thumb|upright=1.2|15th-century print of Robin Hood on horseback

Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature, theatre, and cinema. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depicted as being of noble birth, and in modern retellings he is sometimes depicted as having fought in the Crusades before returning to England to find his lands taken by the Sheriff of Nottingham. In the oldest known versions, he is instead a member of the yeoman class. He is traditionally depicted dressed in Lincoln green. Today, he is most closely associated with his stance of "robbing the rich to give to the poor".

Through retellings, additions, and variations, a body of familiar characters associated with Robin Hood has been created. These include his lover, Maid Marian; his band of outlaws, the Merry Men; and his chief opponent, the Sheriff of Nottingham. The Sheriff is often depicted as assisting Prince John in usurping the rightful but absent King Richard, to whom Robin Hood remains loyal. He became a popular folk figure in the Late Middle Ages, and his partisanship of the common people and opposition to the Sheriff are some of the earliest-recorded features of the legend, whereas his political interests and setting during the Angevin era developed in later centuries. The earliest known ballads featuring him are from the 15th century.

There have been numerous variations and adaptations of the story over the subsequent years, and the story continues to be widely represented in literature, film, and television media today. Robin Hood is considered one of the best-known tales of English folklore. In popular culture, the term "Robin Hood" is often used to describe a heroic outlaw or rebel against tyranny.

The origins of the legend as well as the historical context have been debated for centuries. There are numerous references to historical figures with similar names that have been proposed as possible evidence of his existence, some dating back to the late 13th century. At least eight plausible origins to the story have been mooted by historians and folklorists, including suggestions that "Robin Hood" was a stock alias used by or in reference to bandits.

Ballads and tales

The first clear reference to "rhymes of Robin Hood" is from the alliterative poem Piers Plowman, thought to have been composed in the 1370s, followed shortly afterwards by a quotation of a later common proverb, "many men speak of Robin Hood and never shot his bow", in Friar Daw's Reply ( 1402) and a complaint in Dives and Pauper (1405–1410) that people would rather listen to "tales and songs of Robin Hood" than attend Mass. Robin Hood is also mentioned in a Lollard tract dated to the first half of the 15th century (thus also possibly predating his other earliest historical mentions) alongside several other folk heroes such as Guy of Warwick, Bevis of Hampton, and Sir Lybeaus.

However, the earliest surviving copies of the narrative ballads date to the second half of the 15th century or the first decade of the 16th century. In these early accounts, Robin Hood's partisanship of the lower classes, his devotion to the Virgin Mary and associated special regard for women, his outstanding skill as an archer, his anti-clericalism, and his particular animosity towards the Sheriff of Nottingham are already clear. They also feature Little John, Much the Miller's Son, and Will Scarlet (as Will "Scarlok" or "Scathelocke"), although not yet Maid Marian or Friar Tuck. The friar has been part of the legend since at least the later 15th century, when he is mentioned in a Robin Hood play script.

In modern 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 brother John while Richard was away at the Third Crusade. This view first gained currency in the 16th century although it is not supported by the earliest ballads. The early compilation, A Gest of Robyn Hode, names the king as 'Edward'; and while it does show Robin Hood accepting the king's pardon, he later repudiates it and returns to the greenwood. The oldest surviving ballad, Robin Hood and the Monk, gives even less support to the picture of Robin Hood as a partisan of the true king. The setting of the early ballads is usually attributed by scholars to either the 13th or 14th century, although it is recognised they are not necessarily historically consistent.

The early ballads are also quite clear on Robin Hood's social status: he is a yeoman. While the meaning of this term changed over time, including free retainers of an aristocrat and small landholders, it always referred to commoners. The essence of it in the present context was "neither a knight nor a peasant or 'husbonde' but something in between". Artisans (such as millers) were among those regarded as 'yeomen' in the 14th century. From the 16th century on, there were attempts to elevate Robin Hood to the nobility, such as in Richard Grafton's Chronicle at Large; Anthony Munday presented him at the end of the century as the Earl of Huntingdon in two extremely influential plays, as he is still commonly presented in modern times.

