Robin Hood
060105
Robin Hood
• 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 painted
as a man known for robbing the rich to give to the poor
and fighting against injustice and tyranny. His band
consists of a "seven 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 the earliest sources Robin Hood is
a commoner, but he would often later be portrayed as
the dispossessed Earl of Huntingdon. There is no
consensus as to whether or not Robin Hood is based on
any historical figure and little reliable historical evidence
exists to support either side of this debate.
OVERVIEW
•
In popular culture Robin Hood and his band
are usually seen as living in Sherwood
Forest in Nottinghamshire. Much of the
action of the early ballads does take place in
Nottinghamshire, and the very earliest
known ballad does show the outlaws
operating in Sherwood Forest.So does the
very first recorded Robin Hood rhyme, four
lines from the beginning of the 15th century
beginning "Robyn hode in scherewode stod"
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
FIGHTING
•
Within Robin Hood's band
medieval forms of courtesy rather
than modern ideals of equality are
generally in evidence. In the early
ballads Robin's men usually kneel
before him in strict obedience: in A
Gest of Robyn Hode the king even
observes that "His men are more
at his byddynge/Then my men be
at myn". Their social status, as
yeomen, is shown by their
weapons; they use swords rather
than quarterstaffs. The only
character to use a quarterstaff in
the early ballads is the potter, and
Robin Hood does not take to a
staff until the 18th century .
•
•
It is from this association that Robin's romantic
attachment to Maid Marian (or Marion) stems. The
naming of Marian may have come from the French
pastoral play of c. 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" — but the characters were brought
together. Marian did not immediately gain the
unquestioned role; 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.
In the 16th century, 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 (1521), and gains popular acceptance by the
end of the century.
The End