Robin Hood

Robin Hood memorial statue in Nottingham.

Robin Hood is the archetypal English folk hero; a courteous, pious and swashbuckling outlaw of the mediæval era who, in modern versions of the legend, is famous for robbing the rich to feed the poor and fighting against injustice and tyranny. He operates with his "seven score" (140 strong) group of fellow outlawed yeomen – named the Merry Men, in the obsolete sense of "companion or follower of an… outlaw". He and his band are usually associated with Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire.

In many stories Robin's nemesis is the despotic Sheriff of Nottingham. The sheriff gravely abuses his position, appropriating land, levying intolerable taxation, and unfairly persecuting the poor. In some tales the antagonist is Prince John, based on John of England, seen as the unjust usurper of his pious brother Richard. 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. Sometimes he has served in the crusades, returning to England to find his lands pillaged by the dastardly sheriff. In some tales he is the champion of the people, fighting against corrupt officials and the oppressive order that protects them. In others he is an arrogant and headstrong rebel, who delights in bloodshed, cruelly slaughtering and beheading his victims.

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. The figure is less a personage and more a palimpsest of the various ideas his "life" has been made to support.

Starting in 2007, the University of Nottingham will be offering a Masters degree on the subject of Robin Hood.

Early references

From 1261 onwards the name 'Robinhood' or 'Robehod' occurs in the rolls of several English justices, where it is applied as a form of shorthand to any fugitive or outlaw. There are at least eight instances of this in the late 13th century. This would suggest that the Hood-figure was already well-known by the 1260s, his name already that of an archetypal criminal. This usage continues throughout the medieval period. 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."—Rot. Parl. v. 16. 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. The following lines occur with little contextualisation under the year 1283:

Lytil Jhon and Robyne Hude

Wayth-men ware commendyd gude

In Yngil-wode and Barnysdale

Thai oysyd all this tyme thare trawale.

The next notice is a statement in the Scotichronicon, composed by John Fordun between 1377 and 1384, and revised by his pupil Walter Bower in about 1440. Among Bower's many interpolations is a passage which directly refers to Robin. It is inserted immediately after Fordun's account of the defeat of Simon de Montfort and the punishments inflicted on his adherents. Robin is in fact turned into a fighter for de Montfort's cause:

At this time, [sc. 1266,] from the number of those who had been deprived of their estates arose the celebrated cutthroat [siccarius] Robert Hood, (with Little John and their accomplices,) whose achievements the foolish vulgar delight to celebrate in comedies and tragedies, while the ballads upon his adventures sung by the jesters and minstrels are preferred to all others.

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. Another interesting, although much later, reference is provided by Thomas Gale, Dean of York (c.1635–1702):

[Robin Hood's] death is stated by Ritson to have taken place on the 18th of November, 1247, about the eighty-seventh year of his age; but according to the following inscription found among the papers of the Dean of York, and quoted from the Appendix to Thoresby's Ducatus Leodiensis, by Mr. Gutch… the death occurred a month later. In this inscription, which bears evidence of high antiquity, Robin Hood is described as Earl of Huntington — his claim to which title has been as hotly contested as any disputed peerage upon record.

Hear undernead dis laitl stean

Lais Robert Earl of Huntingtun

Near arcir der as hie sa geud

An pipl kauld im Robin Heud

Sic utlaws as hi an is men

Vil England nivr si agen.

Obiit 24 Kal Dekembris 1247

This inscription also appears on a grave in the grounds of Kirklees Priory near Kirklees Hall (see below). Despite appearances, there is little reason to give the stone any credence. It certainly cannot date from the 13th century; notwithstanding the implausibility of a 13th century funeral monument being composed in English, the language of the inscription is highly suspect. Its orthography does not correspond to the written forms of Middle English at all: there are no inflected '—e's, the plural accusative pronoun 'hi' is used as a singular nominative, and the singular present indicative verb 'lais' is formed without the Middle English '—th' ending. Overall, the epitaph more closely resembles modern English written in a deliberately 'archaic' style. 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. The monument can only be a 17th century forgery, and a clumsy one at that.