The legend was also transmitted by 'Robin Hood games' or plays that were an important part of the late medieval and early modern May Day festivities. The first record of a Robin Hood game was in 1426 in Exeter, but the reference does not indicate how old or widespread this custom was at the time. The Robin Hood games are known to have flourished in the later 15th and 16th centuries. It is commonly stated as fact that Maid Marian and a jolly friar (at least partly identifiable with Friar Tuck) entered the legend through the May Games.

Early ballads

thumb|Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne. [[Woodcut print by Thomas Bewick, 1832]]

The earliest surviving text of a Robin Hood ballad is the 15th-century "Robin Hood and the Monk". This is preserved in Cambridge University manuscript Ff.5.48. Written 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.

thumb|[[Douglas Fairbanks as Robin Hood; the sword he is depicted with was common in the oldest ballads]]

The first printed version is A Gest of Robyn Hode ( 1500), a collection of separate stories that attempts to unite the episodes into a single continuous narrative. After this comes "Robin Hood and the Potter", contained in a manuscript of 1503. "The Potter" is markedly different in tone from "The Monk": whereas the earlier tale is "a thriller" ( 1475). These are particularly noteworthy as they show Robin's integration into May Day rituals towards the end of the Middle Ages; Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham, among other points of interest, contains the earliest reference to Friar Tuck. The plots of neither "the Monk" nor "the Potter" are included in the Gest; and neither is the plot of "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne", which is probably at least as old as those two ballads although preserved in a more recent copy. Each of these three ballads survived in a single copy, so it is unclear how much of the medieval legend has survived, and what has survived may not be typical of the medieval legend. It has been argued that the fact that the surviving ballads were preserved in written form in itself makes it unlikely they were typical; in particular, stories with an interest for the gentry were by this view more likely to be preserved. The story of Robin's aid to the 'poor knight' that takes up much of the Gest may be an example.

The character of Robin in these first texts is rougher edged than in his later incarnations. In "Robin Hood and the Monk", for example, he is shown as quick tempered and violent, assaulting Little John for defeating him in an archery contest; in the same ballad, Much the Miller's Son casually kills a "little page" in the course of rescuing Robin Hood from prison. No extant early ballad actually shows Robin Hood "giving to the poor", although in "A Gest of Robyn Hode" Robin does make a large loan to an unfortunate knight, which he does not in the end require to be repaid; and later in the same ballad Robin Hood states his intention of giving money to the next traveller to come down the road if he happens to be poor.

As it happens the next traveller is not poor, but it seems in context that Robin Hood is stating a general policy. The first explicit statement to the effect that Robin Hood habitually robbed from the rich to give the poor can be found in John Stow's Annales of England (1592), about a century after the publication of Gest. But from the beginning Robin Hood is on the side of the poor; Gest quotes Robin Hood as instructing his men that when they rob:

In a petition presented to Parliament in 1439, the name is 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 next historical description of Robin Hood is a statement in the Scotichronicon, composed by John of Fordun between 1377 and 1384 and revised by Walter Bower in about 1440. Among Bower's many interpolations is a passage that directly refers to Robin. It is inserted after Fordun's account of the defeat of Simon de Montfort and the punishment of his adherents, and is entered under the year 1266 in Bower's account. Robin is represented as a fighter for de Montfort's cause. This was in fact true of the historical outlaw of Sherwood Forest Roger Godberd, whose points of similarity to the Robin Hood of the ballads have often been noted.

<blockquote>Then arose the famous murderer, Robert Hood, as well as Little John, together with their accomplices from among the disinherited, whom the foolish populace are so inordinately fond of celebrating both in tragedies and comedies, and about whom they are delighted to hear the jesters and minstrels sing above all other ballads.</blockquote>

The word translated here as 'murderer' is the Latin sicarius (literally 'dagger-man' but actually meaning, in classical Latin, 'assassin' or 'murderer'), from the Latin sica for 'dagger', and descends from its use to describe the Sicarii, assassins operating in Roman Judea. Bower goes on to relate an anecdote about Robin Hood in which he refuses to flee from his enemies while hearing Mass in the greenwood, and then gains a surprise victory over them, apparently as a reward for his piety; the mention of "tragedies" suggests that some form of the tale relating his death, as per A Gest of Robyn Hode, might have been in currency already.

Another reference, discovered by Julian Luxford in 2009, appears in the margin of the "Polychronicon" in the Eton College library. Written around 1460 by a monk in Latin, it says:

<blockquote>Around this time [i.e., reign of Edward I], according to popular opinion, a certain outlaw named Robin Hood, with his accomplices, infested Sherwood and other law-abiding areas of England with continuous robberies.</blockquote>

Following this, John Major mentions Robin Hood within his Historia Majoris Britanniæ (1521), casting him in a positive light by mentioning his and his followers' aversion to bloodshed and ethos of only robbing the wealthy; Major also fixed his floruit not to the mid-13th century but the reigns of Richard I and his brother John.

Robert Hod of York

The earliest known legal records mentioning a person called Robin Hood (Robert Hod) are from 1226, found in the York Assizes, when that person's goods, worth 32 shillings and 6 pence, were confiscated and he became an outlaw. Robert Hod owed the money to St. Peter's in York. The following year, he was called "Hobbehod", and also came to known as "Robert Hood". Robert Hod of York is the only early Robin Hood known to have been an outlaw. In 1936, L.V.D. Owen floated the idea that 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.

Robert and John Deyville

Historian Oscar de Ville discusses the careers of John Deyville and his brother Robert, along with their kinsmen Jocelin and Adam, during the Second Barons' War, specifically their activities after the Battle of Evesham. John Deyville was granted authority by the faction led by Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester over York Castle and the Northern Forests during the war in which they sought refuge after Evesham. John, along with his relatives, led the remaining rebel faction on the Isle of Ely following the Dictum of Kenilworth. De Ville connects their presence there with Bower's mention of "Robert Hood" during the aftermath of Evesham in his annotations to the Scotichronicon.

While John was eventually pardoned and continued his career until 1290, his kinsmen are no longer mentioned by historical records after the events surrounding their resistance at Ely, and de Ville speculates that Robert remained an outlaw. Other exploits forming the inspiration for Robin Hood include their properties in Barnsdale, John's settlement of a mortgage worth £400 paralleling Robin Hood's charity of identical value to Sir Richard at the Lee, relationship with Sir Richard Foliot, a possible inspiration for the former figure, and ownership of a fortified home at Hood Hill, near Kilburn, North Yorkshire. The last of these is suggested to be the inspiration for Robin Hood's second name as opposed to the more common theory of a head covering. Perhaps not coincidentally, a "Robertus Hod" is mentioned in records among the holdouts at Ely.

Although de Ville does not explicitly connect John and Robert Deyville to Robin Hood, he discusses these parallels in detail and suggests that they formed prototypes for this ideal of heroic outlawry during the tumultuous reign of Henry III's grandson and Edward I's son, Edward II of England.

Roger Godberd

David Baldwin identifies Robin Hood 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 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.

Robin Hood of Wakefield

The 19th century antiquarian Joseph Hunter believed that Robin Hood had inhabited the forests of Yorkshire during the early decades of the 14th century. Hunter points to two men whom, believing them to be the same person, he identified with the legendary outlaw:

  1. Robert Hood who is documented as having lived in Wakefield at the start of the 14th century.
  2. "Robyn Hode" who is recorded as being employed by Edward II during 1323.

Hunter developed a fairly detailed theory implying that Robert Hood had been an adherent of the rebel Earl of Lancaster, who was defeated by Edward II at the Battle of Boroughbridge in 1322. According to this theory, Robert Hood was thereafter pardoned and employed as a bodyguard by King Edward, and in consequence he appears in the 1323 court roll under the name of "Robyn Hode". Hunter's theory has long been recognised to have serious problems, one of the most serious being that recent research has shown that Hunter's Robyn Hood had been employed by the king before he appeared in the 1323 court roll, thus casting doubt on this Robyn Hood's supposed earlier career as outlaw and rebel.

Alias

It has long been suggested, notably by John Maddicott, that "Robin Hood" was a stock alias used by thieves. What appears to be the first known example of "Robin Hood" as a stock name for an outlaw dates to 1262 in Berkshire, where the surname "Robehod" was applied to a man 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 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.

