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ROBIN HOOD

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 421 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ROBIN See also:HOOD , See also:English legendary See also:hero. The See also:oldest mention of Robin Hood at See also:present known occurs in the second edition—what is called the B See also:text—of Piers the Plowman, the date of which is about 1377. In passus v. of that poem the figure of See also:Sloth is represented as saying " I can nouate perfitly my See also:pater-noster, as the prest it syngeth : But I can rymes of Robyn Hood and Randolf See also:Erie of Chestre." He is next mentioned by See also:Andrew of See also:Wyntoun in his See also:Original See also:Chronicle of See also:Scotland, written about 1420 " Lytel Jhon and Robyne Hude Waythmen See also:ware commendyd See also:gude; In Yngilwode and Barnysdale Thai oysyd all this See also:time [c. 1283] thare trawale ";next by See also:Walter See also:Bower in his additions of See also:Fordun's Scotichros nicon about 1450 " Hoc in tempore [1266] de exheredatis et bannitis surrexit et caput erexit ille famosissimus sicarius Robertus Hode et Littill Johann cum eorum complicibus, de quibus stolidum vulgus hianter in comoediis et tragoediis prurienter restum faciunt et super ceteras romancias, See also:mimosa er bardanos cantitare delectantur." Of his popularity in the latter See also:half of the 15th and in the 16th centuries there are many signs. Just one passage must be quoted as of See also:special importance because closely followed by R. See also:Grafton, J. See also:Stow and W. See also:Camden. It is from See also:John Mair's Historia Majoris Britanniae See also:tam Angliae quam Scotiae, which appeared in 1521 " Circa haec tempora [Ricardi Primi], ut auguror, Robertus Hudus Anglus et Parvus Joannes latrones famatisslmiin nemoribus latuerunt, solum opulentorum virorum See also:bona deripientes. Nullum nisi eos invadentem vel resistentem See also:pro suarum rerum tuitione occiderunt. Centum sagittarios ad pugnam aptissimos Robertus latrociniis aluit, quos 400 viri fortissimi invadere non audebant, See also:Rebus hujus Roberti gestis iota Britannia in cantibus utitur. Faeminam nullam opprimi permisit nec pauperum bona surripuit; verum eos ex abbatum bones sublatis opipare pavit.

Viri rapinam improbo, sed latronum omnium humanissimus et princeps erat." In the Elizabethan era and afterwards mentions abound; see the See also:

works of See also:Shakespeare, See also:Sidney, See also:Ben See also:Jonson, See also:Drayton, See also:Warner, A. See also:Munday, Camden, Stow, Braithwaite, See also:Fuller, &c. Of the See also:ballads themselves, Robin Hood and the See also:Monk is possibly as old as the reign of See also:Edward II. (see See also:Thomas See also:Wright's Essays on See also:England in the See also:Middle Ages, H. 174); Robin Hood and the See also:Potter and Robyn and Gandelyn are certainly not later than the 15th See also:century. Most important of all is A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode, which was first printed about 1510 (see A. W. See also:Pollard's Fifteenth Century See also:Prose and See also:Verse, See also:Westminster, 1903). This is evidently founded on older ballads; we read in The Seconde Fytte, ll. 176 and 177 " He wente hym forthe full mery syngynge, As men have told in See also:tale." In fact, it does for the Robin Hood See also:cycle what a few years before See also:Sir Thomas See also:Malory had done for the Arthurian romances —what in the 6th century B.c. See also:Peisistratus is said to have done for the Homeric poems. These are the facts about him and his balladry.

