Story Telling Week 12

How Robin met John

Robin Hood and Little John Meet

Robin Hood needed a break so he left his men. He was just worn out from all the robbing of the rich and giving to the poor, not to mention the tights. The tights were way toooooooooo, well, tight. He wasn’t eating, he was stressed out, and he and Maid Marian had gotten into a quarrel over some young adult novel about, of all things Vampires. True story. So being that he was tired, he decided to take a walk. 

As he was walking he wished he had a pair of Air Jordan’s instead of the ugly leather shoes that were so in fashion during that period. Still he did enjoy the walk because the fresh air helped to clear his mind. Not to mention it was fresh air, I mean have you ever been around a bunch of men in the woods, let alone a bunch of merry men? 

Little John, around the same time that Robin Hood decided to take a walk also thought that he could use a break. Though he had not yet met Robin Hood, he had heard of him and had thought about his own life. He thought about all the time he had wasted eating, drinking ale, eating, and reading a dumb young adult novel about Vampires of all things. He was terribly embarrassed about it. The eating that is. 

Robin came to a bridge and wanted to cross it, unfortunately for him, so did Little John. They both decided to cross the bridge at the same time. When they met in the middle the stopped and looked at each other. Now there was no need for either one of them to be in each other’s way, but it was customary in this day and age to for no apparent reason challenge a person to a fight when you saw them. Even though there was plenty of room for both the men to pass on the bridge, they were men of custom.

Now Robin Hood was a fair fighter. He had a sword and Little John had a wooden pole. Robin would never unfairly attack another man, unless that man had money or if that man was outnumbered, or if that man had money. Being that he was a fair fighter Robin threw down his sword and picked up a wooden pole. 

The two men fought. Well not so much as fought as closed their eyes a swung wildly at one another. Little John knocked Robin in the water and as Robin stood there in the water soaking wet and still hating his tights and wishing he had a pair of Air Jordan 1’s looked up to see his merry men arrive not looking as merry as they could be looking.

They men readied to attack Little John, but Robin stopped them. He walked up to Little John and congratulated him on the duel and invited him to live with them in his camp. Little John asked about their supply of food and ale and when he found out they had plenty agreed to live with them. And that my friends is the very true story of how Robin Hood met Little John.

Author's Notes 

This is a retelling of when Robin Hood met Little John from the Robin Hood Ballad Unit. Of course I did take quite a bit of license with this story, but the stories were in song form and there is a bit of humor to the stories so I tried to mirror that silliness in my story. The main aspects of the story all there. This is from the Ballad Little John.

Bibliography

"Little John" from The English and Scottish Popular Ballads collected by Francis James Child

Picture Attribution

Louis Rhead [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons