Robin And Gandeleyn

1. I heard a carping of a clerk All at yon woodës end, Of good Robin and Gandeleyn, Was there none other thing.

Robin lieth in greenwood bounden.

2. Strong thievës wern tho children none, But bowmen good and hend; They wenten to wood to getten them flesh If God would it them send.

3. All day wenten tho children two, And flesh founden they none, Till it were again even, The children would gone home.

4. Half a hundred of fat fallow deer They comen ayon, And all they wern fair and fat enow, But markëd was there none. ‘By dear God,’ said good Robin, ‘Hereof we shall have one.’

5. Robin bent his jolly bow, Therein he set a flo; The fattest deer of all. The heart he cleft a-two.

6. He had not the deer i-flaw Ne half out of the hide, There came a shrewd arrow out of the west That felled Robert’s pride.

7. Gandeleyn looked him east and west, By every side: ‘Who hath my master slain? Who hath done this deed? Shall I never out of greenwood go Till I see his sidës bleed.’

8. Gandeleyn looked him east and west, And sought under the sun; He saw a little boy. They clepen Wrennok of Donne.

9. A good bow in his hand, A broad arrow therein, And four and twenty good arrows Trussèd in a thrum. ‘Beware thee, ware thee, Gandeleyn, Hereof thou shalt have some.

10. ‘Beware thee, ware thee, Gandeleyn, Hereof thou gettest plenty.’ ‘Ever one for another,’ said Gandeleyn; ‘Misaunter have they shall flee.

11. ‘Whereat shall our mark be?’ Saidë Gandeleyn. ‘Everich at otherës heart,’ Said Wrennok again.

12. ‘Who shall give the first shot?’ Saidë Gandeleyn. ‘And I shall give thee one before,’ Said Wrennok again.

13. Wrennok shot a full good shot, And he shot not too high; Through the sanchothës of his breek, It touchëd neither thigh.

14. ‘Now hast thou given me one before’; All thus to Wrennok said he; ‘And through the might of our Lady A better I shall give thee.’

15. Gandeleyn bent his good bow, And set therein a flo; He shot through his green kirtle, His heart he cleft on two.

16. ‘Now shalt thou never yelp, Wrennok, At ale ne at wine, That thou hast slaw good Robin And his knave Gandeleyn.

17. ‘Now shalt thou never yelp, Wrennok, At wine ne at ale, That thou hast slaw good Robin And Gandeleyn his knave.’

[Annotations: 1.1: ‘carping’ = talking, tale. 1.5: This line is the burden: it is repeated at the end in the MS. 2.1: ‘wern’ = were (plural termination as in ‘wenten,’ etc.); ‘children,’ young fellows, as in ‘Child Roland,’ etc. 5.2: ‘flo,’ arrow. 6.1: ‘i-flaw’ = flayed. Cp. ‘slaw,’ 16.3. 8.1: MS. reads ‘and lokyd west.’ 8.4: ‘clepen,’ name, call. 9.4: i.e., laced in a thrum, or warp. 10.4: ‘Misaunter [= misadventure] have’ was used in imprecations: cf. in the Merlin romance, ‘Mysauenture haue that it kepeth eny counseile.’ 11.3: ‘Each at the other’s heart.’ 13.3: ‘sanchothes’: unexplained; but it obviously means that the arrow struck between his legs. 16.1: ‘yelp,’ boast. 16.3: ‘slaw,’ slain.]