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Little John A common joke in Sherwood is that "Robin
will never need a dog." The Gentle Giant of Sherwood is Robin's
faithful lieutenant. Oddly so, because John WILL question Robin on policies he disagrees
with. But that's only because John has an idea of what a Merry Man should be, and how the band should behave. John Naylor (some legends name him John Little, but that's pretty darn coincidental) came to Sherwood when he had to leave his village for some trouble. Likely he inadvertently killed a man who provoked him, as some will. |
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| John has a
verrrry slow temper, but can explode when he sees innocents abused,
especially children. He can't sit down without a kid climbing
in his lap. Women too. As Robin notes, "Women
flock to see if his cock is as big as the rest of him." Backing the fled-outlaw theory is that, when John first arrived in Sherwood, he had a chip on his shoulder. Most Sherwooders dared not mess with him, though Will Scarlett ragged him unmercifully, so John hated Will for a long time. Robin Hood, himself possessed of an attitude and temper, fought with the famous quarterstaff duel on the bridge. John easily knocked Robin in the water, goes the story. My addition is, he knocked him in the water thirteen times. John finally gave up rather than kill Robin, and has followed him ever since. So the Merry Men say that the only man who can defeat Little John is Robin, though no one's sure how. Little John wears brown the year round, being told, "Stand still and ye'll pass for a tree." He eschews a hat or hood except in the worst weather, preferring his head bare and his long brown hair braided behind. He never lacks for a woman's hand to fix it. John was very casual about women until Bold Jane Downey, "no bigger than a cat", fell for him. Lately they've been "keeping company", though the other women wonder how Jane can survive tumbling in the blankets with a man big as a horse in more ways than one. John uses only a quarterstaff, surprisingly effective against a sword because the wood catches the blade. and John can knock a knight or horse into the next county. He breaks quarterstaves regularly over unlucky enemy heads. Just as well, for with his archery skills, "he might's well throw his bow as shoot it." John was the only Merry Man to follow Robin to the Crusades, simply because it never occurred to him to stay home. He endured storm and capture and torture without complaint or comment. If anything, Robin frets he can never repay John's loyalty. Yet John would never ask. He follows Robin because "Rob has vision and he does good deeds," and that's enough. Little
John appears in the earliest ballads. He might have been a local
hero elsewhere, with his own set of ballads, but if so, they're lost,
last I heard. John has gone adventuring on his own hook using the
name "Reynold Greenleaf". Another
Merry Man of legend is Hard-Hitting Brand, who's considered huge
- until Little John walks in. It's in quest for Little John that the entire outlaw band uproots and relocates to London. Tellingly, no one ever questions that they won't seek John to the ends of the earth. Art by Harry Bishop in Illustrated
Classics Robin Hood. See my custom action figure of Little John (scroll down). |
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Robin Hood's Robin Hood |
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Red Tom
is a carpenter and crofter (he carves ornate chests). He was
passing through Sherwood, stood up to Robin Hood, and joined
the Merry Men on a whim.
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is his daughter. Tom is so devoted that he risked diptheria during the London plague by sucking contagion
from Polly's throat with a straw. Both survived. Tom is "Red" for his red hair, not his clothes. He's tall, skinny, and strong. For some reason he hates Arthur A'Bland. Robin has to keep them apart. When the band settles in London, Red Tom is the busiest building houses, because they keep burning down. Red Tom was invented by Clayton Emery. Art by Victor G Ambrus from Robin Hood, His Life and Legend by Bernard Miles. |
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Polly
is Red Tom's daughter, red-haired like her father. Polly is a quiet and level-headed girl not given to silliness. She misses her absent mother, so is sometimes called Sad-Eyed Polly by Robin, but she's devoted to her father. |
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| Polly
proves valuable when she accompanies Robin, Marian, and Gilbert
to Spain to rescue some kidnapped girls.
In London, Polly was quick to take to "girly" clothes. She's not a tomboy by nature. Polly was created by Clayton Emery. Art © 1995 by Dennis Nolan from The Forest Wife by Theresa Tomlinson. |
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Katie,
often dubbed Snubnose, is the band's tomboy. She idolizes Marian.
