Guy of Gisbourne
Encyclopedia
Robin Hood
Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....
legends of English folklore
English folklore
English folklore is the folk tradition which has developed in England over a number of centuries. Some stories can be traced back to their roots, while the origin of others is uncertain or disputed...
. In The Ballad of Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne (Child Ballad
Child Ballads
The Child Ballads are a collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, collected by Francis James Child in the late nineteenth century...
118), he hunts Robin for the Sheriff of Nottingham
Sheriff of Nottingham
The Sheriff of Nottingham was historically the office responsible for enforcing law and order in Nottingham and bringing criminals to justice. For years the post has been directly appointed by the Lord Mayor of Nottingham and in modern times, with the existence of the police force, the position is...
, but Robin kills him and cuts off his head. He is described so:
- A sword and a dagger he wore by his side,
- Of manye a man the bane;
- And he was clad in his capull-hyde [capull-hyde = horse-hide]
- Topp and tayll and mayne
- [...]
- ‘I dwell by dale and downe,’ quoth hee,
- ‘And Robin to take I’me sworne;
- And when I am callèd by my right name
- I am Guy of good Gisborne.’
Summary of the ballad
In the beginning of the ballad, Robin Hood and Little JohnLittle John
Little John was a legendary fellow outlaw of Robin Hood, and was said to be Robin's chief lieutenant and second-in-command of the Merry Men.-Folklore:He appears in the earliest recorded Robin Hood ballads and stories...
walk through the forest. Robin speaks of a dream he had of two men fighting. They then spot a distant stranger leaning on a tree. Little John tells Robin to wait while he approaches the stranger. Robin takes umbrage as if accused of cowardice, and tells John he'd like to break his head. John marches off in a huff—and is promptly captured by the Sheriff of Nottingham and tied to a tree, preparatory to being hanged. Meanwhile, Robin goes up to the stranger, Guy of Gisborne, who is clad in a bizarre horsehide robe. Guy is a bounty hunter or hired killer seeking Robin Hood. They have a shooting contest, and Robin wins with an ease befitting a real Robin Hood. Robin identifies himself to the suspicious Guy, and the two fight. When Robin trips over a root, Guy stabs him; but Robin thrusts his sword and kills Guy. Somehow (it is not specified), Robin knows that Little John was captured. So, he dons the distinctive horsehide, cuts off Guy's head, sticks it on the tip of his bow and slashes the face, rendering it unrecognizable. He then blows Guy's horn to signal victory to the Sheriff. Disguised as Guy, and carrying what he passes off as Robin Hood's head, Robin goes to rescue Little John. He brushes past the Sheriff as if to kill John, but cuts him loose. John then takes a bow and shoots the Sheriff through the heart.
Guy's equine symbolism
There is some evidence that Guy originally had an independent literary tradition which became absorbed into the Robin Hood corpus of legends. Indeed, the tale of Guy's death may contain elements of pre-Christian myth. Guy oddly wears a complete or substantially complete horse's skin with the top, tail and mane included so he may stand in for a horse deityHorse worship
Horse worship is a pagan practice that existed in Europe in the Iron Age and perhaps the Bronze Age. The horse was seen as divine, as a sacred animal associated with a particular deity, or as a totem animal impersonating the king or warrior. Horse cults and horse sacrifice were originally a feature...
. Germanic people considered horses sacred and a white stallion appears to this day on the official flag and coat of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...
of Lower Saxony.
Guy of Gisbourne in popular culture
Although he has made many appearances in 19th and 20th century variants of the Robin Hood legends, Guy's only constant is villainy. In Howard PyleHoward Pyle
Howard Pyle was an American illustrator and author, primarily of books for young people. A native of Wilmington, Delaware, he spent the last year of his life in Florence, Italy.__FORCETOC__...
's influential novel the Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (published in 1883), he is shown as a crude, coarse outlaw, known for his cruelty and murderous habits. In the Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks
Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. was an American actor, screenwriter, director and producer. He was best known for his swashbuckling roles in silent films such as The Thief of Bagdad, Robin Hood, and The Mark of Zorro....
-dominated Robin Hood
Robin Hood (1922 film)
Robin Hood is the first motion picture ever to have a Hollywood premiere, held at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre on October 18, 1922. The movie's full title, under which it was copyrighted, is Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood, as shown in the illustration at right...
silent movie and the highly-rated 1938 Errol Flynn
Errol Flynn
Errol Leslie Flynn was an Australian-born actor. He was known for his romantic swashbuckler roles in Hollywood films, being a legend and his flamboyant lifestyle.-Early life:...
Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
The Adventures of Robin Hood
The Adventures of Robin Hood (film)
The Adventures of Robin Hood is a 1938 American swashbuckler film directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley. Filmed in Technicolor, the picture stars Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, Basil Rathbone, and Claude Rains.-Plot:...
, he is a nobleman, played by Sam De Grasse
Sam De Grasse
Samuel Alfred De Grasse was a Canadian actor. Born in Bathurst, New Brunswick, he trained to be a dentist....
and Basil Rathbone
Basil Rathbone
Sir Basil Rathbone, KBE, MC, Kt was an English actor. He rose to prominence in England as a Shakespearean stage actor and went on to appear in over 70 films, primarily costume dramas, swashbucklers, and, occasionally, horror films...
. In these two versions, Guy is Prince John's chief supporter, and a far more prominent and dangerous man than the Sheriff of Nottingham
Sheriff of Nottingham
The Sheriff of Nottingham was historically the office responsible for enforcing law and order in Nottingham and bringing criminals to justice. For years the post has been directly appointed by the Lord Mayor of Nottingham and in modern times, with the existence of the police force, the position is...