Therefore, even in the earliest records, Robin is already largely fictional. The Gale note is literally a fiction. 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. In fact, in an anonymous carol of ca 1450, he is treated in precisely this manner — as a joke, a figure that the audience will instantly recognise as imaginary: "He that made this songe full good,/ Came of the northe and the sothern blode,/ And somewhat kyne to Robyn Hode".

Ballads and tales

The earliest surviving Robin Hood text is 'Robin Hood and the Monk'. This is preserved in Cambridge University manuscript Ff.5.48, which was written shortly after 1450. 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. 'The Potter' is markedly different in tone from 'The Monk': whereas the earlier tale is 'a thriller' the latter is more comic, its plot involving trickery and cunning rather than straightforward force. The difference between the two texts recalls Bower's claim that Robin-tales may be both 'comedies and tragedies'. Also in manuscript is A Gest of Robyn Hode (ca 1475), a collection of separate stories which attempts to unite the episodes into a single continuous narrative. Other early texts are dramatic pieces such as the fragmentary Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham (c.1472). 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. Furthermore, even within his band, ideals of equality are generally not in evidence. 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. These include Will Scarlet (or Scathlock), Much the Miller's Son, and Little John — who was called "little" as a joke, as he was quite the opposite. Even though the band is regularly described as being over a hundred men, usually only three or four are specified. Some appear only once or twice in a ballad: Will Stutly in Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly and Robin Hood and Little John; David of Doncaster in Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow; and Arthur a Bland in Robin Hood and the Tanner. Many later adapters developed these characters. 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. In the early ballads, by contrast, he was a member of the yeoman classes, a common freeholder possessing a small landed estate.

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". In Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor and Marriage, his sweetheart is 'Clorinda the Queen of the Shepherdesses'. Clorinda survives in some later stories as an alias of Marian.

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. The original ballads refer at various points to 'King Edward', without stipulating whether this is Edward I, Edward II, or Edward III. Hood may thus have been active at any point between 1272 and 1377. However, during the 16th century the stories become fixed to the 1190s, the period in which King Richard was absent from his throne, fighting in the crusades. This date is first proposed by John Mair in his Historia Majoris Britanniæ (1512), and gains popular acceptance by the end of the century.

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. In this, his legend is similar to that of King Arthur, which morphed from a dangerous male-centered story to a more comfortable, chivalrous romance under the trobadours serving Eleanor of Aquitaine. 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.

In the 18th century, the stories become even more safe and develop a slightly more farcical vein. 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. In fact, the only character who does not get the better of Hood is the luckless Sheriff. 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. When his enemies do not fall for this ruse, he persuades them to drink with him instead.

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. Somewhat later, the Romantic poet John Keats composed Robin Hood. To A Friend and Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote a play The Foresters, or Robin Hood and Maid Marian. Later still, T. H. 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!" as Richard the Lionheart calls him — makes his début.

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. However, the Nottingham setting is a matter of some contention. The original ballads locate Robin 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, a record of Robert de Lockesly in court is found, perhaps in his retirement years in 1245. 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:

24) No. 389, f0- 78. Ascension Day, 29 H. III., Nic Meverill, with John Kantia, on the one part, and Henry de Leke. Henry released to Nicolas and John 5 m. rent, which he received from Nicolas and John and Robert de Lockesly for his life from the lands of Gellery, in consideration of receiving from each of them 2 M. only, the said Henry to live at table with one of them and to receive 2 m. annually from the other. T., Sampson de Leke, Magister Peter Meverill, Roger de Lockesly, John de Leke, Robert fil Umfred, Rico de Newland, Richard Meverill. (25) No. 402, p. 80 b. Thomas de Lockesly bound himself that he would not sell his lands at Leke, which Nicolas Meveril had rendered to him, under a penalty of L40. (40 marks)

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.'

