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The Merry Men are the group of outlaws who follow Robin Hood, according to English folklore. An early use of the phrase "merry men" occurs in the oldest known Robin Hood ballad, "Robin Hood and the Monk",[1] which survives in a manuscript completed around 1450.[2] The word "merry" in this and other ballads is probably used in the archaic sense meaning "companion or follower of an… outlaw".[3] The early ballads give specific names to only three of Robin's companions, Little John, Much the Miller's Son, and William Scarlock or Scathelock, the Will Scarlet of later tradions. Joining them are between 20 and "seven score" (140) outlawed yeomen.