THE BALLAD NOTEBOOK

Every ballad has
more than one layer.

Choose a thread. Read the story, see which ballad or book it comes from, and keep the source beside it.

Find a threadKind of story11 articles

A narrow bridge, two quarterstaffs, a ducking, and a very tall man renamed as a joke.

A shooting match in Nottingham, a prize the sheriff hoped would trap an outlaw, and a dash for a friendly castle.

A sad knight, a loan with an unusual guarantee, and an abbot who gets his money back from the wrong person.

A road toll nobody paid, a lost bet, a cart of cheap pots, and a sheriff who walks home.

A dare, a river crossing that goes wrong three times, fifty bowmen and fifty dogs, and two real men who used the name Frere Tuk.

A king dressed as an abbot, a game where misses earn a slap, and an outlaw who cannot stay at court.

A betrayal at Kirklees, a horn blown faintly, and an arrow shot from a window.

How Marian arrived late: from French May-time plays and an Elizabethan earl’s companion to the greenwood.

What the records actually show: outlaws called Robehod, two men called Frere Tuk, chroniclers who only had the ballads, and what historians conclude.

From a line in Piers Plowman to a Victorian picture book, in dated steps.

Two forests, one outlaw: what the ballads say, and what the records say about Sherwood, the Major Oak and Barnsdale.