greenwood marriage

Robin Hood is a part of our popular culture, and has been for over 600 years. This outlaw of medieval England has seemingly appeared everywhere. Medieval chroniclers like Andrew of Wyntoun (c. 1420) and Walter Bower (c. 1440) happily accepted Robin�s existence, and his wide appeal led to brief mentions in various texts. Scholars have long searched for the origin of Robin Hood, for an identifiable, historical outlaw in the Sherwood or Barnsdale area. The opening quote from Langland�s Piers Plowman (c. 1377) is Robin�s first appearance in a text, be it literary or historical, and it is not a shining reference. Sloth suggests songs of Robin Hood are widely known in taverns, implying he is a popular figure without a literary pedigree. Clearly, Robin Hood is of no importance to the aristocracy, but he holds some currency in popular circles. Sloth�s familiarity with drinking songs about Robin Hood, but utter lack of knowledge of things spiritual, also reflects the concern of the Church for the souls of people who likely attended mass grudgingly, but could readily recite popular songs. Later texts similarly present Robin as a popular figure, and few strictly medieval documents featuring Robin survive.




The pagan themes embedded within the Robin Hood legend become increasingly clear when we examine the rites associated with the celebration of Beltane, or May Day as the festival is now more commonly known.

In pre-christian Britain on Beltane Eve, large bonfires were lit on the hilltops, and the community gathered and danced around them. Young couples would sneak away from the festivities, into the shadows and nearby woods to tryst. They would stay out all night, ostensibly gathering hawthorn flowers (the "may" flower) to welcome in the dawn on May Day morn.

In anticipation of these trysts, the young men would prepare a lovers' nest somewhere private, in the nearby woods or countryside. They would make a bower, a crude shelter of branches, decorated with flowers. The folk name for these love nests is "Robin Hood's Bowers". The young couples would make love in these rustic arbours and their unions were sanctioned by the community and referred to as "Greenwood Marriages". Children born of these couplings were considered particularly blessed and known as "Children of the May" or "merrybegots". Some couples chose to make their liaisons more formal and entered into trial marriages at Beltane, becoming handfast for a year and a day. At some of these weddings, a Friar Tuck figure officiated.