In Quest of Robin Hood

Abstract

The line between fact and fiction is dimly drawn in folk literature, but most legends seem to have origins, however faint and elusive, in history. There was a war at Troy; Charlemagne did leave a small force to fight a rear action at Roncevalles; and Beowulfs uncle Hygelac was killed in a fight recorded by Gregory of Tours. In England, King Arthur may have been one Artorius, a leader in resisting Saxon invasions. But Arthur was largely the property of the Norman aristocracy; the common folk had their own hero in Robin Hood. Did he also play a role in history, or is he merely the creation of popular imagination? The existing Robin Hood literature is contained in many ballads, some dating from the fifteenth century but many found in texts not older than the sixteenth or seventeenth centuries. There is also a popular epic, The Gest of Robin Hood, dating from about 1500 but compiled from older ballads. Like most ballads, this literature is highly unstable and unreliable in recording historical events, though it reveals certain historical attitudes and experiences. This unreliability has caused some scholars to conclude that Robin Hood never existed. Francis James Child, the great ballad editor of the nineteenth century, said, "Robin Hood is absolutely a creation of the ballad-muse."1 Other critics look to more exotic sources and try to establish Robin as a creature of mythology who was later humanized by the ballads. Such mythological theories relate the outlaw to geographical names and features, suggesting that he was a forest deity, a wood or water sprite, a pagan lord of springtime, the Aryan sun god, the blind archer Hödr who slew Balder, or even a degraded form of Odin. Developed in detail, such interpretations are ingenious but strain credulity. The question still remains as to whether Robin Hood was historical or merely a fictitious representative of the outlaw classes that dwelt in the forests of medieval England. Scott's Ivanhoe and the derring-do of Douglas Fairbanks, Errol Flynn, and more recent motion picture Robins have popularized the belief that Robin Hood was a patriotic outlawed nobleman who flourished during the reign of Richard I and helped the Lion Heart to regain his sovereignty, usurped by his wicked brother John during the Third Crusade. This does make the best story, and there are persuasive arguments in its favor, but they are inconclusive. Many scholars place Robin later in history, putting