaks to this outlaw, saying that he is searching for one Robin Hood. As they travel together, Robin Hood reveals himself and then slays the stranger.
Examples: Brown Coll.
Discussion: The story given in this American ballad tells only a small fragment of the original tale. Robin Hood, having dreamed that two yeomen beat and bound him, sets out with Little John for revenge. In the greenwood they encounter a yeoman. John wishes to ask the stranger his intentions, but Robin, thinking this too bold, objects so roughly that John is hurt and goes home. At home, John finds Robin's men pressed by the sheriff, and he is captured and tied to a tree when his bow breaks. Meanwhile, Robin learns from the yeoman that he is seeking Robin Hood, but has lost his way. Robin offers to be his guide, and they go off. A shooting match is proposed, and, when Robin excels, the stranger in admiration wishes to learn his name. They identify themselves as Guy of Gisborne and Robin Hood, and a fight ensues. After scumbling and being hit, Robin lolls Guy with the aid of the Virgin. He then nicks Guy's face beyond recognition, switches clothes, and blows Guy's horn. The sheriff hears in the sound tidings that Guy has slain Robin and believes it is Guy he sees approaching. Robin, as Guy, refuses a reward, but frees John. The sheriff then takes flight, but is slain by an arrow which John sends from Guy's bow.
The North Carolina text is meterically poor and almost prose in spots. Belden in his editing of the Brown Collection notes that the state of the text is likely "due to imperfect recollection on the part of the reporter".