Adele Treskillard's Blog — Bringing Alive Epic Tales Of The Ancient Past™

It’s a window in the world
A little portal where you get a better view
And all along the way the days are made
Of little moments of truth

{Song by Andrew Peterson}

Besides The Lord Of The Rings, The Song Of Albion series is certainly my favorite. In fact, 4 years ago, reading those exact same books breathed a desire within me to discover Western heritage; the forgotten ’simple’ past, the long-lost ‘epic tales’. First, that meant becoming a Gaelic singer, then it meant searching out such things as Tiwyr & Robin Hood and learning the strange art of writing so as to better, deeper, tell those stories.

So I find this video of Kevin Kaiser explaining how artists and writers are ‘thin places’ or ‘portals’, people who rend the fabric and let us see absolute truth and beauty in the Other World … I find it truly satisfying to my soul. Kevin, thanks for revealing the truth about Lawhead’s ‘portals’!

It is sad to relate that Richard Todd, the actor who played Robin Hood in Walt Disney’s The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men, has recently passed away. He went with ‘courage and dignity’ in a fight against cancer.

Here are some pics from the movie for which we know him best:

Sherwood must rise again!

Thank you Clement for introducing us all to The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men!

My friend Sophie just emailed me a fascinating little ballad about Robin Húd’. I would like to point out the word ‘mickle’, a Scottish word for ‘great’ or amazing.

The part about Little John going to ‘town’ may be related to a particular sequence of verses in the Lytle Gest of Robyne Hode, in which it seems Little John has returned to the forest of fair Barnesdale from the outside world, and is eagerly asked for news by Robin Húd’ and his ‘menye’—his company of men. (I believe that menye is pronounced men-yee based off the way it was rhymed with other words).

Robin Hood, Robin Hood,
Is in the mickle wood!
Little John, Little John,
He to the town is gone.
Robin Hood, Robin Hood,
Telling his beads,
All in the greenwood
Among the green weeds.

Little John, Little John,
If he comes no more,
Robin Hood, Robin Hood,
He shall fret full sore!

Sophie, thanks a LOT for pointing this jewel out!

When Child published his collection of the ballads of England and Scotland—most of which were originally about Robin Hood, friends & family—he did not include many tunes to the songs. So many years later, Bertrand Harris Bronson made another collection—this time, with many new variants plus tunes!

Unfortunately, the four volumes which he printed have become in scarce supply. And in the folk-song community, demand is very high. To help things along further, the original printings were done unevenly and so the last volume became quite pricey.

So, a few months ago, I was thinking that my thin resources would evaporate in the attempt to procure them. As I was mournfully contemplating this, I discovered on the Mudcat Digital Tradition forums that they were being reprinted—within a few days! And, unbelievably, they are now available for $40 a volume. So I’m happily studying my Bronsons—thank you, God!

*Why would I get these? So Wren Song can begin to re-construct, re-tune and re-sing the ancient songs of Britain—that is, the songs of Robin Hood.

In fact, the money left over after getting the new Bronsons has just procured software & other things necessary to a home-studio. Wren Song is going to be learning a lot now. The hope is, after re-forming a decent amount of songs, to make some available here for download for free—the ones at the heart of the Robin Hood legend. Even more will be available track-by track for the usual 99-cents price or all together in an actual CD.

I might add an especially special thanks to Clement of the Glen for prodding us in this direction!

This is going to be so fun!

I don’t go in for uncivil incivilities. But here’s a beautifully civil incivility.

This perfecto supero song is modeled on The Candyman Can. It’s called The Government Can.

And here are the words:

Uncle Sam … hey, uncle sam …
Hey everybody, gather around! I’m here to give you anything you like! You want free college? Energy? Mortgages? Whatever you like! You have come to the right place! Why? I’ll tell you why!

Who can take your money
(Who can take your money)
With a twinkle in their eye
(A twinkle in their eye)
Take it all away and give it to some other guy
The Government
(The Government)
The government can
(The government can)
Who can tax the sunrise
(Who can tax the sunrise)
Who can tax the trees
(Who can tax the trees)
Lecher on a business
and collect up all the fees
The Government
(The Government)
O the Government can
(The Government can)
And the Government can cause they mix it up with lies
and make it all taste good
(And make it all taste good)
The Government takes everything we make
to pay for all of their solutions
Healthcare, Climate Change, Pollution
Throw away the Constitution

And who can give a bailout
(Who can give a bailout)
Tell us to behave
(Tell us to behave)
And make the Founding Fathers roll over in their graves
The Government
(The Government)
O The Government can
(The Government can)
And the Government can cause they mix it up with lies
and make it all taste good
(and make it all taste good)
The Government takes everything we make
They’re power-hungry and malicious
Their economics are fictitious
Soon we’ll have to eat our dishes
Ooh delicious
Ooh who can be a failure
(who can be a failure)
In so many ways
(in sooo many ways)
Instead of getting fired hey we’ll give ourself a raise
The Government
(The Government)
Oh the Government can
(The Government can)
And the Government can cause they mix it up with lies
and make it all taste good
And your Uncle Sam can cause he mixes it with lies
and makes it all taste good
makes it all taste good
And I feel so good cause the Government says I should—!

