English and Scottish Ballads, Volume V

These are the original tales that spawned a legend. Before Hollywood greenlit Errol Flynn, before Disney animated foxes, before countless adaptations and reinventions, there were only the ballads - raw, sung verses passed from village to village, carrying the spirit of an outlaw who stole from the rich and gave to the poor. This volume gathers the Robin Hood cycle from Francis James Child's monumental collection, the work that first assembled every surviving variant of these ancient songs. Here you'll encounter Robin Hood and the Monk, Robin Hood and Little John, and the other tales that shaped an icon. The language is direct and kinetic, the humor quick, the violence sudden. These aren't the polished legends of later retellings - they're something wilder and more vital, the folk tradition in its purest form. To read them is to hear the voice of medieval England itself, singing of rebellion, camaraderie, and the enduring dream of justice against tyranny.