Most of the stories relating to Robin Hood are largely apocryphal, verging on the mythological. His first appearance in print is in the 1377 manuscript of Piers Plowman in which Sloth "rhymes of Robin Hood." This is likely a reference to ballads, plays and games originating at least as early as the 14th century. Printed versions of Robin Hood ballads appear in the early 16th century - shortly after the advent of printing in England. In these ballads, Robin Hood is generally a yeoman which, by that time, meant an independent tradesman or farmer. It is only in the late 1500s that he becomes a nobleman, the Earl of Huntington, Robert of Locksley or later still, Robert Fitz Ooth. His romantic attachment to Maid Marion (originally known as Mathilda) is also a product of this later period and probably has something to do with the 13th century French pastoral play, Robin and Marion. This is also the period when the Robin Hood story is set in the 1190s, when King Richard is away at the crusades. One of the original Robin Hood ballads refers to King Edward, (Edward I, II and III ruled England from 1272 to 1377). The idea of Robin Hood as a noble Saxon figthing Norman Lords originates in the 19th century, most notably in the part Robin Hood plays in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe.
He allegedly was deprived of his lands by the villainous [Sheriff of Nottingham]? and became an outlaw?. The Sheriff does indeed appear in the early ballads (Robin kills and beheads him) but there is nothing as specific as this allegation. Robin's other enemies include the rich abbots of the Catholic Church and a bounty hunter named Guy of Gisborne, who is dressed in a horse costume. Robin kills and beheads him as well. In the early ballads there is nothing about giving to the poor - though Robin does make a large loan to an unfortunate knight.
He took up residence in the verdant Sherwood Forest. Well, that's a matter of some contention. The original ballads speak of him being in Barnsdale, some fifty miles north of Sherwood. Others argue that if this were true he would have nothing to do with the Sheriff of Nottingham who operated two days ride to the south.
In the ballads original "Merry Men" (though not called that) included: [Friar Tuck]?, [Will Scarlet or Scathlock]?, [Much the Miller's Son]? and [Little John]? who was called little because he wasn't. Alan-a-Dale is a later invention in Robin Hood plays.
Songs, plays, games and later, novels, musicals, films and tv series have evolved Robin Hood and company according to the needs of their times. Maid Marion, for instance, is something of a warrior maiden in Victorian novels and then instantly becomes a plushng, well, maiden, when the women's sufferage movement heats up. Douglas Fairbanks 1922 Robin Hood is the athletic, scared of women 1920s all American boy. But in 1939, Errol Flynn is a smarter, more articulate Robin Hood - very aware of the proto-facist regime he is fighting and the hard times of people around him in this darker story. The British 1950s Robin Hood tv series starring Richard Green - episodes of which were written by blacklisted Hollywood writers - also has a high degree of social consciousness. The 1980s British Series, Robin of Sherwood, is a combination of New Age fantasy and thinly veiled calls for anti-Thatcherite revolution. Koster's film, with RH as a kind of Liberal Democrat social worker, steals bits from this sereis. But John Irwin's Robin Hood (the same year, starring Patrick Bergen and Uma Thurmond) is a very inventive use of some of the best of the Robin Hood heritage.
There are (at least) two great Robin Hood web sites:
Allen Wright's site:http://www.geocities.com/puckrobin/rh/
The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/rh/rhhome.stm
Perhaps one of the more interesting takes on the Robin Hood mythos was by Mel Brooks in his satire on Mr Costner's epic, [Robin Hood, Men in Tights]?. It is a satire far more interesting than its target.
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