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 in popular culture Allinson in 1904. A 'companion' novel to Egan's text was published by J. H. Stocqueler in 1849 entitled "Maid Marian, the Forest Queen; Being a Companion to "Robin Hood"". The first Robin Hood novel written specifically for children appears to be Stephen Percy's "Tales of Robin Hood" (1840). John B. Marsh's children's book "Robin Hood" appeared in 1865, as did a penny dreadful entitled "Little John and Will Scarlet" (1865). The next major novel written was entitled "The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood" by Howard Pyle in 1883. In T.H. White's novel "The Sword in the Stone" (1938, later incorporated