Legendary 13th-c outlaw who lived in Sherwood Forest in the N Midlands, England, celebrated in ballads dating from the 14th-c. He protected the poor, and outwitted, robbed, or killed the wealthy and unscrupulous officials of Church and state. The legend may have had its origins in the popular discontent that led to the Peasants' Revolt of 1381.
In many stories Robin's nemesis is the despotic Sheriff of Nottingham. In some versions Robin Hood is said to have been a nobleman, the earl of Loxley, who was deprived of his lands by greedy churchmen.
In fact, the Robin Hood stories have been different in every period of their history. Robin himself is continually reshaped and redrawn, made to fit whatever values are pushed on to him. This fact makes any notion of a "real" or "true" Robin Hood largely redundant. Even if a historical Robin Hood could be identified, he could account for only the bare minimum of the rich legend surrounding his name. Even at this early stage, the name Robin Hood denotes an archetypal criminal. In a petition presented to Parliament in 1439, the name is again used to describe an itinerant felon, The petition cites one Piers Venables of Aston, Derbyshire, "who having no liflode, ne sufficeante of goodes, gadered and assembled unto him many misdoers, beynge of his clothynge, and, in manere of insurrection, wente into the wodes in that countrie, like as it hadde be Robyn Hude and his meyne." The name is still used to describe sedition and treachery in 1605, when Guy Fawkes and his associates are branded "Robin Hoods" by Robert Cecil.
The first allusion to a literary tradition of Robin Hood tales occurs in William Langland's Piers Plowman (c.1362–c.1386) in which Sloth, the lazy priest, confesses: "I kan [know] not parfitly [perfectly] my Paternoster as the preest it singeth,/ But I kan rymes of Robyn Hood".
The first mention of a quasi-historical Robin Hood is given in Andrew of Wyntoun's Orygynale Chronicle, written about 1420. Among Bower's many interpolations is a passage which directly refers to Robin. Robin is in fact turned into a fighter for de Montfort's cause:
Despite Bower's scorn, and demotion of Robin to a savage 'cutthroat', his account is followed by a brief tale in which Robin becomes a symbol of piety, who gains a decisive victory over his enemies after hearing the Mass. Furthermore, the reference to Huntingdon is anachronistic: the first recorded mention of the title in the context of Robin Hood occurs in the 1598 play The Downfall of Robert, Earl of Huntington by Anthony Munday.
Therefore, even in the earliest records, Robin is already largely fictional. The mediæval texts do not refer to him directly, but mediate their allusions through a body of accounts and reports: for Langland Robin exists principally in "rimes", for Bower "comedies and tragedies", while for Wyntoun he is "commendyd gude". Even in a legal context, where one would expect to find verifiable references to Robin, he is primarily a symbol, a generalised outlaw-figure rather than an individual. Consequently, in the mediæval period itself, Robin Hood already belongs more to literature than to history.
Ballads and tales
The earliest surviving Robin Hood text is 'Robin Hood and the Monk'. It contains many of the elements still associated with the legend, from the Nottingham setting to the bitter enmity between Robin and the local sheriff.
"Robin Hood and the Monk" is followed by 'Robin Hood and the Potter', contained in a manuscript of ca 1503. These are particularly noteworthy as they show Robin's integration into May Day rituals towards the end of the Middle Ages.
It is interesting to compare the character of Robin in these first texts to his later incarnations. While in modern stories Robin Hood typically pursues justice, and the Merry Men are almost a proto-democracy, this sense of generosity and egalitarianism is absent from the medieval and Early Modern sources. Robin is often presented as vengeful and self-interested, meting out barbaric punishments to his own enemies, but rarely fighting on the behalf of others. Nothing is stated about 'giving to the poor', although Robin does make a large loan to an unfortunate knight. In the early ballads Robin's men usually kneel before him in strict obedience: in the Gest the king even observes that "His men are more at his byddynge/Then my men be at myn". And rather than being deprived of his lands by the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham, Robin takes to 'the greenwood' after killing royal foresters for mocking him (see Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham).