Robin Hood Tree aka Sycamore Gap, Hadrian's Wall, UK. This location was used in the 1991 movie Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

This debate is hardly surprising, given the considerable value that the Robin Hood legend has for local tourism. One of Nottinghamshire's biggest tourist attractions is the Major Oak, a tree that local folklore claims was the home of the legendary outlaw. There is debate as to whether the tree is old enough: some think its age has been exaggerated, especially as it may be two or more trees fused together, which may have been caused by coppicing. The Sheriff of Nottingham also had jurisdiction in Derbyshire that was known as the "Shire of the Deer", and this is where the Royal Forest of the Peak is found, which roughly corresponds to today's Peak District National Park. The Royal Forest included Bakewell, Tideswell, Castleton, Ladybower and the Derwent Valley near Loxley. The Sheriff of Nottingham possessed property near Loxley, including Hazlebadge Hall, Peveril Castle and Haddon Hall. Mercia, to which Nottingham belonged, came to within three miles of Sheffield City Centre. The supposed grave of Little John can be found in Hathersage, also in the Peak District.

Robin Hood himself is reputed to be buried in the grounds of Kirklees Priory near Brighouse in West Yorkshire. There is an elaborate grave there with the inscription referred to above. 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. However, she betrayed him, his health worsened, and he eventually died there.

Before he died, he told Little John (or possibly another of his Merry Men) where to bury him. He fired an arrow from his bow from the Priory window, and where the arrow landed was to be the site of his grave. The actual grave is within sight of the ruins of the Priory, corresponding to the story.

The grave can be visited on occasional organised walks, organised by Calderdale Council Tourist Information office.

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; higher up in the Pennines beyond Halifax, West Yorkshire. 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. In those days, Sherwood Forest and Barnsdale Forest were probably all one vast forest affording plenty of cover for a band of outlaws.

Modern interpretations

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Please check for inaccuracies, and modify and cite sources as needed.

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 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.

An alternative interpretation can be found in Objectivism, which criticizes the conventional interpretation as it glorifies stealing from the rich to give to the poor — an act it considers morally reprehensible.

Robin Hood has become shorthand for a good-hearted bandit who steals from the rich to give to the poor. It is also a proverbial expression for somebody who takes other people's giveaways and gives them to people he or she knows who could use them. This can be called, "Robin Hood giving." Many countries and situations boast their own Robin Hood characters; the Category:Robin Hood page tracks them.

Other trivia

• Dooh Nibor. Spelling "Robin Hood" backwards yields "Dooh Nibor" — a name that describes the reverse of Robin Hood — a government or politician who "stole from the poor to give to the rich" such as King John who was Robin's enemy.

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 Hood

Books

• Robin Hood by Paul Creswick, 1917. Particularly noted for its illustrator, N.C. Wyeth.
• The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. An outlaw chief, Captain Cully of Greenwood Forest, is an aspiring Robin Hood, who even writes ballads celebrating himself. After taking another character for Mr. Child, he tries to get them collected, and to be reassured that they are real ballads, even if he wrote them himself. The magician Schmendrick conjures up the legendary band in order to escape Cully, and Cully's band of outlaws dissolve, chasing after the fantastic outlaws before them.
• The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley, 1988, a retelling in which Robin Hood is, in fact, the worst archer in his band, but whose shrewdness leads them through their dangers
• Sherwood by Parke Godwin, 1992, and Robin and the King, 1993
• The Sherwood Game by Esther Friesner, 1995, features Robin Hood and his merry man as computer programs, who do not let their lack of flesh and blood interfere with their ways.
• DC Comics published a Robin Hood comic book in the 1950s. The character of Robin, Batman's sidekick, was partly modelled on Robin Hood, as is explicitly stated in the prologue to the first appearance of the character in Detective Comics #38.
• Hood by Stephen R. Lawhead, 2006, relocates the Robin Hood legends to Wales. First part of the King Raven Trilogy.