Mythology

There is at present little or no scholarly support for the view that tales of Robin Hood have stemmed from mythology or folklore, from fairies or other mythological origins, any such associations being regarded as later development. It was once a popular view, however. The "mythological theory" dates back at least to 1584, when Reginald Scot identified Robin Hood with the Germanic goblin "Hudgin" or Hodekin and associated him with the fairy Robin Goodfellow. 21st century historian Maurice Keen provides a brief summary and useful critique of the evidence for the view Robin Hood had mythological origins. While the outlaw often shows great skill in archery, swordplay and disguise, his feats are no more exaggerated than those of characters in other ballads, such as Kinmont Willie, which were based on historical events.

Robin Hood has also been claimed for the pagan witch-cult supposed by Margaret Murray to have existed in medieval Europe, and his anti-clericalism and Marianism interpreted in this light. The existence of the witch-cult as proposed by Murray is now generally discredited.

Associated locations

Sherwood Forest

thumb|The [[Major Oak in Sherwood Forest]]

The early ballads link Robin Hood to identifiable real places. In popular culture, Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men are portrayed as living in Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamshire. Notably, the Lincoln Cathedral Manuscript, which is the first officially recorded Robin Hood song (dating from approximately 1420), makes an explicit reference to the outlaw that states that "Robyn hode in scherewode stod". In a similar fashion, a monk of Witham Priory (1460) suggested that the archer had 'infested shirwode'. His chronicle entry reads:

Nottinghamshire

thumb|Robin Hood has been depicted on Nottinghamshire's [[Flag of Nottinghamshire|county flag since 2011.]]

Specific sites in the county of Nottinghamshire directly linked to the Robin Hood legend include Robin Hood's Well, near Newstead Abbey (within the boundaries of Sherwood Forest), the Church of St. Mary in the village of Edwinstowe and most famously of all, the Major Oak also in the village of Edwinstowe. The Major Oak, which resides in the heart of Sherwood Forest, is popularly believed to have been used by the Merry Men as a hide-out. Dendrologists have contradicted this claim by estimating the tree's true age at around 800 years; it would have been relatively a sapling in Robin's time, at best.

Yorkshire

Nottinghamshire's claim to Robin Hood's heritage is disputed, with Yorkists staking a claim to the outlaw. In demonstrating Yorkshire's Robin Hood heritage, historian J. C. Holt drew attention to the fact that although Sherwood Forest is mentioned in Robin Hood and the Monk, there is little information about the topography of the region, and thus suggested that Robin Hood was drawn to Nottinghamshire through his interactions with the city's sheriff. Moreover, linguist Lister Matheson has observed that the language of A Gest of Robyn Hode is written in a definite northern dialect, probably that of Yorkshire. In consequence, it seems probable that the Robin Hood legend actually originates from the county of Yorkshire. Robin Hood's Yorkshire origins are generally accepted by historians. The backdrop of St Mary's Abbey, York plays a central role in Gest as the poor knight whom Robin aids owes money to the abbot.

Barnsdale

thumb|left|[[Blue Plaque commemorating Wentbridge's Robin Hood connections]]

A tradition dating back at least to the end of the 16th century gives Robin Hood's birthplace as Loxley, Sheffield, in South Yorkshire. The original ballads set events in the medieval forest of Barnsdale. Barnsdale was a wooded area covering an expanse of no more than 30 square miles, ranging six miles from north to south, with the River Went at Wentbridge near Pontefract forming its northern boundary and the villages of Skelbrooke and Hampole forming the southernmost region. From east to west the forest extended about five miles, from Askern on the east to Badsworth in the west. During the medieval age Wentbridge was sometimes locally referred to by the name of Barnsdale because it was the predominant settlement in the forest. Wentbridge is mentioned in Robin Hood and the Potter, which reads, Y mete hem bot at Went breg,' syde Lyttyl John". And, while Wentbridge is not directly named in A Gest of Robyn Hode, the poem does appear to make a cryptic reference to the locality by depicting a poor knight explaining to Robin Hood that he 'went at a bridge' where there was wrestling. A commemorative blue plaque has been placed on the bridge that crosses the River Went by Wakefield City Council.

