Howard Pyle's 1883 retelling gathers the English folk legend of Robin Hood into a single connected narrative. After a run-in with the king's foresters over a shot deer, young Robin Hood is outlawed and takes to Sherwood Forest, where he gradually gathers a band of fellow outcasts — Little John, Will Scarlet, Friar Tuck, and others — who become known as his Merry Men.
Told in episodic adventures, the book follows Robin's contests of archery and quarterstaff, his running battles of wit with the Sheriff of Nottingham, and his habit of relieving wealthy travelers, churchmen, and officials of their money to give to the poor and the wronged. Robin Hood also finds room for humor, courtship (his eventual marriage to Maid Marian), and loyalty among his men, even as the threat of capture by the Sheriff and the crown's foresters is never far off.
Pyle's version, illustrated by the author, became the standard English-language telling of the legend for younger readers and shaped nearly every Robin Hood adaptation that followed it.