Movies and TV series

Fairbanks as Robin Hood in the 1922 film version.

• 1908: Robin Hood and His Merry Men, first appearance of Robin Hood on the screen, a silent film directed by Percy Stow.
• 1922: Robin Hood, starring Douglas Fairbanks.
• 1938: The Adventures of Robin Hood.
• 1939 Robin Hood Makes Good, a Chuck Jones animated cartoon.
• 1946: Bandit of Sherwood Forest
• 1948: The Prince of Thieves
• 1949: Rabbit Hood, a Chuck Jones animated cartoon with Bugs Bunny.
• 1951: Tales of Robin Hood
• 1952: The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men and Miss Robin Hood
• 1953: Patrick Troughton in Robin Hood on the BBC Television Service.
• 1955–1960: The British Adventures of Robin Hood
  • Robin Hood's Greatest Adventures (1956) (also starring Donald Pleasence)
  • Robin Hood, the Movie (1958)
  • Robin Hood: The Quest for the Crown (1958)
  • Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960) (In this version, Richard Greene reprises his role from TV.
• 1958: Robin Hood Daffy, a Chuck Jones animated cartoon.
• 1964: Robin and the Seven Hoods

• 1967: A Challenge for Robin Hood, a Hammer version, with Barrie Ingham as Robin
• 1967: Rocket Robin Hood, a space-age version of the Robin Hood legend, where he and his band of Merry Spacemen live in the year 3000 on Sherwood Asteroid and fight the evil Sheriff who rules the space territory of N.O.T.T. (Trillium / Steve Krantz Production)
• 1968: Pinkcome Tax, an Arthur Davis animated cartoon, where the Pink Panther takes on the role of a Merry Man, and unsuccessfully tries to free a poor man from jail.

File:Robin Hood1.png

Robin Hood in the 1973 Disney movie, the most famous animated version of the legend.

• 1973: Walt Disney Productions produced the most famous animated version of the legend, which had the various characters depicted as anthropomorphic animal characters, such as Robin Hood and Maid Marian as foxes. See: Robin Hood (1973 film).
• 1975: The Legend of Robin Hood, a BBC miniseries starring Martin Potter in the title role. The six-episode adaptation was aired on public television in the U.S. in the later 1970s.
• 1975: When Things Were Rotten, a comedy TV series produced by Mel Brooks and starring Richard Gautier, Bernie Kopell and Misty Rowe.
• 1975: Robin Hood's Arrows (Strely Robin Guda, Стрелы Робин Гуда), a Russian adaptation by Sergey Tarasov, starring Boris Khmelnitsky as Robin Hood, with songs of Vladimir Vysotsky.
• 1976: In Robin and Marian, Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn played the couple at the end of their lives in a revisionist version of the story.
• 1981: Time Bandits, starring John Cleese, Sean Connery, Shelley Duvall; written and directed by Terry Gilliam had a short spoof of the Robin Hood legend, with Robin being portrayed as an upper class twit.
• 1983: The Ballad of the Valiant Knight Ivanhoe (Ballada O Doblestnom Rytsare Ayvengo, Баллада о доблестном рыцаре Айвенго), a Russian adaptation of Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe by Sergey Tarasov, with songs of Vladimir Vysotsky, starring Boris Khmelnitsky as Robin Hood, who helps Ivanhoe to restore Richard's kingdom.
• 1984: The made-for-TV spoof The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood (1984) starred George Segal (Robin), Morgan Fairchild (Marian), Roddy McDowall (Prince John), and Janet Suzman (Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine), and Robert Hardy turned up at the end as King Richard.
• 1984–1986: The 1980s British series Robin of Sherwood, aka Robin Hood, was a New Age fantasy starring Michael Praed as Robin, later replaced by Jason Connery (son of Sean Connery) as Robert, called Robin. In this version the two Robins actually get to wear hoods occasionally. The series set the template for most of the adaptations that followed, most notably the introduction of a Muslim outlaw.
• 1989: Robin Hood was Parodied in an Episode of The Super Mario Brothers Super Show as Hooded Robin.
• 1989–1994: The British children's TV show Maid Marian and her Merry Men rewrote the legend somewhat, with Marian as the dynamic leader of the resistance against Prince John, Robin as her thick-headed, buffoonish figurehead, and Nottingham as John's put-upon, sarcastic enforcer.
• 1990: Animated series Young Robin Hood, developed by Belgian studio Cinar, tells a version of the story in which Robin and his men, as well as Maid Marian, are teenagers. This version also incorporates several fantasy elements. For example, Robin is sometimes assisted by a forest-dwelling old woman who knows magic. This cartoon aired in America as part of a block of adventure themed Saturday morning cartoons, and until recently ran in reruns on Boomerang.
• 1990: Animated series Robin Hood no Dai Boken (Japanese: ロビンフッドの大冒険), developed by Japanese studio Tatsunoko Productions, tells a version of the story in which Robin and his men (and women), as well as Maid Marian, are — in majority — kids. This version also incorporates several fantasy elements, mainly expressed in mystic powers of the nature and a powerful treasure protected by the forest Sherwood itself. The whole series contains strong environmental messages.
• 1991: Robin Hood, starring Patrick Bergin and Uma Thurman, is an inventive use of some of the best of the Robin Hood heritage.

