Friar
Tuck is a companion to Robin Hood in the legends about that
character. He is a common character in modern Robin Hood stories,
which depict him as a jovial friar and one of Robin's Merry Men.
The figure of Tuck was common in the May Games festivals of England
and Scotland during the 15th through 17th centuries. He appears as
a character in the fragment of a Robin Hood play from 1475,
sometimes called Robin Hood and the Knight or Robin Hood and the
Sheriff, and a play for the May games published in 1560 which tells
a story similar to Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar. (The oldest
surviving copy of this ballad is from the 17th century.) It has
often been argued that the character entered the tradition through
these folk plays, and that he may have originally been partnered
with Maid Marian. His appearance in "Robin Hood and the Sheriff"
means that he was already part of the legend around the time when
the earliest surviving copies of the Robin Hood ballads were being
made.
In
some tales he is depicted as a physically fit man and a skilled
swordsman and archer with a hot-headed temper. However most
commonly Tuck is depicted as a fat, bald and jovial monk with a
great love of ale, though the two are not mutually exclusive.
Sometimes the latter depiction of Tuck is the comic relief of the
tale.