Our famous folklore son
Tales of Robin Hood have been told for 700 years. Our fascination with this world-famous outlaw continues into the 21st century.
The romantic image of Robin Hood is of a medieval hooded figure in Lincoln Green, a master bowman with a quick mind and mischievous sense of humour. Dispossessed by greedy Norman overlords, he is forced to live beyond the law in the leafy depths of Sherwood, a royal hunting forest. From his forest lair he ambushes rich travellers, fights corrupt officials, and shares the spoils of his outlawry with poor, oppressed peasants.
Down the centuries this image has been elaborated and enlarged upon by literature, theatre and – more recently – film and TV shows. Many famous actors have played the people’s hero. Some movies have taken a less serious look at the time-honoured tale, including a Walt Disney cartoon and a gangster style musical.
But does the Robin Hood of the silver screen and written page bear any resemblance to the real outlaw? Did a real outlaw ever actually exist? Was he a made-up figure, answering the people’s need for a hero? Or do his real origins lie further back in the mysteries of our pagan past?
To find out, we need to go back in time to look at the first documents that bear Robin’s name.
Robin in rhyme: how the legend began
Robyn hod in sherewod stod, hodud and hathud and gosu and schod. Four and thuynti arrows he bar in his hondus
Translates to:
Robin Hood in Sherwood stood,
hooded & hated and hosed and shod.
Four and twenty arrows he bore in his hands.
This is one of the earliest surviving written references to Robin Hood. It is a poem dating from around 1400 and the original document is preserved in the library of Lincoln Cathedral. It clearly associates the outlaw with Sherwood Forest.
Who was Robin Hood?
No-one knows for sure whether the legend of Robin Hood was based on a real historical character. It is a subject which is still hotly debated amongst scholars.
There have been several candidates. A certain Robert Hod, later called Hobbehod, was a tenant of the Archbishop of York in Henry III’s time. Legal records show him to be an outlaw. He was summoned to appear before York Assizes in 1225 and 1226 but fled, and is described in the records as an outlaw or fugitive.
In 1852, Victorian scholar Joseph Hunter claimed to have located the ‘real’ Robin Hood in the shape of one Robert Hood, recorded in the royal household records as a servant of King Edward II. Later, Hunter discovered the same name (but was he the same man?) in the court rolls for Wakefield, which included Barnsdale in South Yorkshire, one of the outlaw’s legendary homes.
The search is complicated by the fact that Hood, Hod and Hode were all common surnames in medieval England. Robert or Robin were equally popular christian names. The phrase ‘Robinhood’ became a nickname used in court records for an outlaw, and there is evidence of at least eight people before 1300 who adopted it or were given it as a pseudonym. The word ‘hood’ still means a gangster or outlaw in America.
Probably, the real identity of Robin Hood will remain as elusive as the legendary outlaw. But one thing is sure: his popularity is as great now as it ever was, and forever linked in our imagination to ancient Sherwood Forest.
