Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar earlier version, Robin Hood good-humoredly refuses further combat; in both earlier and later versions Robin invites him to join the band. Howard Pyle used this tale in his "The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood" as part of the tale of Alan-a-Dale: Robin needed a priest who would perform the wedding ceremony in defiance of authority, and Will Scarlet proposed Friar Tuck. The Percy Folio version of the ballad begins with the stanza: Robert Graves in his "English and Scottish Ballads" used this stanza to support his argument for pagan survivals in the Robin Hood legend, and for the popular survival
Robin Hood and the Beggar both bow and arrow. They fight, and the beggar wounds him, leaving him unconscious. Three of Robin Hood's men find him and manage to revive him. He sends them after the beggar. They know the country and are able to catch him. The beggar offers them money. They decide to take it and kill him, so that Robin Hood would not know. He opens a bag of meal and throws it in their faces.Though Robin Hood would have preferred revenge, he found his men's fate amusing. This ballad is part of a group of ballads about Robin Hood that in