Fishermen, Seafaring, And English Identity In The Seventeenth-Century Robin Hood's Fishing

Abstract

The seventeenth-century Robin Hood ballad conventionally titled either Robin Hood's Fishing or The Noble Fisherman occupies a unique place in the corpus of outlaw rhymes. Rather than depicting his outlaw exploits, instead in this ballad Robin abandons the forest life in favor of working as a fisherman in Scarborough. While he does poorly at the fisherman's trade, Robin eventually demonstrates his merit by defending his ship from an attack by French pirates. Yet, despite the uniqueness of the ballad's narrative, scholars have paid very little attention to this rhyme. Robin's decision to take up the life of a fisherman is directly tied to contemporary perceptions of sailors, the seafaring trade, and British identity. Indeed, the work is not merely a "bizarre metamorphosis" of the Robin Hood tradition, but instead Robin Hood's Fishing is a work that appeals to England's deeply rooted cultural association with seafaring and draws upon the seventeenth-century realities of piracy.