It seems our hero has many names!

Whereas we think of him with only one—Robin Hood, or in medieval spelling Robyn Hode—it may be time for an overhaul. Unfortunately, he has several. Let’s begin with one from the Forester’s Manuscript (some Robin Hood ballads which were collected in 1670 AD, and discovered in 1993).

In this story, a variant of Robin Hood and the Bishop, Robin catches sight of his enemies and has to take to his heels:

But by the trampling of a steed
This mighty man did wake
He was aware of the sheriff and all his men
Came riding over the lake.

Away then run good Bobin Hood
For he durst no longer abide
Until he espied a little house
Hard by the river’s side.

Now this ought to come as no surprise if you have seen these nursery rhymes:

Robin a Bobbin
Bent his bow
Shot at a pigeon
And killed a crow.

Or:

Robin the Bobbin, the big-bellied Ben*,
He eat more meat than fourscore men;
He eat a cow, he eat a calf,
He eat a butcher and a half;
He eat a church, he eat a steeple,
He eat the priest and all the people!
A cow and a calf,
An ox and a half,
A church and a steeple,
And all the good people,
And yet he complained that his stomach wasn’t full.

*Ben means male hero in Scots Dialect. By extraction, I suppose it’s related to the Cymric usage of the Welsh word penn, (head or top), which is sometimes used for a chieftain or warleader—so in reality, this is a Gaelic version; i.e., the benn/penn, the top man. His appetite is a piece of ridiculous exaggeration, of course, but how do you think legends change? Compare to this verse in the Gest of Robin Hood, and decide which of them you prefer:

Robin:

“I was never so greedy, by dear worthy God,
My dinner for to crave.”

The second place that ‘Bobin’ appears is, British Wren Songs.

The British Wren Songs are actually the genre of folk-song that led me into the Robin Hood legend. A strange story, in which Robin, Shaun/John and Bold Archer—the Brothers Three—go out and hunt a wren! These songs are in Gaelic, Welsh and English. I’ll do a post on the meaning behind this, it’s very complicated and audacious.

Where are you going, says Robin the Bobbin
Where are you going, says Richard the Robbin
Where are you going says Shaun
Where are you going says the never beyond

I’m going to the woods to hunt the WREN!
says Wise Willie
says Festal to Foze*
says Dibbon to Dobbin
says Ridge to Rodge
says Arty Art
says Milda to Molda
says the Brothers Three!

*No idea who this is. Suggestions welcome. But we’ll talk about Dibbon & Dobbin, Ridge & Rodge, & Richard further on.

Look at this:

Robin the Bobbin—Robin Hood
Wise Willy—Will Shakelock
Shaun—Little John
Arty Art—Bold Archer/Arthur
Milda—Much the Miller’s son.

So, you’ve seen Robin a Bobbin, and Bobin Hood, and some Dobbin and Rodge stuff, but what about an, um, Robin HODGE?

=> Read more!

This is an open letter to Brendan O’Neill, who wrote a particularly odious article for the BBC on Robin Hood. His main point, having cut his journalist eye-teeth for the Revolutionary Communist Party, is that Robin Hood is some kind of golden folk-hero who is Marxism incarnate, exactly as Obama is a golden folk hero, lavishing bailouts upon hungry souls (not keeping a penny for the government—of course).

If you want my take on Robin Hood, look here, or just click on the button above which says Robin Hood’s Original Audacity.

Letter:

Brendan O’Neill,

May I suggest that you change a few things in that Robin Hood article? Take this from a dyed-in-green researcher of Robin Hood:

Number One: Robin Hood is mentioned in the earliest sources as having seven score men—not ‘three score’. Look through the Little Gest of Robin Hood. It’s mentioned 5 times.

Number Two: The earliest film of Robin Hood was an American black and white. It was filmed in 1908 and was called Robin Hood and His Merry Men. You were probably thinking of the later, 1922, Douglas Fairbanks film, but in reality there were many in between. Try this website, which has one of the most comprehensive lists.

