- Verysdale
Verysdale is a part of
medieval England which is mentioned in the early ballads ofRobin Hood (especially the ballad "A Gest of Robyn Hode", in which a friendly knight,Richard at the Lee , befriends the gallant outlaw and later is revealed as the lord orEarl of Verysdale). Verysdale may be entirely fictional, or it may be based upon a realcounty with some basis in geographical reality, or it may even have been a term used to refer to a real county. Scholars and historians are divided as to this, as well as the exact supposed location of Verysdale.Some believe the location of Verysdale was somewhere in the
Peak District (the ballad would seem to suggest so), although there are many suggestions and theories. Locations inWest Yorkshire ,South Yorkshire ,Nottinghamshire ,Derbyshire ,Lancashire , andCumbria have all been suggested. One scholar equated Verysdale withWensleydale whilst another equated it withKirklees . [http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Lane/8771/knyght.html]Also mentioned in the same ballad was "Uterysdale", which has been identified by some as relating to the village of Lee in the Wyre valley - Wyresdale [Lancashire] and references to Richard de Leghs [Leghe] in Lancashire one in the village of Woodhouses during the early
1200s . This bears a similarity to the title "Richard at the Lee" who is said to have been the lord of Verysdale.See also
*
Robin Hood
*Richard at the Lee External links
* [http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Lane/8771/knyght.html Article regarding the discussion of the location of Verysdale]
* [http://myweb.ecomplanet.com/ROBE5053/mycustompage0006.htm An intriguing theory as to who Richard at the Lee was; equating him with a historical figure]
* [http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/gestint.htm The medieval text of "A Gest of Robyn Hood"]
* [http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~ohlgren/gesttrans.html A translation of above ballad into modern Englosh]
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