Robin Hood

1. Study the information about Robin Hood, his merry men, Richard the Lionheart and bad guys. Be ready to discuss it. Compare these people with the same characters from the film.

Robin Hood is an archetypal figure in English folklore, whose story originates from medieval times but who remains significant in popular culture where he is known for robbing the rich to give to the poor and fighting against injustice and tyranny. His band includes "three score" group of fellow outlawed yeomen - called his "Merry Men". He has been the subject of numerous films, television series, books, comics, and plays. In popular culture Robin Hood and his band are usually seen as living in Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire. However, the overall picture from the surviving early ballads and other early references shows Robin Hood based in the Barnsdale area of what is now South Yorkshire (which borders Nottinghamshire), and other traditions also point to Yorkshire. A tradition dating back at least to the end of the 16th century gives his birthplace as Loxley in South Yorkshire, while the site of Robin Hood's Well in Yorkshire has been associated with Robin Hood at least since 1422. His grave has been claimed to be at Kirklees Priory in West Yorkshire, as implied by the 18th-century version of Robin Hood's Death, and there is a headstone there of dubious authenticity.

In popular culture Robin Hood is typically seen as a contemporary and supporter of the late-12th century king Richard the Lionheart, Robin being driven to outlawry during the misrule of Richard's evil brother John while Richard was away at the Third Crusade. This view first gained currency in the 16th century and has very little scholarly support. It is certainly not supported by the earliest ballads. The early compilation A Gest of Robvn Hode names the king as "Edward", and while it does show Robin Hood as accepting the king's pardon he later repudiates it and returns to the greenwood.

There are a number of theories that attempt to identify a historical Robin Hood. A difficulty with any such historical search is that "Robert" was in medieval England a very common given name, and "Robin" (or Robyn) especially in the 13th century was its very common diminutive. The surname "Hood" (or Hude or Hode etc), referring ultimately to the head-covering, was also fairly common. Unsurprisingly, therefore, there are a number of people called "Robert Hood" or "Robin Hood" to be found in medieval records. Some of them are on record for having fallen foul of the law but this is not necessarily significant to the legend. The early ballads give a number of possible historical clues, notably the Gest names the reigning king as "Edward", but the ballads cannot be assumed to be reliable in such details. For whatever it may be worth, however, King Edward I took the throne in 1272, and an Edward remained on the throne until the death of Edward III in 1377. On the other hand what appears to be the first known example of "Robin Hood" as stock name for an outlaw dates to 1262 in Berkshire where the surname "Robehod" was applied to a man after he had been outlawed, and apparently because he had been outlawed. This could suggest two main possibilities: either that an early form of the Robin Hood legend was already well established in the mid-13th century; or alternatively that the name "Robin Hood" preceded the outlaw hero that we know; so that the "Robin Hood" of legend was so-called because that was seen as an appropriate name for an outlaw. It has long been been suggested, notably by John Maddicott, that "Robin Hood" was a stock alias used by thieves. Another theory of the origin of the name needs to be mentioned here. The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica remarks that 'hood¹ was a common dialectical form of 'wood'; and that the outlaw's name has been given as "Robin Wood". There are indeed a number of references to Robin Hood as Robin Wood, or Whood, or Whod, from the 16th and 17th centuries. The earliest recorded example, in connection with May games in Somerset dates from 1518.

One of the most well-known theories of origin is that first recorded as being proposed by Joseph Hunter in 1852. Hunter identified the outlaw with a "Robyn Hode" recorded as employed by Edward II in 1323 during the king's progress through Lancashire. This Robyn Hood was identified with (one or more people called) Robert Hood living in Wakefield before and after that time. Comparing the available records with especially the Gest and also other ballads Hunter developed a fairly detailed theory according to which Robin Hood was an adherent of the rebel Earl of Lancaster, defeated at the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322. According to this theory Robin Hood was pardoned and employed by the king in 1323. (The Gest does relate that Robin Hood was pardoned by "King Edward" and taken into his service.) The theory supplies Robin Hood with a wife, Matilda, thought to be original of Maid Marian; and Hunter also conjectured that the author of the Gest may have been the religious poet Richard Rolle (1290-1349) who lived in the village of Hampole in Barnsdale. This theory has long been recognised to have serious problems, one of the most serious being that "Robin Hood" and similar names were already used as nicknames for outlaws in the 13th century. Another is that there is no direct evidence that Hunter's Hood had ever been an outlaw or any kind of criminal or rebel at all, the theory is built on conjecture and coincidence of detail. Finally recent research has shown that Hunter's Robyn Hood had been employed by the king at an earlier stage, this casting doubt on this Robyn Hood's supposed earlier career as outlaw and

Another theory identifies him with the historical outlaw Roger Godberd who was a die-hard supporter of Simon de Montfort; which would place Robin Hood around the 1260s. There are certainly parallels between Godberd's career and that of Robin Hood as he appears in the Gest, John Maddicott has called Godberd "that prototype Robin Hood". Some problems with this theory are that there is no evidence that Godberd was ever known as Robin Hood, and no sign in the early Robin Hood ballads of the specific concerns of de Montfort's revolt.

Another well-known theory, first proposed by the historian L. V. D. Owen in 1936 and more recently floated by J. C. Holt and others, is that the original Robin Hood might be identified with an outlawed Robert Hood, or Hod, or Hobbehod, all apparently the same man, referred to in nine successive Yorkshire Pipe Rolls between 1226 and 1234. There is no evidence however that this Robert Hood, although an outlaw, was also a bandit.