Of conjectures there is no end. He has been represented as the last of the See also:

Saxons—as a Saxon holding out against the See also:Norman conquerors so See also:late as the end of the 12th century (see Augustin See also:Thierry's Norman See also:Conquest, and compare Sir Walter See also:Scott's Ivanhoe). J. M. Gutch maintains that he was a follower of See also:Simon de See also:Montfort. The Rev. See also:Joseph See also:Hunter associated him with the See also:rebel See also:earl of See also:Lancaster of Edward II.'s time., This See also:scholar in a brochure published in 1852 produced See also:evidence from the See also:exchequer accounts and the See also:court rolls of the See also:manor of See also:Wake-See also:field showing that a " Robyn Hod " and a " Robertus Hood " were living in this reign. The See also:series of coincidences to which he points is undoubtedly striking, but had failed to convince most critics. See also:Professor F. J. See also:Child dismisses his inferences as " ludicrous." For our See also:part, we are not disinclined to believe that the Robin Hood See also:story has some See also:historical basis, however fanciful and romantic the superstructure. We parallel it with the Arthurian story, and hold that, just as there was probably a real See also:Arthur, however different from the hero of the trouveres, so there was a real Hood, however now enlarged and disguised by the accretions of See also:legend.

That See also:

Charlemagne and See also:Richard I. of England be-came the subjects of romances does not prevent our believing in their existence; nor need Hood's mythical See also:life deprive him of his natural one. Sloth in See also:Langland's poem couples him, as we have seen, with Randle, earl of See also:Chester; and no one doubts this nobleman's existence because he had " rymes " made about him. We believe him to have been the third Randle (see See also:Bishop See also:Percy's See also:Folio MS., ed. See also:Hales and See also:Furnivall, 26o). And possibly enough Hood was contemporary with that earl, who " flourished " in the reigns of Richard I., John and See also:Henry III. Wyntoun and Mair, as we have seen, assign him to that See also:period. It is impossible to believe with Hunter that he lived so late as Edward II.'s reign. This would leave no time for the growth of his myth; and his myth was, as is evident from what we have already said and quoted, full-grown in the first half of the 14th century. Whatever may have been the immediate See also:genesis of the myth —and it may well be sought in the heartless See also:forest See also:laws—its vitality was assured by the English love of See also:archery and historical repetition. In the rolls of See also:parliament of 1437 mention is made of Piers Venables, a robber who took to the See also:woods " like as it had been Robin Hood and his meyne." There are indications that Robin was identified or confused with See also:Robert Locksley, a manslayer of Bradfield in Hallamshire. The former is said to have been See also:born in " Merry sweet Locksley See also:town." But whether he lived or not, and whenever he lived, it is certain that many mythical elements are contained in his story. Both his name and his exploits remind us of the woodland spirit Robin Goodfellow and his merry pranks.

He is fond of disguising himself, and devoted to fun and See also:

practical jokes. These frolics suggest the See also:wind. " The whole story," says Mr H. See also:Bradley, " is ultimately derived from the See also:great See also:Aryan See also:sun-myth. Robin Hood is Hod, the See also:god of the wind, a See also:form of See also:Woden; Maid Marian is See also:Morgen, the See also:dawn-See also:maiden; See also:Friar Tuck is Toki, the spirit of See also:frost and See also:snow." The name Robin (a See also:French form from Rob, which is of course a See also:short form for Robert) would serve both for " the shrewd and knavish sprite "—the See also:German Knecht Ruprecht (see See also:Grimm's Teut. Myth. p. 504, trans. Stallybrass)—and for the bandit (see " Roberdes Knaues " in the See also:Prologue of Piers the Plowman, 1.44, and the See also:note in See also:Warton's Hist. of Eng. Poet. ii. 95, ed. 1840). Hood is a very usual dialectal form of See also:wood; and in his See also:play Edward the First, See also:George See also:Peele actually alludes to the bandit as " Robin of the Wood." Mr Gutch thus explains the origin of the name.

It is still a See also:

common enough surname, of which the earlier shape is See also:Odo (see Houdart," &c., in Larchey's Dict. See also:des Noms); See also:notice, too, the name See also:Hudson. But it also reminds one of the German See also:familiar spirit Hudekin, or possibly of the German Witikind (see Wright's Essays on the Middle Ages, ii. 207). Mr Sidney See also:Lee suggests that Robin was a forest See also:elf so `called because elves wore hoods (see Did. of See also:National See also:Biography, sub. " Robin Hood "). How certain it is that the Robin Hood story attracted to it and appropriated other elements is illustrated by its subsequent See also:history—its history after the 14th century. Thus later on we find it connected with the See also:Morris See also:dance; but the Morris dance was not known in England before the 16th century or late in the 15th. The Friar Tuck and Maid Marian elements have been thought to have been introduced for the purpose of these performances, which were held on May-See also:day and were immensely popular (see See also:Latimer's Frutefull Sermons (See also:London, 1571), p. 75; also Poston Letters, ed. J. See also:Gairdner, 89). After 1615, the date of the See also:pageant prepared for the mayoralty of Sir John See also:Jones, See also:draper, by See also:Anthony Munday and entitled See also:Metropolis Coronata, a peer was imported into it, and the See also:yeoman of the older version was metamorphosed into the earl of See also:Huntingdon, for whom in the following century See also:William See also:Stukeley discovered a satisfactory See also:pedigree!