Number Three: The best kept secret of the Robin Hood ballads is that he is never once mentioned as ‘robbing from the rich and giving to the poor’. Now you can find that idea on the 16th century epitaph set up over the grave of at least three (plague?) victims at Kirklees—the real, old slab-marker of which has now disappeared leaving only the stupid epitaph. The current *ancient* version of which, by the way, is the worst extant imitation of Old English. A truly reliable source set up for the 16th century tourist trade: Robin Hood’s grave. Realio and trulio.

I advise you to *change* the article. A new, really shocking point could be that Robyn Hode was in fact liberating people, not coins.

Your article says:

It’s telling that the legend really sky-rocketed in the 16th and 17th Centuries - an era of the “earliest capitalist enterprises", says Prof Hahn - amongst ordinary people who found new economic systems alien and oppressive.

Really? It did? The Robin Hood legend was in near decay by the 1500’s. Not many could even make real ballads anymore by then. It was much more vigorous 300 years earlier, except that few people could write things down!

And another thing; have you ever truly studied medieval England? Because if so, you would have known that, au contraire, the poor serfs who escaped (in the 1400’s) into the cities invented the ‘capitalism’ and it wasn’t alien, oppressive, or bad—it was freedom! In old English times, ‘poor’ meant the unlucky people still under the lock and key of the country nobility—the, ah, government.

Have lots of fun,

Adele Treskillard

If you have never watched The Story of Robin Hood and his Merrie Men …

then allow me to highly recommend it

I learned about this nearly perfect film from Clement of the Glen, who has a blog devoted to the subject. Fortunately for me and all other Robin Hood zealots, it has been just re-released, now on DVD. It’s a refreshing breath of greenwood air!

The reason it’s so good is this: if you’re going to put Robin Hood in Medieval times, (click here to find out when he really lived) you better be able to pull it off. And this one does exactly that; it’s so realistic. You also better keep the wild fun of the Medieval legend! For instance, in the Errol Flynn film, can you imagine Robin making the Sheriff ride home backwards on his horse, wearing stag-horns? Well—no?

That’s exactly what Robin does in this film. He may be young for the role, but he pulls it off with command and charm and spunk. Plus they dressed him up correctly. No synthetic material for Richard Todd. Oh no—real, heavy linen-like cloth, dyed a leafy shade of green—a big, dirk-like knife (whittle)—besides the amazing fact that he actually wears a horn (!).

There’s also a lot of humor in the film. Be careful, Friar Tuck will catch you unawares and have you doubled up with laughter.

And don’t forget Maid Marian: (she’s spunky too!)

(Note: I have to admit, I like this Marian better than the Errol Flynn one. Partly because of costume.)

And if you get this DVD, beware: beware. You’ll be singing and humming the minstrel’s tunes about Robin Hood. Just to whet your appetite, I’ll spell out the opening (and closing) verses of the movie: (very appropriate by the way to have a minstrel start the story and end it, as the minstrels were the ones who kept the legend around)

Oh I’ll sing a song, a rollicky song,
As I stroll along my way …
With a hey derry down and a derry die doo
And a riddle dee diddle dee day.

On to the tale of Robin hood
And of his Merrie Men!
His like you are not like to see
In all this world, again—
His bow was long, his arm was strong
And his heart was good and true
Well did he fight
To gain the right
And so, I pray, may you …

{minstrel goes off whistling in the distance}

Recently I watched the Mary Poppins film. It was not what I expected. The sight of her singing and snapping fingers at things and making them dance and the seemingly limitless power she had literally sent chills up and down my back. Did you ever wonder why

1 She is cold to the children

2 She is in control, not Bert—who ought to be the hero here

3 She can do anything she likes

Here’s the answer I got after rifling the original Mary Poppins books, in which:

1 Her main character traits are unequivocally coldness and being self-centered.

2 She has supreme power. She can walk through ‘Other’ doors into ‘other’ worlds and go through ‘Cracks’ and enter pictures and, additionally, it’s all real: the punch line.

3 She brings the children with her into these other realities and then, after bringing them back, denies it ever happened. This has an extremely disorienting effect upon them, especially when they discover evidence that it was ‘real’.

It didn’t take me very long—a few pages, in fact—of reading in the very first Mary Poppins book before something leaped out of the pages at me. Allow me to quote:

A spoon was attatched to the neck of a bottle, and into this Mary Poppins poured a dark crimson liquid.

