Robin Hood and the Potter
Robin Hood and the Potter (German Robin Hood and the Potter ) is one of the oldest existing ballads about the legendary English robber chief Robin Hood . In the representative collection of traditional English and Scottish folk ballads by Francis James Child , the Child Ballads , it has number 121. The text that has survived dates from around 1500. The plot revolves around Robin Hood's fight with a potter and his cunning deception of the Sheriffs of Nottingham, whom he lures into the woods to the hideout of his gang and robbed.
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The action takes place in the north of England, probably from the 13th or early 14th century, but there is no indication of a more precise timing. The beginning of the ballad, like that of Robin Hood and the Monk, represents a poetic glorification of summer nature. Then it is reported that Robin Hood and his gang members see a potter approaching the forest who has never paid them road tolls and because of that According to Robin Hood's loyal friend Little John , his martial arts cannot be coerced. This stimulates the gang leader to make a bet with Little John that he can defeat the potter. In the argument that unfolds afterwards, the sword-fighting Robin Hood is subject to the stick-fencing potter and has to pay his betting debt.
Now that Robin Hood has disguised himself by swapping his robe with the potter's, he sets off with his goods on the way to Nottingham and offers the pots in front of the sheriff's house at a ridiculous price. So he will soon get rid of his goods and give the last five pots as a present to the sheriff's wife. Thereupon, invited by this to dinner, he gets into conversation with the sheriff and wins an archery competition. He claims to the representative of the government that he knows Robin Hood and agrees to lead the sheriff to the outlaw for his arrest.
The next morning, Robin Hood goes into the forest with the sheriff, blows his horn and uses it to alert his companions. They come over, surround the sheriff and relieve him of his valuables and his horse, but let him leave unhindered because of the hospitable behavior of his wife towards Robin Hood. The gang leader pays the potter a far inflated price for his wares, namely ten pounds, and the men swear friendship to one another.
Dating; Lore; reception
Robin Hood and the Potter is one of the guild swan ballads and was written in Middle English around 1500 . A manuscript of the ballad has been preserved in full in a manuscript collection of folk and moral poems at Cambridge University . This early work on Robin Hood - similar to the ballad Robin Hood and the Monk , which is also one of the oldest Robin Hood pieces - played no role in the later widespread print versions of the popular material and was first published in the uncritical edition of the English version published in 1795 Reprinted from Antiquarian Joseph Ritson . However, the story was well known earlier. For example, in a short play included in the edition of the Gest of Robyn Hode published by William Copland around 1560 , a dramatized version of the encounter with a potter is told, and the beginning of this play has similarities with the ballad.
The theme of disguise, which is widespread in Robin Hood ballads, appears in Robin Hood and the Potter as well as the emphasis on the title hero's mastery in archery and the contrast between city and forest. The theme of Robin Hood's disguise as a potter perhaps goes back to older legends about the Anglo-Saxon resistance fighter Hereward the Wake . In the last verses God is invoked for his protection of all upright yeomen and Robin Hood is assigned to this peasant class, as in other early ballads. In contrast to Robin Hood and the Monk, the piece has a lot of comedy peculiar to it. The sheriff is portrayed far less threateningly than in other texts, while his wife is very self-confident and treats Robin Hood with extreme respect. In other early ballads, apart from the Virgin Mary , who was greatly venerated by Robin Hood and the Prioress von Kirklees, who was responsible for his death, no women appear at all.
The literary style of Robin Hood and the Potter is quite simple compared to other early texts, the amount of dialogues above average.
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- Francis James Child: English and Scottish Popular Ballads , 5 Vols., Boston 1882-98, Reprinted New York 1965, Vol. 3, No. 121.
literature
- Andrew James Johnston: Robin Hood . CH Beck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-64541-9 , p. 31f.