ABSTRACT
A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode (c. 1495) is book ended by two extravagant outlaw feasts in the forest. This chapter argues that the feasting allows the yeoman figure of Robin Hood to playfully interact with other medieval genres in a way designed to disrupt late-medieval literary and social expectations. These feasts both parody and subvert familiar elements taken from medieval romance, such as King Arthur chivalrously awaiting a guest, the impoverished knight (such as Sir Launfal) in search of a fairy mistress, and perhaps even the “menacing tester” of the Gawain romances by way of the politically aware “King and Commoner” tradition. What emerges as a result is socially aspirational and disruptive politicized feasting that expresses the social ambitions of the Geste's urban yeoman and mercantile readership. It opens up a site that is able to absorb and rewrite the aristocratic narratives of the past in order to disrupt hierarchical norms and place the yeoman at the centre of the action, where he is to be celebrated as the new guardian of authority and justice.
