July 18th, 2009

It seems our hero has many names!

Whereas we think of him with only one—Robin Hood, or in medieval spelling Robyn Hode—it may be time for an overhaul. Unfortunately, he has several. Let’s begin with one from the Forester’s Manuscript (some Robin Hood ballads which were collected in 1670 AD, and discovered in 1993).

In this story, a variant of Robin Hood and the Bishop, Robin catches sight of his enemies and has to take to his heels:

But by the trampling of a steed
This mighty man did wake
He was aware of the sheriff and all his men
Came riding over the lake.

Away then run good Bobin Hood
For he durst no longer abide
Until he espied a little house
Hard by the river’s side.

Now this ought to come as no surprise if you have seen these nursery rhymes:

Robin a Bobbin
Bent his bow
Shot at a pigeon
And killed a crow.

Or:

Robin the Bobbin, the big-bellied Ben*,
He eat more meat than fourscore men;
He eat a cow, he eat a calf,
He eat a butcher and a half;
He eat a church, he eat a steeple,
He eat the priest and all the people!
A cow and a calf,
An ox and a half,
A church and a steeple,
And all the good people,
And yet he complained that his stomach wasn’t full.

*Ben means male hero in Scots Dialect. By extraction, I suppose it’s related to the Cymric usage of the Welsh word penn, (head or top), which is sometimes used for a chieftain or warleader—so in reality, this is a Gaelic version; i.e., the benn/penn, the top man. His appetite is a piece of ridiculous exaggeration, of course, but how do you think legends change? Compare to this verse in the Gest of Robin Hood, and decide which of them you prefer:

Robin:

“I was never so greedy, by dear worthy God,
My dinner for to crave.”

The second place that ‘Bobin’ appears is, British Wren Songs.

The British Wren Songs are actually the genre of folk-song that led me into the Robin Hood legend. A strange story, in which Robin, Shaun/John and Bold Archer—the Brothers Three—go out and hunt a wren! These songs are in Gaelic, Welsh and English. I’ll do a post on the meaning behind this, it’s very complicated and audacious.

Where are you going, says Robin the Bobbin
Where are you going, says Richard the Robbin
Where are you going says Shaun
Where are you going says the never beyond

I’m going to the woods to hunt the WREN!
says Wise Willie
says Festal to Foze*
says Dibbon to Dobbin
says Ridge to Rodge
says Arty Art
says Milda to Molda
says the Brothers Three!

*No idea who this is. Suggestions welcome. But we’ll talk about Dibbon & Dobbin, Ridge & Rodge, & Richard further on.

Look at this:

Robin the Bobbin—Robin Hood
Wise Willy—Will Shakelock
Shaun—Little John
Arty Art—Bold Archer/Arthur
Milda—Much the Miller’s son.

So, you’ve seen Robin a Bobbin, and Bobin Hood, and some Dobbin and Rodge stuff, but what about an, um, Robin HODGE?

Follow up:

Robin Hodge is a late ballad so wacky I couldn’t think of many explanations for it. It seems to be about Robin Hodge’s cattle, which are supposed to be some kind of motif—supposed to be white and red. Now any ‘Celtic’ person, will, on hearing of a red-and-white beast, instantly declare it’s from the Otherworld or Underworld. But it’s not usually cows, it’s usually hounds.

There is an explanation for the red-and-white beasts however which I have dutifully thought of. Ancient aurochs were either spotted red on white or black on white and they had very long horns—different from buffalo or wisent, which had short curly horns and dark woolly fur.

Aurochs, in fact, are the ancestors of all modern cattle. They’re just fierce cows. So the thing is, here, that Robin Hodge is associated with red and white ‘aurochs’ and this is a better interpretation of the legendary red beasties than hounds or dragons or pigs. Here’s a fascinating passage from the Gallic War, first in English and then in Latin, concerning the Germanic tribes and the ‘aurochs’:

There is a third kind (of large beasts), consisting of those animals which are called ‘uri’. These are a little below the elephant in size, and of the appearance, color, and shape of a ‘tauri’ (bull). Their strength and speed are extraordinary; they spare neither man nor wild beast which they have espied. These the Germans take with much pains in pits and kill them. The young men harden themselves with this exercise, and practice themselves in this kind of hunting, and those who have slain the greatest number of them, having produced the horns in public, to serve as evidence, receive great praise. But not even when taken very young can they be rendered familiar to men and tamed. The size, shape, and appearance of their horns differ much from the horns of our oxen. These they anxiously seek after, and bind at the tips with silver, and use as cups at their most sumptuous entertainments.