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Captain Picard as Robin Hood in the Star Trek episode Q-pid.

• 1991: In Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Kevin Costner played the outlaw and Sean Connery performed the customary cameo appearance of King Richard in the finale.
• 1991: Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Q-pid features the crew being forced to play out a real-Robin Hood tale (Captain Picard, played by Patrick Stewart, as Robin Hood) when Q recreates it.
• 1993: The Mel Brooks spoof Robin Hood: Men in Tights recycles bits from his short-lived late-1975 Robin Hood TV sitcom When Things Were Rotten. Cary Elwes plays Robin in the movie, and Patrick Stewart appears in the ending, spoofing Sean Connery's take on King Richard the Lionheart (even speaking in a light Scottish accent).
• 1996: Robin of Locksley was a made for TV movie starring Devon Sawa as a modern teenage Robin attending a prep school with the snobbish John Prince.
• 1996: Wishbone plays Robin Hood in the episode "Paw Prints of Thieves", to portray Joe's fight to give leftover food to a homeless shelter, even if it's against regulations.

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Wishbone as Robin Hood in "Paw Prints of Thieves" (1996).

• 1997: The France–U.S. TV series The New Adventures of Robin Hood starred Matthew Porretta as a black-leather-clad Robin, and John Bradley. The tone of the series resembled its contemporaries Hercules: The Legendary Journeys and Xena: Warrior Princess. Porretta had appeared as Will Scarlet O'Hara in Men in Tights.
• 1999: The children's series Back To Sherwood featured a teenage descendent of Robin (Robyn Hood) who discovers she has the power to travel back in time, and joins with the children of her ancestor's band (Joan Little, Phil Scarlet, etc.)
• 1999: The Blackadder Millennium Special Back And Forth featured Robin Hood much like the recurring character Lord Flashheart, with similar boisterous personas and the same actor (Rik Mayall), with Kate Moss as Maid Marion. In his role, he proclaims his Merry Men have "strong muscle tone and are not gay!" though his Merry Men later betray and kill him after Blackadder convinced them that their purpose of Stealing from the Rich and Giving to the Poor is ultimately pathetic.
• 2001: Robin Hood and the Merry Men make a memorable cameo appearance as unwelcome rescuers in the movie version of William Steig's Shrek. Here, they speak with French accents, partake in Irish step-dancing, and are defeated by a girl.
• 2001: Robin Hood's heroic daughter, Gwyn, Keira Knightley on horseback with bow in hand, takes over her father's role and comes to his rescue in the made for TV movie Princess of Thieves.
• 2006: Robin Hood, a new thirteen-episode television series produced by Tiger Aspect for BBC One, is currently airing in the UK. Jonas Armstrong stars in the title role.

