Robin Hood, legendary hero of medieval England. In most tales about him, Robin Hood leads an outlaw band called the Merry Men in daring forest adventures. The Merry Men fight authority and rob the rich to give to the poor. For more than 600 years, the adventures of Robin Hood have been celebrated in stories, poems, ballads, and motion pictures.
English ballads tell the story of the outlaw Robin Hood, who lived in England’s Sherwood Forest. No one knows for sure if Robin Hood existed, but the ballads about him give valuable information about English society in the late 14th and early 15th century.
The key members of the Merry Men are an enormous man jokingly known as Little John, a traveling priest named Friar Tuck, and the outlaw Will Scarlet. In many versions of the legend, Robin falls in love with a spirited young woman named Maid Marian. The main enemy of Robin’s band is the Sheriff of Nottingham, a dastardly and greedy law officer. The band clashes with dishonest local abbots as well.
Although Robin fights to overturn the power of rich landowners, church leaders, and government representatives, he and his band respect the authority of the ruling king, who in most stories is Richard I. In many stories, the king disguises himself and joins the Merry Men, intending to capture Robin. But the king then discovers Robin’s honorable ways and pardons him.
HISTORICAL AND LITERARY TREATMENT
In 1938 Australian-born motion-picture actor Errol Flynn won the heart of Maid Marian and defeated his evil foes as Robin Hood in The Adventures of Robin Hood.
Some people believe that Robin Hood was an actual person, usually identified as Robert Fitzooth, the earl of Huntington. Others think that Robin was not a real person and that the stories about him developed for historical and cultural reasons. In medieval England, peasant masses struggled to make a meager living while a relatively small number of nobles and members of the church elite controlled the country’s land and wealth. People told and retold the Robin Hood stories as a way to express their discontent with overbearing government authorities, dishonest church officials, laws restricting hunting and farming rights, and other social injustices.
The adventures of Robin Hood have captivated writers for centuries. The earliest accounts have been traced to ballads penned in the 14th century. In the following two centuries, dozens of long poems, ballads, and dramas fleshed out the story and elevated Robin Hood to mythical status. Perhaps the most famous is a 15th-century ballad series called A Gest of Robyn Hode.
A number of prominent authors wrote about Robin Hood in the 18th and 19th centuries, including Sir Walter Scott and John Keats. In England during the Victorian Age (1837-1901), the legend became a popular inspiration for children’s tales, including a successful collection called Robin Hood and Little John; or, The Merry Men of Sherwood Forest (1840) by Pierce Egan. In the 20th century, several movies appeared. The two most famous were Robin Hood (1922), a silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks, and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938), an action-adventure with Errol Flynn. More recently, Kevin Costner played the leading man in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) and then in 2010.
