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The Ballad isn't all that specific about his motivations. It merely says that 'he was going across' presumably to get to the other side of the stream.

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Although now a staple of the Robin Hood legend, the tale of how Robin met Little John is known first from a 17th century ballad named Robin Hood and Little John, and, due to its apparently late date of composition, is often considered to be an 'origin story' (or 'prequel', in today's parlance). It introduces into the mythology the meeting of John and Robin, and the reason for John's epithet 'Little'.

It tells the story of how a 20 year old Robin meets John on a bridge in the greenwood, and neither will give way to the other. Robin puts an arrow to his bow, which causes John, armed only with quarterstaff, to call him a coward. Robin therefore discards his bow, and chooses himself a staff. The two fight, Robin loses (often amended in modern retellings), and John joins his outlaw band.

Why Robin was crossing the bridge is not specifically related in the ballad itself, but the tale begins with Robin leaving his merry men in order to go for a walk through the forest, since they had had no "sport" for a fortnight. Although this 'sport' which Robin was missing is not spelled out in the text, since he follows the statement with "Now should I be beat, and cannot retreat/My horn I will presently blow" it seems likely that he meant combat. Robin went off into the greenwood to pick a fight with someone.

It therefore seems likely that, since the seven-feet-tall John was also walking through the forest, Robin may have stepped onto the bridge specifically to challenge a worthy opponent, and for no other reason. The ballad states that Robin spied John before they stepped onto the narrow bridge, then challenged him on it. The chosen arena for his battle seems to have been intended to give no room for doubt as to the victor: John would either have had to turn tail and flee, or stand and fight.

Earlier versions of the tale may have been in existence, but are now lost; it is possible that these older ballads gave Robin a different motivation for roving the forest alone, and therefore crossing the bridge. Later versions also often give him more reason to be crossing the bridge than looking for a scrap.

However, it seems fairly clear that in the oldest version of the story we have, Robin crossed the bridge for no other reason than to challenge Little John to a fight.
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