Appearance in other arts

Music

Composer Robert Steadman, who lived for some time in Nottingham, has written 2 musical compositions using the myths of Robin Hood:

• The Dethe of Robyn Hood (1995) uses fragments of a mediæval ballad as its text and is scored for narrator and wind band.
• Robin Hood & Little John (2005) was commissioned by Southwell Choral Society as was premiered by them in Southwell Minster. It sets an anonymous mediæval ballad about the first meeting of Robin Hood and Little John and is scored for choir and large ensemble.
• Sherwood (2005) is a rock band from San Luis Obispo, California, who took their name from Sherwood Forest, where Robin Hood had his adventures.
• "Robin Hood" by Louis Prima and Bob Miketta (1944) also recorded by Prima.
• "The Sheriff of Noddingham", a surfing instrumental by David Marks, one time member of the Beach Boys.
• "Desolation Row," a 1965 song by Bob Dylan, includes the following lyrics:

"Einstein, disguised as Robin Hood

With his memories in a trunk

Passed this way an hour ago

With his friend, a jealous monk."

• The 1973 Disney animated film included three original songs: "Whistle Stop", a mostly instrumental piece, and "Not in Nottingham", both written and performed by Roger Miller, and "The Phony King of England", performed by Phil Harris.

Video games

• Robin Hood is the main character in the 1992 Adventure Videogame for PC, Conquests of the Longbow.
• Cinemaware's classic 1986 title Defender of the Crown featured Robin Hood as one of the player's allies in the struggle to re-conquer England.
• In 2003, Defender of the Crown was re-mastered and re-released as Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown.
• Robin Hood was also the protagonist in the 1991 Sierra Online adventure game, Conquests of the Longbow .
• In 1991, Millennium Interactive released The Adventures of Robin Hood
• Code Masters 1985 action platformer by the Oliver twins, Super Robin Hood
• The historically influenced video game "Gengis Khan II" by Koei featured Robin Hood as a character that would offer to enlist as a general in the player's service, provided that England is part of the player's kingdom.
• An NES game based on the Kevin Costner film "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" was released.
• In 2002/2003 a strategy game entitled Robin Hood: The Legend of Sherwood by Wanadoo, Strategy First and Spellbound Studios, was released. It featured many of the Merry Men listed above.
• In Shrek SuperSlam, a fighting game released 2005, Robin Hood appears as a secret playable character.
• In Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, the scenario editor includes many additional hero units such as Robin Hood, The Sheriff of Nottingham, and Friar Tuck. In the Gold Edition of Age of Empires II, the map "Sherwood Forest," a tree filled map within a forest setting is added. The map "Sherwood Heroes" is identical to "Sherwood Forest" but each player receives a "Robin Hood" and "Friar Tuck" hero.
  • AOE II also includes an easter egg "Robin Hood" which when typed into a chat window gives the player 1000 gold.
• RuneScape features the character "Robin," a master archer who resides in an inn in Port Phasmatys, having a role in the "Ghosts Ahoy" quest with a gambling addiction.
  • There is also a Robin hood hat and boots in RuneScape.
• Other Robin Hood-themed video games are listed on MobyGames.

Strategy games

• In previous editions of Warhammer Fantasy the Bretonnians had a special character called Bertrand the Brigand who was based on Robin Hood

Comic books

As a public domain character with an established reputation, Robin Hood was an attractive feature for comic book publishers from the birth of the medium. The first continuing Robin Hood stories were written and drawn by Sven Elven and appeared in New Adventure Comics #23 through #30. There was also a Robin Hood back up story in Green Hornet #7 through #10, written by S. M. Iger.

