Thomas H. Ohlgren

Stephen Thomas Knight

Although nearly everyone has heard the name of Robin Hood, few have actually read any medieval tales about the legendary outlaw. Stephen Knight and Thomas Ohlgren set out to correct this discrepancy in their comprehensive collection of all pre-seventeenth-century Robin Hood tales. The editors include such other "outlaw" figures as Hereward the Wake, Eustache the Monk, and Fouke le Fitz Waryn to further contextualize the tradition of English outlaw tales. In this text the figure of Robin Hood can be viewed in historical perspective, from the early accounts in the chronicles through the ballads, plays, and romances that grew around his fame and impressed him on our fictional and historical imaginations. This edition is particularly useful for classrooms, with its extensive introductions, notes, and glosses, enabling students of any level to approach the texts in their original Middle English.

Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales

Description Billy the Kid, Jesse James, John Dillinger, and Al Capone were all are criminals who robbed and killed, yet they were considered good outlaws, celebrated in sensational newspapers, newsreels, and dime novels of the day, and later in film and television, for their daring, courage, loyalty, and even chivalry. Our fascination with criminal heroes has a long history, extending back to legendary accounts in medieval chronicle, romance, and ballad. Although their names may not be familiar-Earl Godwin, Hereward, Eustache the Monk, Fouke Fitz Waryn, n Bow-Bender, Gamelyn, Owain Glyndwr, William of Cloudesley, and William Wallace-these outlaws, in addition to Robin Hood, were all driven to lives of crime as victims of political intrigue or legal injustice. They committed capital crimes punishable by death, but, paradoxically, they were loved, encouraged, and supported by their communities. This revised and expanded edition of Medieval Outlaws gathers twelve outlaw tales, introduced and freshly translated into Modern English by a team of specialists, including Timothy S. Jones, Michael Swanton, Thomas E. Kelly, Mica Gould, Stephen Knight, Shaun F. D. Hughes, Alexander L. Kaufman, Thomas H. Ohlgren, Thomas Hahn, and Walter Scheps. The tales range in date from the Norman Conquest to the sixteenth century. Introductions precede each selection and notes identify all of the significant names, places, and historical events mentioned in the texts. Accessible and entertaining, these tales will be of interest to the general reader and student alike. About the Editor Thomas H. Ohlgren is Professor of English and Medieval Studies at Purdue University and is the author of numerous books and articles on medieval manuscripts and literature.

Twelve Tales in Modern English Translation

Medieval Outlaws

This revised and expanded edition of Medieval Outlaws gathers twelve outlaw tales, introduced and freshly translated into Modern English by a team of specialists. Accessible and entertaining, these tales will be of interest to the general reader and student alike.

Lister M. Matheson

While references to Robin Hood began to appear as early as the thirteenth century in legal records, the earliest surviving poems did not appear in manuscripts and early printed books until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Several fourteenth-century allusions in the works of William Langland and Geoffrey Chaucer suggest that the rymes of Robyn Hood were widely circulating by the 1370s, but, it is vital to note, none of these late fourteenth-century works survives. A better approach, Thomas H. Ohlgren argues, is to focus on what has actually survived rather than on what might have existed. As a result, the poems Robin Hood and the Monk and Robin Hood and the Potter, which survive in two different Cambridge manuscripts of the last third of the fifteenth century, and A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode, which was printed at least seven times in the sixteenth century, must receive pride of place in the canon because they have a physical reality as material artifacts - in short, they exist and provide valuable information about the places and times of their composition and dissemination.

Thomas H. Ohlgren

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