The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood

Howard Pyle gathered the scattered old ballads of Sherwood Forest and wove them into one flowing story, giving Robin Hood much of the shape readers still picture today. An outlaw with a grudge against a corrupt sheriff, Robin builds his band of Merry Men, Little John, Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet and the rest, through a run of good-humored contests and brawls, then spends his days robbing greedy officials and sharing the spoils with the poor of Nottinghamshire. Pyle both wrote and illustrated the book, using a mock-archaic English that gives the tales an old ballad ring without turning stiff. It became a fixture of children’s reading and set the template for nearly every Robin Hood retelling that followed. Available here as a free PDF and EPUB edition.