+The Text+ is modernised from the only known version, in Sloane MS.
2593, in the British Museum (c. 1450); the minstrel's song-book which
contains the famous carols: 'I sing of a maiden,' and 'Adam lay
i-bounden.' This ballad was first printed by Ritson in his _Ancient
Songs_ (1790); but he misunderstood the phrase 'Robyn lyth' in the
burden for the name 'Robin Lyth,' and ingeniously found a cave on
Flamborough Head called Robin Lyth's Hole.
+The Story+ is similar to those told of Robin Hood and Little John; but
there is no ground for identifying this Robin with Robin Hood. Wright,
in printing the Sloane MS., notes that 'Gandeleyn' resembles Gamelyn,
whose 'tale' belongs to the pseudo-Chaucerian literature. But we can
only take this ballad to be, like so many others, an unrelated
'relique.'