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Friar Tuck | |
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 "The friar took Robin on his back" Illustration by Louis Rhead to Bold Robin Hood and His Outlaw Band: Their Famous Exploits in Sherwood Forest | |
| Born | 15th-century |
| Died | 15th-century |
| Known for | Member of Robin Hood's Merry Men |
Friar Tuck is one of the Merry Men, the band of heroic outlaws in the folklore of Robin Hood.
The figure of the jovial friar was common in the May Games festivals of England and Scotland during the 15th to 17th centuries.[ citation needed ] He appears as a character in the fragment of a Robin Hood play from 1475, sometimes called Robin Hood and the Knight or Robin Hood and the Sheriff, and a play for the May games published in 1560 which tells a story similar to "Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar" (the oldest surviving copy of this ballad is from the 17th century). The character entered the tradition through these folk plays, and he was often associated with Maid Marian, who was also a May Games character. [1] By the mid 16th century May Games were becoming increasingly bawdy, and in one play Robin even gives Marian to Friar Tuck as a concubine: "She is a trul of trust, to serue a frier at his lust/a prycker a prauncer a terer of shetes/a wagger of ballockes when other men slepes." [2] His appearance in "Robin Hood and the Sheriff" means that he was already part of the legend around the time when the earliest surviving copies of the Robin Hood ballads were being made.
A friar with Robin's band in the historical period of Richard the Lion-Hearted would have been unlikely as the period predates formal mendicant religious orders in England. Christian religious hermits in England do date as far back as Cuthbert in the late 7th century. [3] In addition, multiple historical references to eremitic hermits unallied with formal orders have been noted, among them Eustace the Monk (a medieval outlaw) and Robert of Knaresborough who was contemporaries with Richard I. However, the association of Robin Hood with Richard I was not made until the 16th century; the early ballad "A Gest of Robin Hood" names his king as "Edward".
What follows is a story which includes different versions of the legend. He was a former monk of Fountains Abbey (or in some cases, St Mary's Abbey in York, which is also the scene of some other Robin Hood tales) who was expelled by his order because of his lack of respect for authority. Because of this, and in spite of his taste for good food and wine, he became the chaplain of Robin's band. In Howard Pyle's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood , he was specifically sought out as part of the tale of Alan-a-Dale: Robin has need of a priest who will marry Allan to his sweetheart in defiance of the Bishop of Hereford. [4]
In many tales, from "Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar" to The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood , his first encounter with Robin results in a battle of wits in which first one and then the other gains the upper hand and forces the other to carry him across a river. This ends in the Friar tossing Robin into the river.
In some tales, he is depicted as a physically fit man and a skilled swordsman and archer with a hot-headed temper. However, most commonly, Tuck is depicted as a fat, balding monk with a good sense of humour and a great love of food and ale, often together. Sometimes, the latter depiction of Tuck is the comic relief of the tale.
Friar Tuck is mentioned in the early ballad, Robin Hood and the Monk , encouraging Robin's antics:
...eyn proteft myfter Hoode dyd unfheathe hif membere ayn puled backe hif forefkin,
releafing a moste fowle odur eyn ye chaymbere.
The jydge dyd theyn fentenfe hym to deth by katapolte ayn Frere Tuke dyd larf moft harty, hyf large belle bownfing.
Two royal writs in 1417 refer to Robert Stafford, a Sussex chaplain who had assumed the alias of Frere Tuk. This "Friar Tuck" was still at large in 1429. These are the earliest surviving references to a character by that name.
 | This section may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may interest only a particular audience.(December 2022) |
In the 1891 romantic opera Ivanhoe by Sir Arthur Sullivan and Julian Sturgis, Friar Tuck was played by Avon Saxon.
In the film Robin Hood (1922) he was portrayed by Willard Louis.
In the film, The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) the character Friar Tuck was played by actor Eugene Pallette as a fat individual fond of food but also skilled with a sword. He was also quick to quarrel with anyone who slighted him, deprived him of his food, or made fun of his girth.
In the film The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1946) he was portrayed by Edgar Buchanan.
In the film The Prince of Thieves (1948) he was portrayed by Alan Mowbray.
In the film Rogues of Sherwood Forest (1950) he was portrayed by Billy House.
In the late 1950s British television series The Adventures of Robin Hood, he was played by Alexander Gauge as a fat friar a tad too devoted to good eating. He is also clearly devoted to the Church and the poor people he serves, using his wits to spare them unjust taxes, provide them education or shelter them from harm. He often uses the power and rights of the Church to good effect against the forces of the Sheriff.
The 1958 Merrie Melodies animated short Robin Hood Daffy featured Porky Pig as a "fat friar", who sought Robin Hood, but refused to believe Daffy Duck was the legendary outlaw. At the end of the cartoon, Daffy becomes "Friar Duck".
In the 1966 television series Rocket Robin Hood , Friar Tuck is again depicted as a traditional fat friar with a tonsure, despite the story taking place in the year 3000. Friar Tuck is memorable[ according to whom? ] for a vignette that played during each episode depicting him in front of a large feast, taking a single bite of each piece of food on the table before throwing it over his shoulder.