A small renaissance of Robin Hood comics occurred in the late 1950s, starting with the little known "Rodger of Sherwood" stories in the Young Heroes anthology series #39 through #37 by American Comics Group That same year Robin got his first title comic book from Magazine Enterprises which ran for eight issues. Brown Shoe Co. followed suit in 1956 with The Adventures of Robin Hood in 1956 which ran for seven issues. Robin soon attracted attention from more established comic publishers such as Charlton Comics — who retitled Danger and Adventure to Robin Hood and His Merry Men starting with issue #28 — and Quality comics, whose Tales of Robin Hood was picked up by DC on issue #7, and eventually totalled 13 issues, the longest lasting English language Robin Hood series. DC also published Robin Hood stories in their Brave and the Bold anthology series from #5 to #15.

In the 1960s, Dell published a couple of Robin Hood one-shots, one a re-telling of the traditional legend, the other a Disney TV show tie-in. Then, in 1974, Gold Key Comics produced a 7 issue tie-in with the Disney animated film. Eclipse published a three-part miniseries in 1991, perhaps a tie in with the Kevin Costner film. Finally, there have been various one-shots produced by Moonstone Books, A-Plus Comics and Avalon Communications.

Robin Hood and his band appear in one issue of the Vertigo series Fables. Along with other folk heroes, they are part of a last-ditch effort to help folktale refugees escape an invading army and reach the mundane world.

Midnight Kiss, a comic written by UK writer Tony Lee for Markosia, uses the Robin Hood legend, specifically that Robin Hood's Silver Arrow is from Nuadha's silver hand — and is stolen by 'Maid MaryAnne' — one of the two main characters in a flashback sequence.

Tony Lee is currently writing a graphic novel called Robin Hood - Outlaw's Pride for Walker Books, due for release in late 2007.

Robin has fared far better in non-English comics. His most successful title series is a Mexican histoiretta that ran from 1963 to 1966 and included 23 issues. There were also some Swedish titles.

The Wizard of Id, a daily newspaper comic strip by American cartoonists Brant Parker and Johnny Hart, occasionally features Robbing Hood, a forest-dweller who steals from the rich and gives to the poor. His first appearance in the strip involves, of course, a hold-up, at the conclusion of which his victim yells, "You dirty robbing hood!" — hence the name.

Bibliography

• Blamires, David (1998). Robin Hood: A Hero for All Times. J. Rylands Univ. Lib. of Manchester. ISBN 0-86373-136-8. 
• Coghlan, Ronan (2003). The Robin Hood Companion. Xiphos Books. ISBN 0-9544936-0-5. 
• Deitweiler, Laurie, Coleman, Diane (2004). Robin Hood Comprehension Guide. Veritas Pr Inc. ISBN 1-930710-77-1. 
• Dixon-Kennedy, Mike (2006). The Robin Hood Handbook. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0-7509-3977-X. 
• Doel, Fran, Doel, Geoff (2000). Robin Hood: Outlaw and Greenwood Myth. Tempus Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-7524-1479-8. 
• Hahn, Thomas (2000). Robin Hood in Popular Culture: Violence, Transgression and Justice. D.S. Brewer. ISBN 0-85991-564-6. 
• Harris, P. V. (1978). Truth About Robin Hood. Linney. ISBN 0-900525-16-9. 
• Hilton, R.H., The Origins of Robin Hood, Past and Present, No. 14. (Nov., 1958), pp. 30-44. Available online at JSTOR.
• Holt, J. C. (1982). Robin Hood. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-27541-6. 
• Knight, Stephen T. (1994). Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw. Blackwell Publishers. ISBN 0-631-19486-X. 
• Knight, Stephen T. (2005). Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography. Four Courts Press. ISBN 1-85182-931-8. 
• Phillips, Helen (2003). Robin Hood: Medieval and Post-medieval. Cornell University Press. ISBN 0-8014-3885-3. 
• Pollard, A. J. (2004). Imagining Robin Hood: The Late Medieval Stories in Historical Context. Routledge, an imprint of Taylor & Francis Books Ltd. ISBN 0-415-22308-3. 
• Potter, Lewis (1998). Playing Robin Hood: The Legend as Performance in Five Centuries. University of Delaware Press. ISBN 0-87413-663-6. 
• Pringle, Patrick (1991). Stand and Deliver: Highway Men from Robin Hood to Dick Turpin. Dorset Press. ISBN 0-88029-698-4. 
• Rutherford-Moore, Richard (1999). The Legend of Robin Hood. Capall Bann Publishing. ISBN 1-86163-069-7. 
• Rutherford-Moore, Richard (2002). Robin Hood: On the Outlaw Trail. Capall Bann Publishing. ISBN 1-86163-177-4. 
• Vahimagi, Tise (1994). British Television: An Illustrated Guide. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-818336-4. 
• Wright, Thomas (1847). Songs and Carols, now first imprinted. Percy Society. 

