JEMS - Journal of Firenze University Press Early Modern Studies www.fupress.com/bsfm-jems ‘The Original Hoods’ Late Medieval English Crime Fiction Citation: S. Knight (2021), ‘The Original Hoods’: Late Medieval English Crime Fiction. Jems 10: Stephen Knight pp. 175-191. doi: http://dx.doi. University of Melbourne (<
[email protected]>) org/10.13128/JEMS-2279-7149- 12546 Copyright: © 2021 S. Knight. This is an open access, peer- Abstract reviewed article published by Firenze University Press (https:// Early crime fiction is usually linked to the true crime stories that developed oajournals.fupress.net/index. into The Newgate Calendar by the mid-eighteenth century, but there were late php/bsfm-jems) and distributed medieval and early modern narratives in popular poetry that described and under the terms of the Crea- even celebrated actions by free peasants against the authorities of the church tive Commons Attribution - Non and the then somewhat fragmentary state. Four domains of such narratives Commercial - No derivatives 4.0 – seen here as the ancestors of the crime novel – are described and explored. International License, which per- They are: Robin Hood ballads, focusing on the early major texts, ‘Robin mits use, distribution and repro- Hood and the Monk’, ‘Robin Hood and the Potter’, ‘Robin Hood and Guy duction in any medium, provided of Gisborne’ and ‘A Gest of Robyn Hode’. Popular ballads recording family the original work is properly cit- crimes, ‘The Twa Sisters’, ‘The Cruel Brother’, ‘Edward’, or ‘Lord Randal’ or ed as specified by the author or presenting conflicts with the supernatural, ‘Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight’ licensor, that is not used for com- and ‘Gil Brenton’.