The veteran character actor James Hayter played Friar Tuck twice: in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952) and A Challenge for Robin Hood (1967).
In the 1973 Disney animated Robin Hood , Friar Tuck is a badger, voiced by Andy Devine. He is taken to be executed at the end of the film in a plot of Prince John's to lure Robin Hood out of hiding but is rescued in time.
In the 1975 TV series When Things Were Rotten , Friar Tuck was played by Dick Van Patten.
In the British Robin of Sherwood TV series of the 1980s, Friar Tuck was played by Phil Rose. In this version, the character reluctantly served the Sheriff of Nottingham's brother, an evil abbot, and also served as Maid Marian's confessor. He helped Marian escape and joined the band alongside her.
In the anime series Robin Hood no Daibōken , Friar Tuck (voiced by Kenichi Ogata) is an old monk who lives on the edge of Sherwood Forest and helps Robin and his friend if needed while offering sage advice.[ citation needed ]
In the animated series Young Robin Hood , Friar Tuck is made to be a young man around Robin's age and re-titled to Brother Tuck (voiced by Harry Standjofski). A very young monk, sometimes questioning his choice of being an outlaw. He is very pious and speaks Latin every now and then.[ citation needed ]
In Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves , Tuck was played by Mike McShane, drawing heavily on the overweight, ale-loving interpretation.
The Mel Brooks film Robin Hood: Men in Tights parodies the character as "Rabbi Tuckman," a self-described "purveyor of sacramental wine and mohel extraordinaire." Brooks, who also plays the character, made Tuckman Jewish (as Brooks himself is Jewish), reprising a gag from Blazing Saddles where Brooks made a cameo as a Jewish Native American.
In the video game Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood , Tuck was once again portrayed as Marian's confessor. He joins the band at her request. His enjoyment of alcohol is in the game as one of his abilities involves leaving beer flasks to intoxicate the guards.[ citation needed ]
In the 1991 film adaptation Robin Hood , Friar Tuck (played by Jeff Nuttall) is portrayed as an itinerant seller of phony relics, who is first mugged and then adopted by the Merry Men. He also confesses to being on the run for killing the nephew of an abbot.
In the 1997 film The Lost World , the second movie in the Jurassic Park franchise, big game hunter Roland Tembo refers to a Pachycephalosaurus as Friar Tuck. He could not read its proper name in his dinosaur identification booklet while traveling over the rough ground towards the beginning of the film.
In 1999, he featured in the video game Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings as a monk.[ citation needed ][ importance? ]
In the 2004 DreamWorks film Shrek 2 the Fairy Godmother and Prince Charming take King Harold to a fast food restaurant called "Friar's Fat Boy". This is a parody of the American restaurant chain Bob's Big Boy and features a statue of Friar Tuck outside of the restaurant similar to the Big Boy statue from its real-life inspiration. The fictional restaurant returns again in the 2005 Activision published videogame Shrek Super Slam as a fighting location. The game features theme music for the restaurant, which plays in the background of the fight.[ citation needed ]
Friar Tuck is called Brother and later Father Tuck in Angus Donald's Outlaw Chronicles series – so named as "there were no friars in England at that time"; [5] consisting of Outlaw (2009), Holy Warrior (2010), and King's Man (2011).
The first appearance of Tuck (in this case, not an anachronistic Friar) in the BBC show Robin Hood came in 2009 during its third series. After Robin was hurled over a ravine by Guy of Gisbourne, Tuck finds Robin further downstream. Tuck distracts Guy from the cave he is treating Robin in after Guy is told to look for Robin's body, thus saving Robin's life. He is played by David Harewood and portrayed as African.
Mark Addy plays Friar Tuck in Ridley Scott's Robin Hood (2010). In the film, his hobby is beekeeping, which he uses to make mead and as a weapon against the French.
Data impersonates Friar Tuck in the episode "Qpid" (1991) from Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek: The Next Generation series (4th season, episode 20).[ citation needed ][ importance? ]
He was portrayed by Michael P. Northey in the TV series Once Upon a Time and its spin-off Once Upon a Time in Wonderland .
He was portrayed by Trevor Cooper in the Doctor Who Series 8 episode, "Robot of Sherwood".
In the VeggieTales show, Robin Good and His Not-So-Merry Men , Archibald Asparagus portrays a version of him named Friar Cluck.[ citation needed ]
He was portrayed by Tim Minchin in the 2018 film Robin Hood .
Anne K. Kaler noted that a common misconception about Friar Tuck is that he was a Franciscan friar; she noted this is not plausible as he could belong to Benedictine, Augustinian or Carmelite orders instead, or perhaps be a renegade monk or a hermit. She notes that he fits into the Robin Hood story as one of the classic archetypes or stereotypes; here, of "a laudatory example of Christian clergyman", remembered for qualities such as "joy and good fellowship", a role for which he became immortalized in popular culture since. She compared him to characters such as Santa Claus, Falstaff or Winnie the Pooh, calling him "our 'belly cheer', our Lord of Misrule, our occasional defiance of authority, our spirit of seasonal joy". [6]
A pattern in the dermatologic disease trichotillomania (compulsive pulling out of scalp hair) has been named after the pattern of hair of this character. [7]
Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. He stole from the rich and gave to the poor. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depicted as being of noble birth, and in modern retellings he is sometimes depicted as having fought in the Crusades before returning to England to find his lands taken by the Sheriff. In the oldest known versions, he is instead a member of the yeoman class. He is traditionally depicted dressed in Lincoln green.
