Alan-a-Dale Playing a Harp - Nottingham, England
N 52° 57.022 W 001° 09.202
30U E 624064 N 5868345
A statue of Alan-a-Dale and Will Scarlet, two of Robin Hood's Merry Men, is located outside Nottingham Castle in Nottingham, England. The statue has Alan-a-Dale playing the harp to Will Scarlet.
Waymark Code: WMF9RP
Location: East Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/16/2012
Views: 9
ABOUT THE STATUE:
The statue was created by sculptor James Woodford in 1951. The two figures sit back-to-back with Will Scarlet looking over his right shoulder at Alan-a-Dale who's playing his harp and singing.
ABOUT THE FIGURES:
"The Merry Men are the group of outlaws who followed Robin Hood, according to English folklore. An early use of the phrase "merry men" occurs in the oldest known Robin Hood ballad, "Robin Hood and the Monk", which survives in a manuscript completed around 1450. The word "merry" in this and other ballads is probably used in the archaic sense meaning "companion or follower of an… outlaw". The early ballads give specific names to only three of Robin's companions, Little John, Much the Miller's Son, and William Scarlock or Scathelock, the Will Scarlet of later traditions. Joining them are between 20 and "seven score" (140) outlawed yeomen.
The most prominent of the Merry Men is Robin's second-in-command, Little John. He appears in the earliest ballads, and is mentioned in even earlier sources, such as Andrew of Wyntoun's Orygynale Chronicle of around 1420 and Walter Bower's expansion of the Scotichronicon, completed around 1440. Later ballads name additional Merry Men, some of whom appear in only one or two ballads, while others, like the minstrel Alan-a-Dale and the jovial Friar Tuck, became fully attached to the legend. Several of the Robin Hood ballads tell the story of how individual Merry Men join the group; this is frequently accomplished by defeating Robin in a duel.
Named Merry Men
- Little John, Robin's lieutenant. Later stories depict him as a huge man who joins the band after fighting Robin with quarterstaves over a river.
- Much the Miller's Son. A grown man and a seasoned fighter in the early ballads, later stories depict him as one of the youngest of the Merry Men.
- Will Scarlet, another very early companion, appearing in ballads like "A Gest of Robyn Hode". In "Robin Hood and the Newly Revived" he is a skilled swordsman and Robin's nephew.
- Arthur a Bland, who appears in only one ballad, "Robin Hood and the Tanner". He is an accused poacher who bests Robin in a fight and joins the band.
- David of Doncaster, who appears in only "Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow". He warns Robin against going to the Sheriff of Nottingham's archery contest, because it is a trap. In his novel The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Howard Pyle identifies David with the anonymous wrestler of "A Gest of Robyn Hode".
- Will Stutely appears in two ballads, "Robin Hood and Little John" and "Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutely". In the former, he gives Little John his outlaw name; in the latter, he must be rescued after he is caught spying by the Sheriff of Nottingham. He is occasionally confused with Will Scarlet.
- Friar Tuck, the resident clergyman of the band. Tuck developed separately from the Robin Hood tradition; similar characters appear in 15th- and 16th-century plays, and an early 15th-century outlaw used the alias Friar Tuck. A fighting friar appears in the ballad "Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar", though he is not named. Robin and the friar engage in a battle of wits, which at one point involves the holy man carrying the outlaw across a river, only to toss him in. In the end, the friar joins the Merry Men. Later stories portray Tuck as more ale-loving and jovial than belligerent.
- Alan-a-Dale, a roving minstrel. He appears in the later ballad "Robin Hood and Allen a Dale", in which Robin helps him rescue his sweetheart, who is being forced into marriage with another man. Despite his relatively late appearance, he became a popular character in later versions."
-- Source