See also

• Arthur a Bland
• Barnsdale
• Basil Fool for Christ, a Russian saint with similar behaviour
• David of Doncaster
• Eustace Folville
• Fulk FitzWarin
• Gilbert Whitehand
• Hereward the Wake
• Hong Gil-dong
• Much the Miller's Son
• Nezumi Kozo
• Richard at the Lee
• The Robin Hood Battalion, a British Territorial Army unit.
• The Robin Hood Marathon, marathon race held annually in Nottingham.
• Robin Hood's Bay, a small fishing town in North Yorkshire
• Rummu Jüri
• Verysdale
• William de Wendenal
• Will Stutely
• Yeoman

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Robin Hood

• C19 period drama website — BBC Robin Hood 2006 discussion.
• The Adventures of Robin Hood — fansite for the Errol Flynn movie.
• The Adventures of Robin Hood — entry from Whirligig TV about the TV series starring Richard Greene.
• "A Gest of Robyn Hode" modern translation — An excellent translation into modern English of "A Gest of Robyn Hode", one of the most popular mediæval ballads.
• BBC Drama - Robin Hood Revealed, news on the new BBC series set for Autumn 2006.
• BBC History: Robin Hood and his Historical Context
• BBC Radio: In Our Time; Robin Hood
• Ben Turner's Robin Hood Compilation
• Britain Express: Robin Hood
• Channel 4 History — In the footsteps of Robin Hood
• Discovery backs real Robin Hood
• Legends: The Robin Hood Pages
• The mystique of Brazil's Robin Hood
• Nottingham Robin Hood Pageant
• The Outlaw Robin Hood: His Yorkshire Legend
• New Adventures of Robin Hood — TV series fan page
• Robin Hood by Henry Gilbert
• Template:Bcdb, the 1973 Walt Disney film.
• Robin Hood Bold Outlaw from Loxley — another extensive site by Graham Kirkby with emphasis on Loxley, South Yorkshire
• Robin Hood, Bold Outlaw of Barnsdale and Sherwood — Allen Wright's extensive site.
• Robin Hood booklist — an extensive list of texts ranging from mediæval fiction to modern ca 1990s.
• The Robin Hood Festival, Nottinghamshire
• Robin Hood:The Legend of Sherwood game
• Robin Hood Morality Test
• Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography
• Robin Hood Parody Video — based on the characters from the Disney movie
• The Robin Hood Project — The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester; a collection of early mediæval ballads presented in the original Middle English with introductions.
• Robin Hood's Well — from Britannia, an article on Robin Hood's Well, Skellow (Barnsdale).
• Robin Hood's Worldwide Society
• Robin Hood's Yorkshire
• Rocket Robin Hood fan-page
• Robin of Sherwood — TV series fan page
• Robin Hood's Grave
• Search for a Real Robin Hood — from the site Bold Outlaw.
• The Straight Dope: Was there really a Robin Hood?
• The Tales of Robin Hood — Nottingham UK tourist attraction
• TTL The Textbook League — Hollywood "History", taken from The Textbook Letter September–October 1998, this provides a historical corrective to loose mythmaking about Robin Hood.
• Index of DC "Robin Hood Tales"
• Database and cover gallery of Robin Hood Titles
• Robin Hood: The Beginning

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