Although the term "Merry Men" belongs to a later period, the ballads do name several of Robin's companions. Some appear only once or twice in a ballad: Will Stutly in Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly and Robin Hood and Little John; Still later, the minstrel Alan-a-Dale, who narrates Robin's adventures in song, first appeared in a seventeenth century broadside ballad, and unlike many of the characters thus associated, managed to adhere to the legend.
Printed versions of the Robin Hood ballads, generally based on the Gest, appear in the early 16th century, shortly after the introduction of printing in England. Later that century Robin is promoted to the level of nobleman: he is styled Earl of Huntington, Robert of Locksley, or Robert Fitz Ooth.
Robin's romantic attachment to Maid Marian(or Marion) is a product of the late sixteenth century. The naming of Marian may have come from the French pastoral play of ca 1280, the Jeu de Robin et Marion, although this play is unrelated to the English legends. Both Robin and Marian were certainly associated with May Day festivities in England (as was Friar Tuck), but these were originally two distinct types of performance: Alexander Barclay, writing in c.1500, refers to "some merry fytte of Maid Marian or else of Robin Hood".
The 16th century is also the period in which Robin Hood is given a specific historical setting. Up until this point there was little interest in exactly when Robin's adventures took place.
Giving Robin an aristocratic title and female love interest, and placing him in the historical context of the true king's absence, all represent moves to domesticate his legend and reconcile it to ruling powers. From the 16th century on, the legend of Robin Hood is often used to promote the hereditary ruling class, heterosexual romance, and religious piety, with the "criminal" element retained more to provide dramatic colour than as any real challenge to convention. From this period there are a number of ballads in which Robin is severely "drubbed" by a succession of professionals, including a potter, a tanner, a tinker and a ranger. Yet even in these ballads Robin is more than a mere simpleton: on the contrary, he often acts with great shrewdness. The tinker, setting out to capture Robin, only manages to fight with him after he has been cheated out of his money and the arrest warrant he is carrying. In Robin Hood's Golden Prize, Robin disguises himself as a friar and cheats two priests out of their cash. Even when Robin is defeated, he usually tricks his foe into letting him sound his horn, summoning the Merry Men to his aid.
The continued popularity of the Robin Hood tales is attested by a number of literary references. In As You Like It, the exiled duke and his men "live like the old Robin Hood of England", while Ben Jonson produced the (incomplete) masque The Sad Shepheard, or a Tale of Robin Hood as a satire on Puritanism. To A Friend and Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote a play The Foresters, or Robin Hood and Maid Marian. White featured Robin and his band in The Sword in the Stone — anachronistically, since the novel's chief theme is the childhood of King Arthur.
The Victorian era generated its own distinct versions of Robin Hood. The traditional tales were often adapted for children, most notably in Howard Pyle's Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. These versions firmly stamp Robin as a staunch philanthropist, a man who takes from the rich to give to the poor. Nevertheless, the adventures are still more local than national in scope: while Richard's participation in the Crusades is mentioned in passing, Robin takes no stand against Prince John, and plays no part in raising the ransom to free Richard. These developments are part of the 20th century Robin Hood myth. The idea of Robin Hood as a high-minded Saxon fighting Norman Lords also originates in the 19th century. The most notable contributions to this idea of Robin are Thierry's Histoire de la Conquête de l'Angleterre par les Normands (1825), and Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (1819). In this last work in particular, the modern Robin Hood — "King of Outlaws and prince of good fellows!"
The Robin Hood legend has been subject to numerous shifts and mutations throughout its history. Robin himself has evolved from an obscure footpad to a national hero of epic proportions, who not only supports the poor by taking from the rich, but heroically defends the throne of England itself from unworthy and venal claimants.
