Erlinton

Ballad
Child	8
Title	Erlinton
Versions	3
Variants	4
Stanzas	31
Date	1803 or earlier

By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2014-09-02. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2017-12-18.

Child's title for this ballad is Erlinton. It exists in three versions, one of which features Robin Hood. This, the C version, is called Robin Hood and the Tanner's Daughter. Child reprints it from the edition in "Gutch's Robin Hood, [which was printed] from a manuscript of Mr Payne Collier, supposed to have been written about 1650".^[1] As John Payne Collier had been exposed as a literary forger already around the mid-19th century and this version of Erlinton was known only from Collier's MS, Child's decision to include it in his collection without even noting the possibility it might be a forgery seems highly questionable.

Plot

Robin Hood meets a fair damsel, a tanner's daughter; they become lovers (straightaway), but soon the girl's two brothers come riding to fetch her home. A sword fight ensues in which Robin kills the elder brother but spares the younger at the girl's entreaty. The two then elope to the forest.

Editions

Scholarly collections

Child, Francis James, ed.; [Kittredge, G. L.], ed.; [Ireland, Catharine Innes], bibl. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Boston and New York; Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, ©1882-98), vol. I, pp. 106-11. Additions and corrections: vol. III, pp. 498-99; vol. IV, pp. 445-47.

Notes

↑ Child, Francis James, ed.; [Kittredge, G. L.], ed.; [Ireland, Catharine Innes], bibl. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Boston and New York; Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, ©1882-98), vol. I, p. 106.

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[1] Child, Francis James, ed.; [Kittredge, G. L.], ed.; [Ireland, Catharine Innes], bibl. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (Boston and New York; Cambridge, Massachusetts; London, ©1882-98), vol. I, p. 106.

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