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 Rescuing Will Stutly rouse up, and the sheriff and his men flee, and Robin's men go back to Sherwood. The entire tale was used by Howard Pyle in his "Merry Adventures of Robin Hood", often with no more changes than rendering the verse as prose. Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly is Child ballad 141, about Robin Hood. Robin Hood is brought news that the Sheriff of Nottingham surprised Will Stutely, and though he killed two of the Sheriff's men, he was captured. They set out to rescue him, confirm the story from a palmer, and arrive as he