Saylis

thumb|The site of the Saylis at [[Wentbridge]]

The Gest makes a specific reference to the Saylis at Wentbridge. Credit is due to Joseph Hunter, who correctly identified the site of the Saylis. From this location it was once possible to look out over the Went Valley and the Great North Road. The Saylis is recorded as having contributed towards the aid that was granted to Edward III in 1346–47 for the knighting of the Black Prince. An acre of landholding is listed within a glebe terrier of 1688 relating to Kirk Smeaton, which later came to be called "Sailes Close". Dobson and Taylor indicate that such evidence of continuity makes it virtually certain that the Saylis that was so well known to Robin Hood is preserved today as "Sayles Plantation". It is this location that provides a vital clue to Robin Hood's Yorkshire heritage.

Church of Saint Mary Magdalene at Campsall

thumb|St Mary Magdalene's church, [[Campsall, South Yorkshire]]

Historian John Paul Davis wrote of Robin's connection to the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene at Campsall in South Yorkshire. A Gest of Robyn Hode states that the outlaw built a chapel in Barnsdale that he dedicated to Mary Magdalene:

Davis indicates that there is only one church dedicated to Mary Magdalene within what one might reasonably consider to have been the medieval forest of Barnsdale, and that is the church at Campsall. The church was built in the early 12th century by Robert de Lacy, the 2nd Baron of Pontefract. Local legend suggests that Robin Hood and Maid Marion were married at the church.

Grave at Kirklees

thumbnail|'Robin Hood's Grave' in the woods near [[Kirklees Priory in West Yorkshire]]

At Kirklees Priory in West Yorkshire stands an alleged grave with a spurious inscription, which relates to Robin Hood. The ballads relate that before he died, Robin told Little John where to bury him. He shot an arrow from the priory window, and where the arrow landed was to be the site of his grave. Gest states 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. The inscription on the grave reads,

Despite the unconventional spelling, the verse is in Modern English, not the Middle English of the 13th century. The date is also incorrectly formatted – using the Roman calendar, "24 kal Decembris" would be the 23rd day before the beginning of December, that is, 8 November. The tomb probably dates from the late 18th century. The grave with the inscription is within sight of the ruins of the Kirklees Priory, behind the Three Nuns pub in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. Though local folklore suggests that Robin is buried in the grounds of Kirklees Priory, this theory has now largely been abandoned by historians.

All Saints' Church at Pontefract

thumb|The new church within the old. After [[All Saints' Church, Pontefract was damaged during the English Civil War, a new brick chapel was built within its ruins in 1967]]

Another theory is that Robin Hood died at Kirkby, Pontefract. Michael Drayton's Poly-Olbion Song 28 (67–70), published in 1622, speaks of Robin Hood's death and clearly states that the outlaw died at 'Kirkby'. This is consistent with the view that Robin Hood operated in the Went Valley, located three miles to the southeast of the town of Pontefract. The location is approximately three miles from the site of Robin's robberies at Saylis. In the Anglo-Saxon period, Kirkby was home to All Saints' Church, Pontefract. All Saints' Church had a priory hospital attached to it. Historian Richard Grafton states that the prioress who murdered Robin Hood buried the outlaw beside the road,

<blockquote>Where he had used to rob and spoyle those that passed that way ... and the cause why she buryed him there was, for that common strangers and travailers, knowing and seeing him there buryed, might more safely and without feare take their journeys that way, which they durst not do in the life of the sayd outlaes.</blockquote>

All Saints' Church is consistent with Grafton's description because a road ran from Wentbridge to the hospital at Kirkby.

Place-name locations

Within close proximity of Wentbridge reside several notable landmarks relating to Robin Hood. One such place-name location occurred in a cartulary deed of 1422 from Monkbretton Priory, which makes direct reference to a landmark named Robin Hood's Stone, which resided upon the eastern side of the Great North Road, a mile south of Barnsdale Bar. Dobson and Taylor suggest that on the opposite side of the road once stood Robin Hood's Well, which has since been relocated six miles north-west of Doncaster, on the south-bound side of the Great North Road. Over the next three centuries, the name popped up all over the place, such as at Robin Hood's Bay near Whitby in Yorkshire, Robin Hood's Butts in Cumbria, and Robin Hood's Walk at Richmond, Surrey.

Robin Hood type place-names occurred particularly everywhere except Sherwood. The first place-name in Sherwood does not appear until 1700. The fact that the earliest Robin Hood type place-names originated in West Yorkshire is deemed to be historically significant because, generally, place-name evidence originates from the locality where legends begin. The overall picture from the surviving early ballads and other early references indicate that Robin Hood was based in the Barnsdale area of what is now South Yorkshire, which borders Nottinghamshire.

