book report robin hood

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Summary

by Howard Pyle

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The story begins with Robin Hood , who is on his way to an archery contest, but accidentally kills one of the sheriff's officers. This causes Robin to live a life of being an outlaw. The Sheriff vows to catch Robin Hood for his crimes and in each of the three stories he tries to.

In the first story, he sent a Tinker to serve papers to Robin; however, Robin gives the Tinker a strong drink that makes him sleepy and steals the papers.

In the second story, the Sheriff holds an archery match in Nottingham, hoping to lure Robin. However, Robin comes in disguise, wins the first prize, and leaves the Sheriff a note. Later, the Sheriff captures Will Stutely and announces that he will be hanged for his crimes. However, Little John (another outlaw) postpones the execution just so Robin and his men could save Will.

Robin returns to Nottingham with a disguise, and a meat cart, and sets up both next to the Guild Hall, where he was invited to a feast by the Sheriff. Robin then sells the Sheriff a deer instead of the cattle, which is what he thought was going to eat.

In the third story, the King steps up and hires a thief, Guy of Guisbourne, to kill Robin Hood. However, Robin Hood wins the confrontation, but later gets a fever. Robin hides in his cousin, Prioress of the Nunnery of Kirklees, home for treatment. However, his cousin betrays and kills Robin.

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The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Robin Hood becomes a folk-hero and people are attracted to his form of vigilante justice.

What trap did the sheriff lay to catch Robin hood?

In the traditional legends and stories about Robin Hood, there is no mention of a trap set by the sheriff specifically to catch Robin Hood. However, the sheriff of Nottingham is often depicted as Robin Hood's main antagonist, constantly trying to...

name the archers who competed with robin

Queen Eleanor asks Robin Hood and a few of his men to the archery competition in London. Robin brings Little John, Will Scarlet and Allan a Dale with him.

Study Guide for The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood study guide contains a biography of Howard Pyle, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

About The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
Character List

Essays for The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood essays are academic essays for citation. These papers were written primarily by students and provide critical analysis of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle.

The Role of Maid Marian in Robin Hood
Ideal Actions and Outcomes
Sides of a Coin: Sir Gawain and Robin Hood as Heroic Foils

E-Text of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood e-text contains the full text of The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle.

How Robin Hood Came to be an Outlaw
Robin Hood and the Tinker
The Shooting Match at Nottingham Town
Will Stutely Rescued by his Companions

Wikipedia Entries for The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

Introduction

92 pages • 3 hours read

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

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Summary and Study Guide

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood is a much-beloved adventure novel by Howard Pyle (1853-1911), published in 1883. Pyle, an American illustrator and children’s author, wove together several of the early ballads about the famed medieval outlaw Robin Hood and his companions, the Merry Men, in an episodic and entertaining plot aimed at young readers of the late nineteenth century. Written in a pseudo-archaic English actually modeled on Elizabethan-era English, the book reflects a colorful, late Romantic view of the Middle Ages. The Merry Adventures is widely credited with popularizing Robin Hood in modern times and with influencing subsequent depictions of the folk hero in film, art, and other media.

Plot Summary

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Robin Hood is a spirited 18-year-old in 1100s England who is a skilled archer and swordsman. While on his way to an archery contest, he gets in an argument with several older men in a forest. As part of a bet, he shoots a deer which (unknown to him) belongs to the king and, even more seriously, shoots an arrow in retaliation at one of the foresters and kills him. Robin is condemned to the life of an outlaw. Over the next year, he hides in Sherwood Forest near Nottingham and gathers more than a hundred companions—all fellow outcasts from society—around him.

Robin and his “Merry Men”—including such colorful figures as Little John , his right-hand man, and Friar Tuck—spend their days playing at archery and cudgels, hunting and feasting, and looking for adventure. Robin becomes known as a benign highway robber, stealing excess money from the rich and powerful and giving to the poor and needy. Although always ready for a fight, Robin is equally ready to befriend his opponent. In this way, the Merry Men increase in size and become famous throughout England for their exploits, a situation which often leads them to don disguises when they venture beyond Sherwood so they will not be apprehended by the law. They find their chief adversary in the scheming and resentful Sheriff of Nottingham , whose repeated attempts to capture Robin Hood are unsuccessful.

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At last, Robin Hood’s fame catches the attention of Queen Eleanor, who invites him to take part in an archery contest in London. There, he and his Merry Men carry the prize but earn the wrath of King Henry, who sends a search party after them to capture them. The Merry Men escape through various stratagems and, with the queen’s intercession, earn the king’s blessing to return home to Sherwood.