“Is that your medicine?” inquired Michael, looking very interested.

“No, yours,” said Mary Poppins, holding out the spoon to him. Michael stared. He wrinkled up his nose. He began to protest.

“I don’t want it. I don’t need it. I won’t!”

But Mary Poppin’s eyes were fixed upon him, and Michael suddenly discovered that you could not look at Mary Poppins and disobey her. There was something strange and extraordinary about her—something that was frightening and at the same time most exciting. The spoon came nearer. He held his breath, shut his eyes and gulped. A delicious taste ran round his mouth. He turned his tongue in it. He swallowed, and a happy smile ran around his face.

“Strawberry ice,” he said ecstatically. “More, more, more!”

But Mary Poppins, her face stern as before, was pouring out a dose for Jane. It ran into the spoon, silvery, green, yellowy. Jane tasted it.

This is really, really bad. Not only is the anti-hero, the self-centered nasty Mary Poppins in complete control of her surroundings, she has control of the children too. In other words, she has unlimited power.

And if the description of Michael’s will inverting itself and the succeeding pleasure dealt out did not tick you off, it sure ticked off me. The problematic fascination with children being disoriented and subjected to an array of sensations continues throughout the entire series. It’s—it’s—appalling, disgusting. Unfortunately, I have an explanation.

=> Read more!

A bit ago, I received a comment from somebody on my Robin Hood King of the Sea post. He said:

This is a version of an old ballad about Sir Andrew Barton, who was High Admiral of Scotland in the late 15th/early 16th century (effectively a pirate licensed by the Scottish Crown). The name was changed to Henry Martyn in the 16th century as there was another famous ballad about Andrew Bartin.

The Robin Hood version was later and, whilst it’s good fun, clearly it doesn’t make sense in the context of the legend.

Oho. So now we get to it! Pseudo-historicity, an ignored and unpointed-out problem. Haha. Fella, y’got t’be kidding. This place/person/time attachment-stuff which was massively undertaken in the 1800’s (and further back than that) is really, for anyone who takes the trouble to analyze the ballads, instead of simply categorizing them, pointless and extremely ridiculous.

What it all comes down to is this: th’ballads are not unique, autonomous, end-unto-themselves pieces of literature. There are usually 7 different versions of a story (myth!), with the people switched around, the songs more or less corrupted and/or switched around, sequences lost, sequences swapped, the rhymes in differing stages of disrepair and bad memory-syndrome, and the songs more or less merged with other songs! It’s absolutely terrible! A complete mess!

The particular song you’ve chosen to gripe on is actually one of the best ones to, um, do that on, because it’s indefensibly Robin Hood who’s doing the action, not some 16th century pirate/commander whose name has been accidentally inserted much later in the process. It’s in old dialect too, unfortunately for you (I rhyme) which means that its origins date at least back to the early 1400’s, before that kind of thing fell out of style and people actually forgot how to write ballads at all.

It doesn’t fit in with the Robin Hood legend, so it’s not

Whose Robin Hood legend, dude? Hollywood’s? The next rabid professor’s? Dobson and Taylor’s? Wikipedia’s? Or your own, carefully constructed/crafted from all of them?

Y’see, y’gotta understand that the legend is all coming from the ballads. And behind the ballads, there were ballads! And behind those ballads, there were ballads! And behind those ballads, there were songs! And there’s, basically, so much Robin Hood stuff out there—real stuff—authentic—that this blog hasn’t even scraped the surface yet.

I mean, you got to be kidding. There’s children’s plays, there’s rhymes—nursery rhymes, place name rhymes, sayings and proverbs, place-name stories, local legends, songs, and sooooooo much more in the ballads than you ever, ever, dreamed.

Monsieur: a word with you. Allow me to introduce Charles Nevill, Captain Ward, Robin Hood Goes Fishing, Hugh Spenser & comrades, and the Three Merry Mariners—Herman, Watkin, and Willkin. And a whole lot more.

Now allow me to explain: we must inspect the shared story of these differing ballads with differing names. If you look closely enough, they’re all the same myth. And it’s not just Andrew Bartin. It’s Charles Nevill and Howard and Herman and Hugh and Robin Hood. As in Robin Hood Goes Fishing and Robin Hood King of the Sea, which has the best lyrics and dialect of all.

Charles Nevill (its story starts out pretty similar to the Robin Hood ballad of Hobbie Noble):

They had not sailed upon the sea
Not one day and month-es three,
But they were {a}ware of a noble ship,
That five tops bare all so high.

Recognize this verse from Robin Hood King of the Sea?

=> Read more!