Adam Bell was a legendary English

outlaw An outlaw, in its original and legal meaning, is a person declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, all legal protection was withdrawn from the criminal, so that anyone was legally empowered to persecute or kill them ...

. He and his companions William of Cloudsley and Clym of the Clough lived in Inglewood Forest near

Carlisle Carlisle ( , ; from xcb, Caer Luel) is a city that lies within the Northern England, Northern English county of Cumbria, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, Scottish border at the confluence of the rivers River Eden, Cumbria, Eden, River C ...

and were figures similar to Robin Hood. Their story is told in

Child Ballad The Child Ballads are 305 traditional ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. Their lyrics and Child's studies of them were published as '' ...

116 entitled ''Adam Bell, Clym of the Cloughe and Wyllyam of Cloudeslee''. The basis of the tale has historical roots in the criminal activities of the Folville and Coterel gangs. At one point William of Cloudsley, who is famed as an archer, shoots an arrow through an apple on his son's head at six score paces, a feat also ascribed to William Tell and other heroes. The oldest printed copy of this ballad dates from 1505 and was printed by Wynkyn de Worde. There are notable parallels between this ballad and that of ''

Robin Hood and the Monk Robin Hood and the Monk is a Middle English ballad and one of the oldest surviving ballads of Robin Hood. Original work and later publications The work was preserved in Cambridge University manuscript Ff.5.48, albeit heavily damaged by wea ...

'', but whether either legend was the source for the other cannot be established. In the prologue to Howard Pyle's 1883 novel '' The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood'', Little John upon first meeting Robin favorably compared Robin's skill at

archery Archery is the sport, practice, or skill of using a bow to shoot arrows.Paterson ''Encyclopaedia of Archery'' p. 17 The word comes from the Latin ''arcus'', meaning bow. Historically, archery has been used for hunting and combat. In m ...

to that of Adam Bell. Adam Bell is the chief protagonist of the penny dreadful novel by Pierce Egan the Younger entitled ''Adam Bell, or, The Archers of Englewood'' published in 1842. Adam Bell is thought to be the "Adam" mentioned by Shakespeare in '' Much Ado About Nothing,'' I, i, 257-9: :...hang me in a bottle like a cat, and shoot at me, and he that hits me, let him be clapp'd on : the shoulder, and call'd Adam.Evans, G. Blakemore, ed. (1974). ''The Riverside Shakespeare.'' Boston, Houghton Mifflin. p. 335 n. 259. Adam Bell was played by

Bryan Marshall Bryan Marshall (19 May 1938 – 25 June 2019) was a British actor, with a number of major credits in film and television to his name, in both his native country and Australia. Early life Marshall was born in Battersea, south London. He was educ ...

in the '' Robin of Sherwood'' episode ''Adam Bell''. In this particular storyline, Bell sacrifices his life so that Robin can rescue the Sheriff of Nottingham's nephew Martin from his murderous uncle.

References and footnotes

External links

Text of the ballad
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Adam Child Ballads Legendary English people English outlaws Robin Hood Cumbrian folklore Northumbrian folklore Inglewood Forest