When the beloved and fun-loving King Richard the Lionhearted succeeds to the throne, he removes the curse of outlaw from Robin and the Merry Men and makes them part of the royal retinue. Robin becomes Robert, Earl of Huntingdon and fights alongside the king in the Crusade.

King Richard dies in the conflict and is succeeded by King John, who is less well-disposed toward Robin Hood, especially after he decides to return to Sherwood Forest and resume his former life. A skirmish between Robin and the king’s men results in the death of the Sheriff of Nottingham and throws Robin into a deep depression and fever.

Robin seeks the advice of his cousin, the Prioress of Kirklees, for help in curing his fever through bloodletting. Wanting Robin out of the way because of the danger he poses, she opens up a vein that leads straight to Robin’s heart. Little John rushes in to rescue Robin, but it is too late. After shooting one last arrow, Robin dies in Little John’s arms—but his exploits live on long after him.

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Book Review: The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

Legends of Robin Hood have been floating around since the 14th century. Scholars debate whether early ballads and stories were based on a real person. In his earliest versions, Robin was just a crook, sometimes short-tempered, according to Wikipedia . He did not rob from the poor, but he didn’t give to them, either. Some of the aspects we know of Robin survived from the earliest stories; others were added or adapted over the years. Wikipedia details Robin’s history and variations.

In this story, Robin is a yeoman, which seems to be a type of middle class between peasants and aristocrats (other versions cast Robin as a nobleman). He first becomes an outlaw by shooting an arrow at someone who shot at him first, subsequently killing the man. This man happened to be related to the Sheriff of Nottingham, who thenceforth became Robin’s enemy.

As Robin hid out in Sherwood Forest, others soon came to join him. Some who were poor and hungry had killed the king’s deer and fled the law. Others had goods and land confiscated by the king and had nowhere else to go.

To support themselves, Robin and his “merry men” stopped rich travelers and “invited” them to feast in Sherwood Forest, then demanded payment of them. In some cases, Robin divided up the money gathered in this way into thirds, keeping a third for his men, a third for charity, and giving a third back. Robin justified this theft because he figured those he robbed had either gotten their gain unfairly or, like wealthy clergymen, were keeping for themselves what they should be giving to others.

The poor loved Robin because he helped many of them. The classes that Robin robbed from, obviously, did not.

This book details many of the well-known stories about Robin—his first bout with Little John, his altercation of Friar Tuck (someone not in the earliest legends), the archery match in Nottingham where Robin went in disguise. Maid Marian in mentioned but never appears. Other stories I had not heard of were included as well, like how Robin met and helped Allen-a-dale to free his beloved from an arranged marriage, Robin’s deadly run-in with villain Guy of Gisborne, the recruitment of Midge, the Miller’s Son, and other tales.

The book came to a very satisfying end, until it got to the epilogue, where Robin’s death by betrayal is told.

There is an odd mention of “Cain’s wife had never opened the pottle that held misfortunes and let them forth like a cloud of flies to pester us.” That sounds like a convoluted version of Pandora’s box. And I chuckled at his phrase because a former pastor used to say it, and I didn’t know it came from this book: “There is many a slip betwixt the cup and the lip,” meaning plans don’t always work out like we hoped. Maybe it was a common saying that Pyle incorporated.

As I first started listening to the audiobook, I wished I had known of and read this book to my boys. The more I heard, though, the more I wrestled with whether that would have been a good idea or not. There’s something appealing about this version of Robin, “honest … in his own way”: someone who stands up for the little guy, who “never harmed harmless man,” rights wrongs, bests the foolish and evil. But I could never condone vigilantism, for many reasons. And many differences in the book are solved by fighting. Plus there are copious amounts ale, beer, and the like consumed. If we had read the book as a family, we would have had to stop and discuss a lot of issues along the way. Setting aside those objections, though, the rest was fun.

There are many film version of Robin, but the only one I ever saw was the animated Disney one. I’ve seen the character in some shows like Once Upon a Time and Shrek .

I listened to the audiobook superbly read by Christopher Cazenove in a voice and accent perfect for this type of tale. Project Gutenberg has a version online here .

I read/listened to this book for the Back to the Classics challenge, but I am not sure which category to place it in yet. It would fit in two or three. I’ll wait til I read some others and then see where to place this one.

Have you ever read this version of Robin Hood? What did you think?

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