Tertium est genus eorum, qui uri appellantur. Hi sunt magnitudine paulo infra elephantos, specie et colore et figura tauri. Magna vis eorum est et magna velocitas, neque homini neque ferae quam conspexerunt parcunt. Hos studiose foveis captos interficiunt. Hoc se labore durant adulescentes atque hoc genere venationis exercent, et qui plurimos ex his interfecerunt, relatis in publicum cornibus, quae sint testimonio, magnam ferunt laudem. Sed adsuescere ad homines et mansuefieri ne parvuli quidem excepti possunt. Amplitudo cornuum et figura et species multum a nostrorum boum cornibus differt. Haec studiose conquisita ab labris argento circumcludunt atque in amplissimis epulis pro poculis utuntur.

Note: both in Gaelic and Latin the word for bull is the same—’tauri’ or tarbh, pronounced tar-ruv. Obviously the Germanic name ‘uri’ is from the same root. (Same creature, same word). Auroch/uri/tauri/tarbh.

Did you notice the interesting mention of drinking horns, gilt with silver? Something that was quite common in Medieval England, in fact! Something that was once engraved with the word ‘wacceyl’—wassail. The ‘barbarian’ people had two uses for horns—drinking and blowing, often with the same horn if there was a plug for the end. So, as you read this bizarre ballad of Robin Hodge, keep in mind that Robin Hood did have a hunting horn—perhaps an auroch’s horn? Our hero may not have hunted only deer.

Robbin’s Cows.

O Neighbours, have ye heard the news?
Too roo laddie, too roo laddie!*
O’ the strange come out about the Cows,
Too roo laddie, &c.
The twenty eighth of every May,
Too roo laddie, &c.
Is the Hovey’s gala day,
Too roo laddie, &c.

*Late version of a very old Robin Hood song chorus.

Every Freeman has the power,
Too roo laddie, &c.
Of putting Two cows on the Moor ;
Too roo laddie, &c.
And when the herbage there is spent,
Too roo laddie, &c.
To the Leazes they are sent.
Too roo laddie, &c.

But before they can get there,
They must be sworn to ‘fore the Mayor
That bona-fide they’re their own,
**** and rump, and blood and bone.

Besides they must be well describ’d,
For Freemen have been often brib’d
To swear to Cows they never saw,
In bold defiance of the Law.

At the swearing on, in May,
Bonny wark went on, they say ;
Tim, that devil’s, found it out,
And sent the tidings all about.

Some, it seems has had a grudge
At a man call’d Robbin H*dge ;
They say, a long bow he can draw,
And swear to Cows he never saw.

It’s well known upon the Moor,
Instead of Two there came up Four ;
Two Men came, the Cows to lodge,
In the name of Robbin H*dge

The first Two to the gate were led,
The one was White, the other Red,
“This,” cried the Herd, “is like a bite,
For H*dge’s Cows are Red and White.”

The Back was search’d from end to end,
But this the matter did not mend ;
At length they found, behind the Lug, (ear)
A spot of Red—just like a Bug!

The Cows were then allow’d to pass,
But soon came other Two–alas!
“Whose Cows are these?” the Herdsman cries,
“H*dge’s Cows,” the man replies.

“What! H*dge again! with other Two,
D—n me! this will never do!
At this rate H*dge will soon devour,
Both the Leazes and the Moor!”

Now the Herbage Committee,
Had proof of Robbin’s knavery,
And Robbin, tho’ a cunning elf,*
Prov’d too cunning for himself.

They all exclaim’d, they would be d**d
Before they’d see the Leazes cramm’d!
So Freemen,—ye who make false vows,
A warning take by Robbin’s Cows.
Too roo laddie, &c.