Other place-names and references

thumb|The [[Sycamore Gap tree|Robin Hood Tree, also known as Sycamore Gap Tree, near Hadrian's Wall at Haltwhistle, England. This location was used in the 1991 film Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.]]

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, among other places both far and wide including Hazlebadge Hall, Peveril Castle and Haddon Hall. Mercia, to which Nottingham belonged, came to within three miles of Sheffield City Centre. But before the Law of the Normans was the Law of the Danes, The Danelaw had a similar boundary to that of Mercia but had a population of free peasantry that were known to have resisted the Norman occupation. Many outlaws could have been created by the refusal to recognise Norman Forest Law. The supposed grave of Little John can be found in Hathersage, also in the Peak District.

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, where Robin Hood Rocks can also be found. Robin Hood Hill is near Outwood, West Yorkshire, not far from Lofthouse. There is a village in West Yorkshire called Robin Hood, on the A61 between Leeds and Wakefield and close to Rothwell and Lofthouse. Considering these references to Robin Hood, it is not surprising that the people of both South and West Yorkshire lay some claim to Robin Hood, who, if he existed, could easily have roamed between Nottingham, Lincoln, Doncaster and West Yorkshire.

A British Army Territorial (reserves) battalion formed in Nottingham in 1859 was known as The Robin Hood Battalion through various reorganisations until the "Robin Hood" name finally disappeared in 1992. With the 1881 Childers Reforms that linked regular and reserve units into regimental families, the Robin Hood Battalion became part of The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment).

A Neolithic causewayed enclosure on Salisbury Plain has acquired the name Robin Hood's Ball, although had Robin Hood existed it is doubtful that he would have travelled so far south.

List of traditional ballads

thumb|An Elizabethan song references Robin Hood in the context of the folk dancing revival of [[William Kempe]]

Ballads dating back to the 15th century are the oldest existing form of the Robin Hood legends, although none of them were recorded at the time of the first allusions to him, and many are from much later. They share many common features, often opening with praise of the greenwood and relying heavily on disguise as a plot device, but include a wide variation in tone and plot. The ballads are sorted into four groups, very roughly according to date of first known free-standing copy. Ballads whose first recorded version appears (usually incomplete) in the Percy Folio may appear in later versions and may be much older than the mid-17th century when the Folio was compiled. Any ballad may be older than the oldest copy that happens to survive, or descended from a lost older ballad. For example, the plot of Robin Hood's Death, found in the Percy Folio, is summarised in A Gest of Robyn Hode, and it also appears in an 18th-century version.

In 15th- or early 16th-century copies

  • A Gest of Robyn Hode (Child Ballad 117)
  • Robin Hood and the Monk (Child Ballad 119)
  • Robin Hood and the Potter (Child Ballad 121)

In 17th-century Percy Folio

NB. The first two ballads listed here (the "Death" and "Gisborne"), although preserved in 17th-century copies, are generally agreed to preserve the substance of late medieval ballads. The third (the "Curtal Friar") and the fourth (the "Butcher"), also probably have late medieval origins. An * before a ballad's title indicates there is also a version of this ballad in the Forresters Manuscript.

  • Robin Hood's Death (Child Ballad 120)
  • Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne (Child Ballad 118)
  • *Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar (Child Ballad 123,in Forresters titled Robin Hood and the Fryer)
  • *Robin Hood and the Butcher (Child Ballad 122)
  • *Little John a Begging (Child Ballad 142, in Forresters titled Little Johns Begging)
  • Robin Hood Rescuing Three Squires (Child Ballad 140)
  • *The Jolly Pinder of Wakefield (Child Ballad 124, two versions in Forresters, titled there Robin Hood and the Pinder of Wakefield)
  • *Robin Hood and Queen Katherine (Child Ballad 145)

In 17th-century Forresters Manuscript

NB: An * before a ballad's title indicates that the Forresters version of this ballad is the earliest known version.

