The Adventures of Robin Hood

Robin sees a minstrel named Allin-a-Dale as he walks, singing and happy, through the forest. The next day, Robin sees him again, maudling, and has Little John and Much invite him to dinner. Robin asks for the forest tithe, but Allin has no money to spare, and he tells Robin how he was denied his lover’s hand in marriage by the Bishop of Peterborough, who is her guardian. She is now meant to marry an old but rich knight, the Bishop’s brother. Robin decides to help Allin by disguising himself as a minstrel and goes to the wedding. He presents himself to the Bishop, who accepts his services as a minstrel, but when the old knight arrives, Robin refuses to stop playing, claiming that the man had to be the woman’s grandfather. He calls in Allin-a-Dale, has Little John call the banns to make the wedding lawful, gives away the bride to Allin-a-Dale, and forces the Bishop to perform the rites. From then on, Allin would sing about Robin Hood’s exploits.

After being outwitted by Robin, the Bishop of Peterborough seeks out the Sheriff of Nottingham to capture Robin, and with Worman’s help, they devise a scheme. A palmer tells Robin that three young men are being tried according to the Forest Laws, and Robin gives him money for his clothes so he can disguise himself and approach Worman. He tells Worman that he will act as the hangman for the accused, but he soon finds himself trapped, with the Sheriff, the Bishop, and their men coming upon him. He flees and goes into an old cottage where an old woman tells him to change clothes with her so that he might escape his pursuers while she leads them astray. When she is discovered, Worman and the others resume the hanging, only for Robin’s arrow to sever the hanging rope cleanly. Robin is accompanied by some of his men, and while he forces the Bishop to dine with him, he kills Worman by hanging him. They force the Bishop to sing Mass for them, and after taking his gold and silver, they let him leave.

Years go by, and rumor has it that King Richard is captured but still lives, so Robin actively tries to collect money for the King’s ransom. Meanwhile, others strive to catch the traitors who support Prince John, including a man named George-a-Greene, the Pinner of Wakefield. His fame and his wife Bettris’s reputation are so great that both Robin and Marian decide to seek them out to measure themselves against them, Robin in terms of strength and Marian in beauty. They travel to Wakefield and arrive at George’s field, only to be denied access by George. Will Scarlet and Little John try to fight with George but are quickly overpowered. When he fights Robin, their fight lasts for an hour until Robin calls for a truce, and when Robin reveals his identity, George accepts his offer to become his man. Marian, meanwhile, is reassured in her beauty and becomes friends with Bettris.

After leaving Wakefield with George and Bettris, both now dressed in Lincoln livery like the rest of Robin’s band, they make their way back to Sherwood. On the way, however, a knight passes by, and Robin knows that the knight is Sir Guy of Gisborne. As it begins to rain, their group hustles to avoid the knight, and they make their way to a small stone house where Allin-a-Dale lives. Allin and his wife welcome them from the rain, and as they discuss the political developments between Prince John and the Earl of Chester, someone else comes knocking at their house. Sir Guy, accompanied by a band of men, tries to trick his way into the house, but Robin overhears his companions. Sir Guy breaks down the door, and he and his men face off against Robin and his group. When Marian eventually has Sir Guy at her mercy, she makes him swear an oath that he will stop pursuing Robin and will not seek vengeance against Allin and his wife. Sir Guy then leaves, and Bettris expresses some irritation that George never taught her how to wield a sword as Marian does. The next morning, they leave Allin and his wife and see Friar Tuck collecting money for the King’s ransom from two terrified priests. As he threatens to pummel them with his cudgel, the priests give the money that had been raised by the Abbot of St. Mary’s for Prince John. The priests scurry away when Friar Tuck allows them, and Robin and his group rejoin with the other merry men.

One summer day, Robin hosts a feast for all the shepherds and shepherdesses of the area. One shepherd, Eglamour, however, is missing, and another shepherd explains that Eglamour seeks his lost love, Earine, who was presumed drowned. Marian returns with a deer for the feast and reports that there was an odd raven whom another shepherd, Karolin, believes is Mother Maudlin, the Witch of Paplewick. Karolin confirms that Mother Maudlin is a shape-shifter and can take on the form of anything. As Robin asks Marian about the feast, she behaves strangely and insists that the deer be sent to Maudlin instead of being cooked for the feast. She makes wild accusations against Robin, telling him that he spies on her constantly because of his jealousy and oppression. Marian goes into the woods, and when Robin finds her again, she has returned to her natural state and has no recollection of ever telling Robin to gift the deer to Maudlin.

When Maudlin herself comes to find Marian to thank her for the deer, the two women argue over the deer and its alleged gifting. Maudlin says she has already divided the deer among her neighbors, but Will Scarlet then comes through and announces that he has reclaimed the deer, stating that if Maudlin had, in fact, already gifted the deer Marian gave her, they weren’t taking back the gift. Angry, Maudlin bewitches the cook as she leaves. While some of the merry men go off to find the witch and stop her spells, Robin and Marian stay behind, as Eglamour is meant to come by. When he does, he is singing about his lost love. Then, a spirit appears, and everyone believes it to be Earine’s ghost. Robin and Eglamour follow the ghost to a house where Marian is arguing with other merry men that Maudlin is not a witch but simply a very wise woman, and they should leave her alone. When Robin comes forward, however, he notices a girdle on her, and when he breaks it, the Marian he holds disappears. Maudlin emerges from the house, and Robin chases her away. In her house, they find Earine alive and well, and they all return to the feast, where Robin solemnizes two weddings.