Robin Hood; A Collection Of All The Ancient Poems, Songs, And Ballads, Now Extant Relative To That Celebrated English Outlaw ; To Which Are Prefixed Historical Anecdotes Of His Life (Volume Ii)

Before the novel claimed him, Robin Hood lived in song. Hear the greenwood sing again. Volume II of Joseph Ritson’s landmark Robin Hood ballads collection gathers the surviving medieval hero ballads and later pieces that shaped the Sherwood Forest legend: brisk narratives, sly humour, and the hard edge of justice outside the law. These are communal voices - quick-witted, sometimes brutal - carried in early English popular verse. Ritson’s selection favours the raw ballad line over later literary polish, letting the cadence of the fair and the tavern through with startling directness intact. Read straight through for momentum, or dip in for a single scene that lands like a drumbeat.Ritson, an exacting antiquary, presents an English folk ballad anthology of traditional songs and ballads, prefaced with historical anecdotes and shaped by a collector’s insistence on what is now extant. His editorial apparatus keeps the focus on the poems while marking the tradition behind them, making the volume both an antiquarian poetry collection and a practical literary history reference. At the crossroads of medieval England literature and eighteenth-century scholarship, it remains a reliable folklore research sourcebook for anyone tracing outlaw folklore and legends, and a shelf-worthy anchor among British folklore classics for readers who simply want the old stories as they sounded.Republished by Alpha Editions in a careful modern edition, this volume preserves the spirit of the original while making it effortless to enjoy today - a heritage title prepared for readers and collectors alike.