The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood is a much-beloved adventure novel by Howard Pyle (1853-1911), published in 1883. Pyle, an American illustrator and children’s author, wove together several of the early ballads about the famed medieval outlaw Robin Hood and his companions, the Merry Men, in an episodic and entertaining plot aimed at young readers of the late nineteenth century. Written in a pseudo-archaic English actually modeled on Elizabethan-era English, the book reflects a colorful, late Romantic view of the Middle Ages. The Merry Adventures is widely credited with popularizing Robin Hood in modern times and with influencing subsequent depictions of the folk hero in film, art, and other media.

Plot Summary

Robin Hood is a spirited 18-year-old in 1100s England who is a skilled archer and swordsman. While on his way to an archery contest, he gets in an argument with several older men in a forest. As part of a bet, he shoots a deer which (unknown to him) belongs to the king and, even more seriously, shoots an arrow in retaliation at one of the foresters and kills him. Robin is condemned to the life of an outlaw. Over the next year, he hides in

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