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role model, though Marian would prefer the girl
express some feminine traits too. Her "crossdressing" landed her in ecclesiastical court, dragged in by a summoner. It's a sin to dress like the opposite sex. Katie strives to fight harder, ride better, and strike faster than any boy, especially her arch-rival Tam Gamwell. In London, Katie took charge of Robin's war horse, Puck, and hung around Smithfield, the horse market, daily. At fourteen, Katie has conflicted thoughts about what boys are for, but so far suppresses them. With six notches to her bow, Katie can hold her own. Or so she thinks, until he charges into battle against Vikings and finds herself suddenly alone. Katie was created by Clayton Emery. Art © 1998 by Dennis Nola from Child of the May by Theresa Tomlinson. |
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Allan A'Dale is the minstrel of legend, hopelessly in love with The Fair Elaine, who was to be wed to an old man by her parents. |
| Robin Hood,
champion of any underdog, stopped the wedding, had
Tuck read the banns, and saw Allan and Elaine wed. They
make a fine addition to the Greenwood, for Allan knows over two
hundred songs and loves to share them. Too, he's Sherwood's
schoolteacher and storyteller, handy on a cold winter night.
Gilbert, never a deep thinker, considers Allan a coward for refusing to fight, though Allan demonstrates there are other ways to resolve conflicts. Gilbert must eat his words when Allan sacrifices his life to rescue a Sherwood child from under the hooves of murderous knights in BEASTS. For such a selfless act, the wood-god Herne blesses Allan's grave, and all the Greenwood, with more buttercups than anyone's ever seen. Fitting tribute for a gentle poet... Allan A'Dale first appears in the ballad "Robin and the Minstrel". Art by James McCracken from Robin Hood by Ula Waterhouse Echols. |
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The Fair Elaine is the love of
Allan A' Dale, and they were wed through the generous intervention
of Robin Hood's band. She bore Allan three children before he was killed. Later, in London, she lost all three children to plague. Fair and fragile, Elaine was despondent for a long, long while. Red Tom finally took her to wife, and she settled into her new life with new children, though some say her spark died with Allan. |
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Elaine was introduced in the ballad "Robin
and the Minstrel". Elaine was a very common name in
folk ballads and King Arthur tales: there might be multiple Elaines in a single
epic.
Art by Nick Harris from Eyewitness Classics Robin Hood by Neil Philip. |
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Young Allan is your typical boy, wanting excitement and adventure. His father, the gentle Allan A'Dale, wants him to learn to read and sing. |
| Young Allan gets plenty of adventure as is, and is
not far off when his father is killed in a raid. Later, in London, Young Allan serves as Robin Hood's squire at a tournament joust, though he's told to stay off the field "no matter what happens", as it's too dangerous a place for anyone, let alone a kid. Allan's brief fling with adventure ends with plague in London. Young Allan was invented by Clayton Emery. Art by NC Wyeth from Robin Hood by Paul Creswick. |
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Will Stutley was steward of Locksley Hall, and so became Robin's mentor and
best friend as he grew up. Besides Marian, Will is the only person who can order Robin around. Will was a sergeant when King Henry invaded Wales. He saw fur-clad barefoot rebels with six-foot bows kill a knight and horse with one arrow and then vanish into the hills. |
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| When's Robin home was
lost, Will naturally followed Robin to the woods. In many ways, he's Robin's
most loyal man. In other ways, he often treats Robin like a child,
though never reprimands him in public. Will's bravery is legendary. Faced with hanging in Nottingham, he asked for a sword, and when denied that, offered to fight barehanded any number of guards bearing weapons. As Will grew older and stiffer, he spent more time near the fire, and Little John became Robin's right hand man. But Robin and Will both defer to his wisdom. Although Will seemed eternal, he succumbed to plague in London and was buried in a mass grave far from Sherwood. Also called Will Stukely, the character appears in the original ballads. One version made him Robin's right-hand man until he grew older and Little John arrived. Art by Piero Cattaneo from The Legend of Robin Hood. |
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Will Scarlett hasn't got red hair, but wears red clothes, the most
expensive.
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| Will is a good swordsman and middling archer, but a master thief.
