The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 1883

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Preface-Prologue

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2, Chapter 1 Summary: “Robin Hood Turns Butcher”

For almost a year Robin and the Merry Men live quietly in Sherwood Forest, avoiding the authorities. Finally, Robin, tired of being confined, ventures out of Sherwood and meets a butcher along the road. In exchange for money, Robin trades places with the butcher for a day. Taking up a post in the marketplace in Nottingham, the well-disguised Robin sells meat for very low prices, outselling the other butchers. At the end of the day, the butchers’ guild invites Robin to dinner at the Guild Hall with the Sheriff of Nottingham, who hopes to cheat the “butcher” out of some of his money.

The Sheriff strikes a bargain with Robin to buy his cattle for 300 pounds—a low sum. As Robin leads him deep into Sherwood Forest, the Sheriff begins to suspect that he is the one being tricked. Robin and the Merry Men give the Sheriff a feast and entertainment, and at the end, Robin asks the Sheriff to pay 300 pounds for the evening or else face violence. The Sheriff pays up, ashamed that he “went to shear and came home shorn” (66).

Part 2, Chapter 2 Summary: “Little John Goes to the Fair at Nottingham Town”

October comes again and with it the Nottingham Fair with its archery contest. This time, the Sheriff is afraid that Robin Hood will attend; to prevent this, he offers a paltry prize—two fat steers—that he knows will not interest Robin. In Sherwood Forest, Little John conveys the news to Robin and convinces him that he (Little John) should compete, in disguise, to foil the Sheriff’s plans.

Little John goes to the fair dressed in scarlet and with the pseudonym of Reynold Greenleaf. Through sleight of hand, he soundly beats Eric o’ Lincoln, a famous fighter, in a bout at quarterstaff, then distinguishes himself further in the archery contest. The Sheriff congratulates Little John and invites him to join his retinue, to which Little John agrees.

Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary: “How Little John Lived at the Sheriff’s House”

Little John has become the Sheriff’s right-hand man at the Castle of Nottingham and lives a life of privilege and ease. Finally, one morning the memories of his life in Sherwood Forest come flooding back to him, and he vows to return.

Going downstairs, Little John gets into an altercation with the steward when the latter refuses to bring him breakfast; Little John knocks the steward out. The cook comes and vows to punish Little John when he sees him helping himself to the food. However, after the two have eaten and drunk together, they become friendly; the cook agrees to leave his job and join the Merry Men. Stealing some of the Sheriff’s silverware, they go to Sherwood Forest. When Robin disapproves of Little John’s theft, the latter finds the Sheriff’s hunting party in the forest and brings the Sheriff back to the Merry Men. There, Robin serves the Sheriff some wine in one of his own silver flagons. Robin explains that it was wrong to steal from him and returns his silverware.

Part 2 Analysis

The episodes in this section center on Robin, the Sheriff, and Little John. We see the Sheriff failing once more in his efforts to catch Robin. The fact that he tries to swindle the strange “butcher” (whom he does not recognize as Robin) suggests his dishonesty and duplicity: The Sheriff is a corrupt lawman. His motives in cheating the butcher are almost like a corrupt mirror image of those of Robin Hood; seeing that the butcher recklessly throws money around, he desires to take advantage of this and gain some of the money for himself. This is in contrast to Robin, who steals from those who have an excess of good things to give to those who do not have enough.

The Sheriff sets out for Sherwood Forest with the “butcher,” not knowing him to be Robin Hood. At one point he realizes that it is Robin, and Pyle signals this realization in a subtle way: “All this time the Sheriff said never a word but only looked about him like one suddenly awakened from sleep” (63). The Sheriff’s feelings of fear and dread—which he must conceal by participating in the jollity of the feast—give dimension and depth to his character: “Then the Sheriff laughed, but the laugh was hollow” (64). He is afraid that the Merry Men will take his money or even kill him. The Sheriff’s experience in Sherwood Forest proves humiliating and bewildering. He “went to shear and came home shorn to the very quick” (66). Yet the Merry Men have obeyed their code and done no physical harm to the Sheriff. Instead, they have simply cut him down to size. This episode brings Robin and the Sheriff as close as they will ever come to each other. It establishes Robin’s superiority and power over the Sheriff.

The Nottingham Fair is held once again, and this time Little John goes in Robin’s place. His triumphs at the fair games lead him to enter the Sheriff’s service at his castle. Although at first Little John does this as a joke, the situation proves so much more comfortable than his life in Sherwood that he stays on. This shows Little John’s endearingly lazy and pleasure-loving nature. While in the Sheriff’s employ he grows “as fat as a stall-fed ox” and enjoys eating and drinking rich fare and sleeping late (74). Pyle presents Little John’s privileged life at court as being less authentic than the life of the Merry Men in Sherwood Forest, and we sense that he must return to where he really belongs.

When Little John finally returns to the Merry Men with the Sheriff’s stolen silverware, Robin is displeased and makes him give it back (83). This highlights Robin’s keen sense of justice and morality and balances out the episode in Chapter 1, when the Sheriff received his comeuppance from the band. Robin presents the silverware to the Sheriff in person, providing another bewildering moment for the Sheriff: “[H]e answered never a word, acting like one who walks in a dream” (86). This scene of a second confrontation of Robin and the Sheriff in the forest serves to round out this section of the book.