Connections to existing 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. For this reason the people of present-day Nottinghamshire have a special affinity with Robin Hood, often claiming him as the symbol of their county. For example, major road signs entering the shire depict Robin Hood with his bow and arrow, welcoming people to 'Robin Hood County.' BBC Radio Nottingham also uses the phrase 'Robin Hood County' on its regular programmes. are often thought to have their name derive from Sherwood Forest and the legend of Robin Hood, when in fact it cames from an area they played on called the Forest Recreation Ground. The original ballads locate Robin in Barnsdale (the area between Pontefract and Doncaster), some fifty miles north of Sherwood in the county of Yorkshire. Although it cannot be proved this is the man himself, it is believed he had a brother called Thomas, which gives credence to the following reference:
In Barnsdale Forest there is at least one Robin Hood's Well (by the side of the Great North Road), one Little John's Well (near Hampole) and a Robin Hood's stream (in Highfields Wood at Woodlands).
There is something of a modern movement amongst Yorkshire residents to re-confirm the legend of Robin Hood, to the extent that South Yorkshire's new airport, on the site of the redeveloped RAF Finningley airbase near Doncaster, has been given the name Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield.
There has long been a pub in the village of Hatfield Woodhouse, quite close to the airport, which is known as The Robin Hood and Little John. Centuries ago, a variant of 'as plain as the nose on your face' was 'Robin in Barnesdale stood.'
This debate is hardly surprising, given the considerable value that the Robin Hood legend has for local tourism.
Robin Hood himself is reputed to be buried in the grounds of Kirklees Priory near Brighouse in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. The story is that the Prioress was a relative of Robin's. Robin was ill and staying at the Priory where the Prioress was supposedly caring for him.
Further indications of the legend's connection with West Yorkshire (and particularly Calderdale) are noted in the fact that there are pubs called the Robin Hood in both nearby Brighouse and at Cragg Vale; There is at least one village in West Yorkshire called Robin Hood, on the A61 between Leeds and Wakefield and close to Rothwell. With all these references to Robin Hood, it is not surprising that the people of both South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire lay some claim to Robin Hood, who, if he existed, could easily have roamed between Nottingham, Lincoln, Doncaster and right into West Yorkshire.
Ballads
Ballads are the oldest existing form of the Robin Hood legends, although none of them are recorded at the time of the first allusions to him, and many are much later.
A Gest of Robyn Hode Robin Hood and the Monk Robin Hood's Death Robin Hood and the Potter Robin Hood and the Butcher Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield Robin Hood and the Tanner Robin Hood and the Tinker Robin Hood and the Newly Revived The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon Robin Hood and the Scotchman Robin Hood and the Ranger Robin Hood's Delight Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly Robin Hood and the Bishop Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford Robin Hood and Queen Katherine Robin Hood's Chase Robin Hood's Golden Prize The Noble Fisherman Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor and Marriage The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight A True Tale of Robin HoodPopular culture
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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.
Robin Hood himself has been transformed from an "outlaw for venyson" with an occasional element of generosity with no particularly notable skill in archery — and no suggestion of political animosity — in the original tales, to a mediæval Che Guevara, a deadly accurate master archer fighting a guerrilla war against Prince John, the Sheriff of Nottingham, and his vicious second, Guy of Gisbourne, on behalf of the oppressed and King Richard.
Libertarians and Classic Liberals have interpreted Robin Hood as a liberty-seeking anti-government independent. In this phrasing, the power structure of the Sheriff and Prince John are representative of the government, while Robin Hood and the Merry Men are the rebellious everymen, with Friar Tuck as an ambivalent Church. Robin Hood returns taxes, confiscated goods and private property to their rightful owners, the common individual citizen in this reading. This can be called, "Robin Hood giving." Many countries and situations boast their own Robin Hood characters;
Starting in 2007, the University of Nottingham will be offering a Masters degree on the subject of Robin Hood. The Robin Hood Companion. The Robin Hood Handbook. Truth About Robin Hood. Hilton, R.H., The Origins of Robin Hood, Past and Present, No. Imagining Robin Hood: The Late Medieval Stories in Historical Context. Playing Robin Hood: The Legend as Performance in Five Centuries. Stand and Deliver: Highway Men from Robin Hood to Dick Turpin. The Legend of Robin Hood.
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