He can pull a coin from a child's ear or a throwing knife from a
sleeve in an eyeblink. He knows dozens of scams and plies them
all while living in London, with Tam's help. Will's mother is Old Bess. His father was Giles Crookleg - interesting since the son gains a limp too - cousin to Robin's father. His wife Mary is deceased. His son is Tam Gamwell. Also spelled Scarlet, Will first appeared
in the ballad Modified art by Gerry Embleton from Robin Hood by Michael Bishop. |
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Tam Gamwell is Will Scarlett's equally crazy son, and so too Robin's cousin. Tam will do anything for a lark or a dare and a chance to boast. Robin repeatedly chides his cousin Will, "What kind of a life is it for a boy, taking him whoring and housebreaking and pocket-picking?" Will soberly replies, "It's a father's responsibility to see his son learns a trade." Tam's mother, Mary, is dead. According to "Da", she was as wild as Will. Old Bess is Tam's grandmother. Tam practically grew up in the Greenwood, so like Katie, despite his youth, is one of the most capable outlaws. Clayton Emery created Tam to be a foil to Will's craziness. Art from Men of Sherwood by Donald E. Cooke, illustrated by Peter Burchard. |
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Gilbert of the White Hand is a knight from Northumberland, an area constantly ravaged by Scottish and Viking raids. Gilbert is allegedly English, but goes suspiciously berserk in battle, making one wonder if he has Viking blood himself. Tall, blonde, knotty-armed, and damned near unkillable, Gilbert received the accolade on the battlefields around Acre, a lofty honor for one born a peasant. He takes Crusading seriously and lives to fight evil.From a long spell of slavery in the Holy Land, he can speak several languages and even knows medically correct healing - a strange talent for such a savage . Gilbert is the lover of Cedwyn, who couldn't be more his opposite. Gilbert has a thick Northern accent that becomes incomprehensible when he's excited - not that he's around much. Like a tank, he's always at the forefront of the fighting. Gilbert of the White Hand is cited in the original ballads. Some explain his hands were soft
and white as a girl's. My version has Gilbert with one
white and useless hand, stripped to three fingers and scar tissue by fire,
a relic of a Viking raid. Thus Gilbert swings his Milanese
sword left-handed, confounding his enemies. He doesn't even need a sword.
Lounging in a bath in London, he was jumped by three knights with
swords. Gilbert killed the first one with a poker, grabbed a
sword, and killed the other two - naked. Art by Frank Emery, colors by Liz LaValley. Click for full-size. |
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Cedwyn the Welsh Witch was daughter to a famous witch. When her mother died, Cedwyn carried on alone in her lonely
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| On the day three knights came to forcibly "sleep with"
the witch to become immune to harm, Robin Hood tried to intervene,
only to find that all three knights had died very horribly.
(See BEASTS.) Rattled, Robin nonethless extended an offer
to join their band, figuring Sherwood needed a sorceress on their
side. Disgusted with unfriendly locals, Cedwyn went along
- and fell head over heels with Gilbert of the White Hand at
first sight. Cedwyn is short and plain, with lank hair, and an eyetooth missing from the brawl with the knights. But Gilbert (himself an outcast) treats her like a queen. Others shy from her, which suits the witch. Clayton Emery created Cedwyn and placed her from Wales, famous for witches such as Rhiannon. Her name may be pronounced "Ked-win" or "Seth-win". I can't find a definitive answer. Art by Ivan Bilibin from Stories: Vasilisa the Beautiful. |
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Much the Miller's Son is son to a miller. An "idiot"
(now we recognize Downs Syndrome), he performed poorly in the
mill because he was frightened of the "engine".
Thus he made plodding deliveries through Sherwood...
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| The whim saved Robin's life later, for
when Robin was knocked down by Sheriff's men, Much drove them
off with a wagon tongue despite two crossbow quarrels in his
gut. He survived, and Robin repaid the favor by keeping
Much close. His name derives from being stooped, "not much there", and from his father's prediction he'd "not amount to much". Just by being loyal, Much has proved the world wrong. Much the Miller's Son was introduced in the ballad "Robin and the Miller". The notion he was an idiot came from TH White's THE SWORD IN THE STONE. Art by Jay Hyde Barnum from Adventures
of Robin Hood |
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Of Hard-Hitting Brand I know only that he was an original member of the outlaw band before Robin Hood joined.
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hearty and happy, and only around in early adventures, so presumably
got killed. Merry Men hardly ever quit or retire from the
band. Usually they die.
Hard-Hitting Brand, or Right-Hitting Brand, appears
in early ballads. He's in the story "Robin Hood and the Hobyas". Art by Piero Cattaneo from The Legend of Robin Hood. |
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George-A-Green
too was an original Sherwood outlaw before Robin Hood joined.
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Art by Piero Cattaneo in The Legend of Robin Hood. |
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Robin Hood's Robin Hood |
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And to see what the Merry Men wore, view the rare and dazzling plates of English Medieval Clothing taken from the 1906 book by Dion Clayton Calthrop. |
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