Robin Goodfellow

Robin Goodfellow in English folklore is a euphemistic personification of a half-tamed, troublesome elf or hob-goblin, a prankster who is the domesticated aspect of Puck.

Related Topics:
Folklore - Elf - Hob-goblin - Puck

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Shakespeare refers to him in A Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 1.

Related Topics:
Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream

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:Either I mistake your shape and making quite,

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:Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite

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:Called Robin Goodfellow...

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:Those that Hob-goblin call you, and sweet Puck,

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:You do their work, and they shall have good luck.

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The earliest reference to 'Robin Goodfellow' cited by the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1531.

Related Topics:
Oxford English Dictionary - 1531

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The name Robin is Middle English in origin, deriving from Old French Robin, the pet form for the name Robert. After Meyerbeer's successful opera Robert le Diable(1831), neo-medievalists and occultists began to apply the name Robin Goodfellow to the Devil, with appropriately extravagant imagery.

Related Topics:
Middle English - Old French - Meyerbeer

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The character originates in German folklore.

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