The Adventures of Robin Hood is a British television series comprising 143 half-hour, black and white episodes broadcast weekly between 1955 and 1959 on ITV. It starred Richard Greene as the outlaw Robin Hood, and Alan Wheatley as his nemesis, the Sheriff of Nottingham. The show followed the legendary character Robin Hood and his band of merry men in Sherwood Forest and the surrounding vicinity. While some episodes dramatised the traditional Robin Hood tales, most were original dramas created by the show's writers and producers.
Little John is a companion of Robin Hood who serves as his chief lieutenant and second-in-command of the Merry Men. He is one of only a handful of consistently named characters who relate to Robin Hood and one of the two oldest Merry Men, alongside Much the Miller's Son. His name is an ironic reference to his giant frame, as he is usually portrayed in legend as a huge warrior – a 7-foot-tall (2.1-metre) master of the quarterstaff. In folklore, he fought Robin Hood on a tree bridge across a river on their first meeting.
Sir Guy of Gisbourne is a character from the Robin Hood legends of English folklore. He first appears in "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne", where he is an assassin who attempts to kill Robin Hood but is killed by him. In later depictions, he has become a romantic rival to Robin Hood for Maid Marian's love.
Maid Marian is the heroine of the Robin Hood legend in English folklore, often taken to be his lover. She is not mentioned in the early, medieval versions of the legend, but was the subject of at least two plays by 1600. Her history and circumstances are obscure, but she commanded high respect in Robin’s circle for her courage and independence as well as her beauty and loyalty. For this reason, she is celebrated by feminist commentators as one of the early strong female characters in English literature.
Robin Hood is a 1973 American animated musical adventure comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution. Produced and directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, it is based on the English folktale "Robin Hood". The story follows the adventures of Robin Hood, Little John, and the inhabitants of Nottingham as they fight against the excessive taxation of Prince John, and Robin Hood wins the hand of Maid Marian. The film features the voices of Brian Bedford, Phil Harris, Peter Ustinov, Pat Buttram, Monica Evans, Terry-Thomas, Roger Miller, and Carole Shelley.
Much, the Miller's Son is one of the Merry Men in the tales of Robin Hood. He appears in some of the oldest ballads, A Gest of Robyn Hode and Robin Hood and the Monk, as one of the company.
The Bishop of Hereford is a character in the Robin Hood legend. He is typically portrayed as a wealthy and greedy clergyman who is robbed by Robin and his Merry Men.
Alan-a-Dale is a figure in the Robin Hood legend. According to the stories, he was a wandering minstrel who became a member of Robin's band of outlaws, the "Merry Men".
Will Scarlet is a prominent member of Robin Hood's Merry Men. He is present in the earliest ballads along with Little John and Much the Miller's Son.
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire is an 1883 novel by the American illustrator and writer Howard Pyle. Pyle compiled the traditional Robin Hood ballads as a series of episodes of a coherent narrative. For his characters' dialog, Pyle adapted the late Middle English of the ballads into a dialect suitable for children.
Richard at the Lee is a major character in the early medieval ballads of Robin Hood, especially the lengthy ballad A Gest of Robyn Hode, and has reappeared in Robin Hood tales throughout the centuries.
Robin Hood is a Japanese anime series produced by Tatsunoko Production, and NHK. In this version, Robin and his allies are mostly pre-teens.
"Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar" is an English-language folk song about Robin Hood.
The folkloric hero Robin Hood has appeared many times, in many different variations, in popular modern works.
The Merry Men are the group of outlaws who follow Robin Hood in English literature and folklore. The group appears in the earliest ballads about Robin Hood and remains popular in modern adaptations.
The Outlaws of Sherwood is a retelling of the legend of Robin Hood by Robin McKinley. In McKinley's afterword, she says, "The retellings through the centuries have echoed concurrent preoccupations." The story includes both the traditional Robin Hood characters — Little John, Much, Friar Tuck, Marian and Alan-a-dale — and characters of McKinley's own invention. Notably, three of the most important characters are women, all of whom escape marriage to prospective spouses chosen by their fathers.
Robin Hood is a fictional character appearing in media published by DC Comics, based on the legendary character of the same name. The character debuted in New Adventure Comics vol. 1 #23, and was created by Sven Elven.
Robin Hood is a fictional character in Walt Disney Animation Studios' animated feature film Robin Hood (1973). Robin Hood is voiced by Shakespearean and Tony Award winning actor Brian Bedford. The film is based on the legends of Robin Hood and Reynard the fox, a 12th-century Alsatian fairy tale character, but uses anthropomorphic animals rather than people; in Robin's case being a red fox. The story follows the adventures of Robin Hood, Little John and the inhabitants of Nottingham as they fight against the excessive taxation of Prince John, and Robin Hood wins the hand of Maid Marian.
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