*It is a bizzare fact, but some late ballads inevitably call Robin an elf. Presumably not the LOTR kind.

Well we have so far: Robin Hood, Bobin Hood, Robin A Bobbin, & Robin Hodge.

Recall the Ridge & Rodge from the wrenning songs? Likely they are the same person, and are the enigmatic ‘Richard’ who pops up too. If Ridge, Rodge, & Richard are the same, perhaps Rodge may lead us on to another conclusion; Hodge = Rodge. Robin Rodge. Robin Hodge. What in the world does the last name mean?

An interesting thing in the ‘broadside’ ballads are the references to someone called Jolly Roger. I have not finished working on it, but it appears that Jolly Roger, or in other traditions Kind Robin, has a problematic relationship with some kind of lady priestess called Kate—perhaps the ‘abbess’ who bleeds Robin to death. She does not seem to be his friend.

All the same, here is something from the non-broadside ballad tradition, concerning Jolly Rogers: (Robin Hood is sometimes personified as a tinker or a beggar)

Th’ Jolly Ole Rogers could not live always
Th’ nippers of death cut his life thread one day
Down in th’ cold dirt they tumbled him in
Poor Jolly Ole Rogers, th’ mender of tin
Go wing, go wang
Rattlety, rattlety, rattlety bang
There never was yet, a boy or a man
Who better could mend a kettle or pan
Or bucket or skimmer or dipper or pan
Than Jolly Ole rogers, th’ tin maker man

A different version of the chorus, (and this time he’s called Dick, and a cobbler!) is—

With a wingo, wang, wingo, wang, wingo
With a wingo, wang, wingo, wang, wing
With my hub-blub-blub-blub-blarrey
Whack, faldy-rah, diddly-la, day

Alright, so what about Hob and Dick and all that stuff?

Well it goes back to a Scottish ballad (I’ll post it shortly—I promise!) where a man called variously Hobie Noble or Bold Dickie is lamenting that his brother Bold Archer will be hung shortly. Upon this, a man known as Little John pipes up with lots of ideas on how to rescue him. They ride off, cross a river and proceed with the rescue, during which someone called Much, Miller’s son, keeps getting frightened they’ll be discovered, and keeps being upbraided by Hobie or Dick on the necessity of bravery and manliness. Interesting???

So we have Robin, Bobin, Dobin … why not Hob? There are after all medieval references to someone called ‘hob-hood’.

And Hob is called Bold Dickie.

And Dick is a nickname for Richard, which is like Ridge, which is like Rodge, which is like Hodge, which is like Hood.

And Robin is like Bobin, which is like Dobin, and transform those to Rob, Bob, Dob, Hob, and conversely Robbie, Bobbie, & Hobbie (Noble).

This is what I propose for Robin Hood’s names:

1st name:
Robin
Bobbin
Dobbin
Hob
Hobbie

2nd name:
Roger
Rodge
Hodge
Hood
Richard
Dick

And at last … what is the meaning of Hodge, as a variant of Hood?
My answer: in Scottish and Irish Gaelic, there is a little-known word, incorporated into other better-known words, which I think was ud- or od-. It seems to mean dark, or brown. It’s in the Irish word for night, oid-che. (Pronounced od-kuh). And the word odhar or uidhir, dun-colored.

But Gaelic often pronounces ‘d’ as ‘dj’ so it’s not a straight ‘ddd‘. Udj. Hood +j.

If I was in the Highlands, and I had red hair, they would call me Red So-and-so. Which would be like ’so-and-so ruadh’. If I had brown hair (which I do) they’d call me so-and-so donn/dubh. (both the usual words for dark). So we have this legend of someone called Robin Hudj, and it means … guess what, dark-haired Robin.

Even better; there is a person in the Scottish & English ballads called Brown Robin. The same as our translation? A slight problem is that the person called Brown Robin is clearly made out to be Robin Hood’s father. Strictly speaking, this isn’t too bad, except that Robin Hood’s father was said to have done terrible bad things. So perhaps the father’s name was forgotten, and then in later times they gave him his son’s name. There are some other names, like Lord John.

Questions and comments, anybody?