The earl of Huntingdon was probably a See also:

nickname for a hunter. At last, with the See also:change of times, the myth ceased growing. Its rise and development and decay deserve a more thorough study than they have yet received. What perhaps is its greatest See also:interest as we first see it is its expression of the popular mind about the See also:close of the middle ages. Robin Hood 'is at that time the See also:people's ideal as Arthur is that of the upper classes. He is the ideal yeoman as Arthur is the ideal See also:knight. He readjusts the See also:distribution of See also:property: he robs the See also:rich and endows the poor. He is an See also:earnest worshipper of the Virgin, but a bold and vigorous hater of monks and abbots. He is the great sportsman, the incomparable See also:archer, the See also:lover of the See also:greenwood and of a See also:free life, brave, adventurous, jocular, open-handed, a See also:protector of See also:women. Observe his instructions to Little John Loke ye do no housbonde harme That tylleth with his plough; No more ye shall no See also:good yeman That walketh by grene wode shawe; Ne no knyght ne no squyer That wolde be a good felawe: These bysshoppes and thyse archebysshoppes Ye shall them bete and bynde; The hye sheryfe of Notynghame Hym holde in your mynde." And we are told " Robin loved our dere See also:lady; For doute of dedely synne Wolde he never do See also:company harme That ony woman was ynne." See also Drayton's Polyolbion, See also:Song See also:xxvi. The story is localized in Barnsdale and See also:Sherwood, i.e. between See also:Doncaster and Notting-See also:ham. In See also:Yorkshire, See also:Nottinghamshire and See also:Lincolnshire a See also:host of See also:place-names testify to the popularity of the Robin Hood legend—Robin Hood's See also:Bay, Robin Hood's See also:Cave, Robin Hood's See also:Chase, Robin Hood's See also:Cup (a well), Robin Hood's See also:Chair, Robin Hood's Pricks, and many more.

The best collections of Robin Hood poems are those of See also:

Ritson (8vo, 1795) and Gutch (2nd ed., 1847), and of Professor Child in the 5th See also:volume of his invaluable English and Scotch Popular Ballads (See also:Boston, 1888). See also Professor F. B. Gummere's Old English Ballads (Boston, 1894). The versions in the Percy Folio (edited by Hales and Furnivall, 1867, vol. i.) are unhappily mutilated; but they should be consulted, for they are all more or less unique, and that on " Robin Hoode his See also:death " is of singular interest. The See also:literary and See also:artistic value of many of the Robin Hood ballads cannot be pronounced considerable, but eight of them attain the high-See also:water See also:mark of their class. Robin Hood and the Monk and See also:Guy of See also:Gisborne are perhaps the best. There is, however, real vigour and force in this fragment on the hero's death. The earliest See also:Garland " was printed in 167o, and in 1678 appeared a prose version which was reprinted by W. J. Thoms in his See also:Early English Prose Romances (vol. ii., 1858). Mr Lee's memoir in the See also:Dictionary of National Biography is extremely erudite, and two valuable articles, contributed by Sir Edward Brabrook to the See also:Antiquary for See also:June and See also:July 1906, might be consulted.

See also Stukeley, Paleographia Britannica, No. i. 115; Thierry, Conqugte de l'Angleterre (183o) ; and J. Hunter's Great Hero of the See also:

Ancient Minstrelsy of England, Robin Hoed (1852). (J. W. H.; F. J.

End of Article: ROBIN HOOD

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