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 Butcher his animals, but the Sheriff has decided he does not like Robin's company. Robin then summons Little John and the rest of his men with his horn. Robin takes the Sheriff's portmanteau and counts five hundred gold pounds in it, which he intends to keep for himself and the band. He then sends the Sheriff on his way home, jokingly commending himself to the Sheriff's wife before riding away laughing. This ballad is an abridgment of an older ballad, "Robin Hood and the Potter". There are two extant versions of "Robin Hood and the Butcher," Version A and Version B.