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Robin Hood is the archetypal
English folk hero, an outlaw who, in modern versions of the legend, stole from
the rich to give to the poor (some would say from the tax collector to refund
the taxpayer). Although most noted for his material egalitarianism, in the
stories he also pursues other types of equality and justice.
The Robin Hood legend
The stories relating to Robin Hood are apocryphal, verging on the
mythological. His first appearance in a manuscript is in William Langland's
Piers Plowman (1377) in which Sloth, the lazy priest boasts "I ken (i.e.
'know') 'rimes of Robin Hood." Three years later the Scottish chronicler John
Fordun wrote that, in ballads, "Robin Hood delights above all others".
Printed versions of Robin Hood ballads appear in the early 16th century -
shortly after the advent of printing in England. In these ballads, Robin Hood
is a yeoman which, by that time, meant an independent tradesman or farmer. It
is only in the late 16th century that he becomes a nobleman, the Earl of
Huntington, Robert of Locksley, or later still, Robert Fitz Ooth.
His romantic attachment to Maid Marian (or "Marion") (originally known as
Mathilda) is also a product of this later period and probably has something to
do with the French pastoral play of about 1280, the Jeu de Robin et Marion.
Aside from the names there is no recognizable Robin Hood connection to the
play.
The late 16th century is also the period when the Robin Hood story is moved
back in time to the 1190s, when King Richard is away at the crusades. One of
the original Robin Hood ballads refers to King Edward (Edward I, II, and III
ruled England from 1272 to 1377). The idea of Robin Hood as a high-minded
Saxon fighting Norman Lords originates in the 19th century, most notably in
the part Robin Hood plays in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (1819), chapters 40 -
41, where the familiar modern Robin Hood - "King of Outlaws and prince of good
fellows!" Richard the Lionheart calls him - makes his debut.
The folkloric Robin Hood was deprived of his lands by the villainous Sheriff
of Nottingham and became an outlaw. The Sheriff does indeed appear in the
early ballads (Robin kills and beheads him), but there is nothing as specific
as this allegation. Robin's other enemies include the rich abbots of the
Catholic Church and a bounty hunter named Guy of Gisbourne. Robin kills and
beheads him as well. The early ballads contain nothing about giving to the
poor, although Robin does make a large loan to an unfortunate knight.
In the ballads, the original "Merry Men" (though not called that) included:
Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet (or Scathlock), Much the Miller's Son, and Little
John - who was called "little" because he wasn't. Alan-a-Dale is a later
invention in Robin Hood plays.
Possible locations
In modern versions of the legend, Robin Hood is said to have taken up
residence in the verdant Sherwood Forest in the county of Nottinghamshire.
This is a matter of some considerable contention. The original ballads speak
of his being in Barnsdale (the area between Pontefract and Doncaster), some
fifty miles north of Sherwood in the county of Yorkshire. This is reinforced
for some by the similarity of Locksley to the area of Loxley in Sheffield,
where in nearby Tideswell, which was the “Kings Larder” in the Royal Forest of
the Peak, we find a record of Robert de Lockesly in court, perhaps in his
retirement years in 1245 AD.
Modern interpretations
Songs, plays, games, and, later, novels, musicals, films, and TV series have
developed Robin Hood and company according to the needs of their times, and
the mythos has been subject to extensive ideological manipulation. Maid
Marian, for instance, something of a warrior maiden in early Victorian novels
was reduced in demeanour to passivity during the period of the women's
suffrage movement. As the media power of the modern feminist movement gathered
momentum, Marian reacquired an altogether more active role. Robin Hood himself
has been transformed from a bandit with an occasional element of generosity in
the original tales, to the contemporary reading, where he is depicted more as
a medieval Che Guevara leading a small rebel force fighting a guerrilla war
against Prince John and the Sheriff on behalf of the oppressed and King
Richard I.
Source:
Wikipedia.org
One of the best movies/series dealing with the Robin Hood myth is
Robin
of Sherwood
Read more:
Robn Hood Project
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