. Prince John proposes Guy to Maid Marian
Maid Marian
Maid Marian is the wife of the legendary English outlaw Robin Hood. Stemming from another, older tradition, she became associated with Robin Hood only in the 16th century.-History:The earliest medieval Robin Hood stories gave him no female companion...
as a prospective husband. Henceforth, Guy often appears as a bitter rival to Robin for Maid Marian
Maid Marian
Maid Marian is the wife of the legendary English outlaw Robin Hood. Stemming from another, older tradition, she became associated with Robin Hood only in the 16th century.-History:The earliest medieval Robin Hood stories gave him no female companion...
's affections. In the Flynn film, Robin engages Guy in a duel to the death, one of the most famous sword fights in cinema history, whilst in Douglas Fairbanks' movie, Robin takes him on without a sword and kills him with his bare hands.
The role of Guy of Gisbourne has been interpreted on film since Rathbone in 1938, by Tom Baker
Tom Baker
Thomas Stewart "Tom" Baker is a British actor. He is best known for playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series Doctor Who, a role he played from 1974 to 1981.-Early life:...
(The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood
The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood
The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood is a parody film of the story of Robin Hood.-Plot:In not-so-merry-old-England during the 13th Century, the neurotic Prince John sits on the throne, supported by his evil henchman, Sir Guy of Gisbourne and constantly ridiculed by his mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine...
, 1984), Robert Addie
Robert Addie
Robert Alastair Addie was an English actor who was best known for playing Sir Guy of Gisbourne in the television series Robin of Sherwood.-Career:...
(in the British television series Robin of Sherwood
Robin of Sherwood
Robin of Sherwood , was a British television series, based on the legend of Robin Hood. Created by Richard Carpenter, it was produced by HTV in association with Goldcrest, and ran from 1984 to 1986 on the ITV network. In America it was retitled Robin Hood and shown on the premium cable TV channel...
, 1984-6) and Michael Wincott
Michael Wincott
Michael Anthony Claudio Wincott is a Canadian actor.Wincott was born in Toronto, Ontario and is renown for playing villainous roles-Filmography:*Title Shot - Robber*Wild Horse Hank - Charlie Connors...
(in the movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a 1991 American adventure film directed by Kevin Reynolds. Kevin Costner heads the cast list as Robin Hood...
). In the 1991 TV movie, Jürgen Prochnow
Jürgen Prochnow
Jürgen Prochnow is a German actor. His most well-known roles internationally have been as the sympathetic submarine captain in Das Boot , Duke Leto Atreides I in Dune , the minor, but important role of Neo-Stalinist dictator General Ivan Radek in Air Force One and the villain Maxwell Dent in...
plays "Sir Miles Folcanet," a character with much in common with modern versions of Guy.
In the 1990s CBBC
CBBC
CBBC is one of two brand names used for the BBC's children's television strands. Between 1985 and 2002, CBBC was the name given to all the BBC's programmes on TV for children aged under 14...
comedy show Maid Marian and her Merry Men
Maid Marian and her Merry Men
Maid Marian and her Merry Men is a British children's sitcom created and written by Tony Robinson and directed by David Bell. It began in 1989 on BBC One and ran for four series, with the last episode shown in 1994...
, Guy—played by Ramsay Gilderdale
Ramsay Gilderdale
Ramsay Gilderdale is an English actor, who played Guy of Gisbourne in BBC comedy Maid Marian and Her Merry Men. He also appeared in Rumpole of the Bailey and Blackadder's Christmas Carol....
—is the nephew of Prince John, and is portrayed in the series as an overgrown mother's boy
Mother's boy
Mother's boy, also mummy's boy or mama's boy, is a term for a man who is excessively attached to his mother at an age when men are expected to be independent...
. He is foolish to the point of being delusional, believing himself to have a friend from outer space named "Plop Bop". He dresses occasionally as a sugar-plum fairy
The Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a two-act ballet, originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto is adapted from E.T.A. Hoffmann's story "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King". It was given its première at the Mariinsky Theatre in St...
or more usually as a court jester, and is generally held in contempt by the heroes and villains alike.
However, in the BBC's 2006 Robin Hood, Guy is portrayed much more seriously by Richard Armitage
Richard Armitage (actor)
Richard Crispin Armitage is an English actor famous for his roles as John Thornton in North and South, Guy of Gisborne in Robin Hood, and Lucas North in Spooks...
, and is the Sheriff of Nottingham's second-in-command. He is originally depicted as a dark character, and is shown as an active enforcer of the Sheriff's cruelty, but at the same time, he is in love with Marian
Maid Marian
Maid Marian is the wife of the legendary English outlaw Robin Hood. Stemming from another, older tradition, she became associated with Robin Hood only in the 16th century.-History:The earliest medieval Robin Hood stories gave him no female companion...
, showing conflicted attempts to redeem himself in her eyes.
As to the big-budget 2010 movie Robin Hood
Robin Hood (2010 film)
Robin Hood is a 2010 British/American adventure film based on the Robin Hood legend, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett...
directed by Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...
, actor Mark Strong
Mark Strong
Mark Strong is an English actor, with a body of work in both films and television. He has performed in films as varied as Body of Lies, Syriana, The Young Victoria, Sherlock Holmes, RocknRolla, Stardust, and Kick-Ass...
mentions in promotional interviews that his character, Sir Godfrey, is based upon Guy of Gisbourne.