⚔ Robinhood & the $Beggar ⚔

📚 The Whole Tale

Two ballads, one lesson: never underestimate a Beggar.

The First Ballad (Child Ballad No. 133)

Bold RobinHood, clad in his mantle of Lincoln green, rode out one fine morning toward Nottingham town in search of adventure. On the road he met a Beggar — a ragged fellow in a coat patched all over, hung about with bags for bread, corn, salt, and malt. The Beggar asked for charity, and when Robin revealed himself to be the famous outlaw, the two agreed to settle matters the old-fashioned way: with a fight, wagering their clothes on the outcome.

Robin drew his sword; the Beggar had naught but a long staff. It did not go the way Robin planned. For every blow Robin landed, the Beggar answered with three, and soon the finest archer in England stood bleeding in the road, calling for a truce. The two swapped garments — Robin handed over his fine green mantle and took up the Beggar's patched coat and jangling bags.

Disguised as a beggar, Robin walked into Nottingham, where he learned that three yeomen — three brothers — were condemned to hang that very day for poaching the king's deer. Robin went before the sheriff and begged, not for bread nor drink, but for the three men's lives. The sheriff scoffed at the shabby beggar and refused.

So at the gallows, Robin set his horn to his lips and blew three blasts. A hundred archers came pouring out of the greenwood, scattered the sheriff's men, and cut the three brothers free. All escaped to Sherwood, where the rescued men joined RobinHood's merry band — and it was the Beggar's rags that made it all possible.

The Second Ballad (Child Ballad No. 134)

Another day, another Beggar. This one came walking the road with a stout pike-staff in hand and a meal-pouch buckled about his neck. RobinHood, short on manners that day, demanded the Beggar stand and deliver his coin. The Beggar refused. Robin bent his bow — and the Beggar swung his staff and smashed bow and arrow both to splinters.

Then came the beating. The Beggar laid on with his great staff, back and side, up and down, until bold RobinHood dropped to the ground in a swoon. The Beggar shouldered his pouch and strolled on his way, leaving the terror of Sherwood face-down in the dirt.

Three of Robin's men found their master bloodied and senseless, revived him, and — burning for revenge — went after the Beggar. They ambushed him and made to drag him back to face Robin's judgment. The Beggar, seeing the odds, sweetly offered them his bag of gold to let him go. The outlaws agreed, and gathered close as he opened his meal-pouch to pay them.

But instead of gold, the Beggar seized great fistfuls of meal and flung them into the outlaws' eyes. While they stumbled blind and coughing, he took up his staff and beat the lot of them about the shoulders, then fled into the thick wood before they could see a thing. The men limped home empty-handed, and when Robin heard how they had fared, he could only laugh — for the Beggar had bested them all, and kept every coin.

Thus twice did the Beggar meet RobinHood, and twice did the Beggar walk away unrobbed. The coins flow toward the Beggar. They do not flow back. 💸