ABSTRACT
Medievalists, whose field covers an extraordinarily long period of time, are constantly re-considering the canonical works we include in our syllabi. Even more than our colleagues, we hesitate to add new texts because we might have to discard established ones. Why should we teach the Robin Hood ballads when we have omitted The Seafarer or The Pearl or Piers Plowman for lack of time? Some of the Robin Hood ballads deserve to be included in the Middle English canon: their quality is equal to much that we all agree is canonical, and they are invaluable in giving students an accurate picture of medieval English literature. However, they will never be widely taught until they are included in the anthologies most of us use in our undergraduate surveys. From the courtly romances generally anthologized, plus the usual excerpts from Chaucer and Malory, students get a single—and aristocratic—view of medieval thought. Those who hold Church or feudal power are expected to be noble and holy and are condemned when they fall short; in contrast, those without such power are rarely held up as examples of nobility or heroism. Exceptions are the poor but virtuous churchmen whom Chaucer seems to find as boring as our undergraduates do. However, in Robin Hood, readers often find a heroic yeoman, at odds with everyone in power, as exuberant in his piety as in his criminality. If and when they do, incorporate the Robin Hood poems into the classroom, we will all serve our students better.
