Robyn_and_Gandeleyn
Robyn and Gandeleyn
15th-century English ballad
Robyn and Gandeleyn is an English ballad. The poem is in Sloane Manuscript 2593, a document of lyrics and carols which dates from around 1450. It was first printed by Joseph Ritson in his 1790 collection Ancient Songs. It was later republished in the second half of the 19th century in an anthology of traditional English and Scottish ballads by Francis James Child known as the Child Ballads, where it is Child Ballad 115. Child also divided the continuous text into seventeen stanzas.
The ballad has attracted interest from scholars of Robin Hood due to the similarity of Robyn's name and the involvement of both precise archery and a dangerous forest as motifs. Despite this similarity, Child and other scholars generally believe that the ballad is not directly connected to Robin Hood's legend. If it really is a reference to Robin Hood, it would be one of the earliest attested stories, along with Robin Hood and the Monk.[1][2][3]