  • Robin Hood and the Tinker (Child Ballad 127)
  • Robin Hood and the Beggar, I (Child Ballad 133)
  • Robin Hood's Progress to Nottingham (Child Ballad 139,in Forresters titled Robin Hood and the Forresters I)
  • Robin Hood Rescuing Will Stutly (Child Ballad 141, in Forresters titled Robin Hood and Will Scathlock)
  • Robin Hood and the Bishop (Child Ballad 143, in Forresters titled Robin Hood and the Old Wife)
  • Robin Hood's Chase (Child Ballad 146)
  • The Noble Fisherman (Child Ballad 148, in Forresters titled Robin Hood's Fishing)
  • Robin Hood and the Tanner (Child Ballad 126)
  • Robin Hood and the Shepherd (Child Ballad 135)
  • Robin Hood's Delight (Child Ballad 136, in Forresters titled Robin Hood and the Forresters II)
  • Robin Hood's Golden Prize (Child Ballad 147, in Forresters titled Robin Hood and the Preists)
  • Robin Hood Newly Revived (Child Ballad 128, in Forresters titled Robin Hood and the Stranger)
  • *Robin Hood and Allan-a-Dale (Child Ballad 138, in Forresters titled Robin Hood and the Bride)
  • *Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford (Child Ballad 144, in Forresters titled Robin Hood and the Bishopp)
  • *Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow (Child Ballad 152, in Forresters titled Robin Hood and the Sheriffe)
  • *The King's Disguise, and Friendship with Robin Hood (Child Ballad 151, in Forresters titled Robin Hood and the King)

Other ballads

  • A True Tale of Robin Hood (Child Ballad 154)
  • Robin Hood and the Scotchman (Child Ballad 130)
  • Robin Hood and Maid Marian (Child Ballad 150)
  • Robin Hood and Little John (Child Ballad 125)
  • Robin Hood and the Prince of Aragon (Child Ballad 129)
  • Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor, and Marriage (Child Ballad 149)
  • Robin Hood and the Ranger (Child Ballad 131)
  • Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight (Child Ballad 153)
  • The Bold Pedlar and Robin Hood (Child Ballad 132)
  • Robin Hood and the Beggar, II (Child Ballad 134)
  • Robin Hood and the Pedlars (Child Ballad 137)

Some ballads, such as Erlinton, feature Robin Hood in some variants, where the folk hero appears to be added to a ballad pre-existing him and in which he does not fit very well. He was added to one variant of Rose Red and the White Lily, apparently on no more connection than that one hero of the other variants is named "Brown Robin". Francis James Child indeed retitled Child ballad 102; though it was titled The Birth of Robin Hood, its clear lack of connection with the Robin Hood cycle (and connection with other, unrelated ballads) led him to title it Willie and Earl Richard's Daughter in his collection.

Main characters

  • Robin Hood (a.k.a. Robin of Loxley or Locksley)
  • The band of "Merry Men"
  • Little John
  • Friar Tuck
  • Will Scarlet
  • Alan-a-Dale
  • Much the Miller's Son
  • Maid Marian
  • King Richard the Lionheart
  • Prince John
  • Sir Guy of Gisbourne
  • The Sheriff of Nottingham

See also

  • Cultural depictions of Robin Hood
  • Barons' Revolt
  • Ishikawa Goemon
  • Ivanhoe
  • Jesús Malverde
  • Joaquin Murrieta
  • Juraj Jánošík
  • Kayamkulam Kochunni
  • Kobus van der Schlossen
  • Liao Tianding
  • Redistribution of wealth
  • Redmond O'Hanlon
  • Robin Hood tax
  • Salvatore Giuliano
  • Schinderhannes
  • Twm Siôn Cati
  • Wat Tyler
  • William Tell
  • Jagga Jatt

Notes

References

Bibliography

  • Hilton, R. H., The Origins of Robin Hood, Past and Present, No. 14. (Nov. 1958), pp.&nbsp;30–44.
  • Holt, J. C. (1989). "Robin Hood", Perspectives on culture and society, vol. 2, 127–144
  • .

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  • International Robin Hood Bibliography
  • Robin Hood&nbsp;– from the Internet Archive, Project Gutenberg and Google Books (scanned books, original editions, colour illustrated)
  • (multiple works)
  • "Robin Hood", BBC Radio 4 discussion with Stephen Knight, Thomas Hahn & Juliette Wood (In Our Time, 30 October 2003)