Robin Hood

Robin Hood, legendary outlaw hero of a series of English ballads, some of which date from at least as early as the 14th century. Robin Hood was a rebel, and many of the most striking episodes in the tales about him show him and his companions robbing and killing representatives of authority and giving the gains to the poor. Their most frequent enemy was the Sheriff of Nottingham, a local agent of the central government (though internal evidence from the early ballads makes it clear that the action took place chiefly in South Yorkshire, not in Nottinghamshire). These ballads generally associate Robin with Barnsdale in present-day South Yorkshire, though Robin Hood and the Monk identifies Sherwood Forest as the setting. Other enemies included wealthy ecclesiastical landowners. Robin treated women, the poor, and people of humble status with courtesy. A good deal of the impetus for his revolt against authority stemmed from popular resentment over those laws of the forest that restricted hunting rights. The early ballads, especially, reveal the cruelty that was an inescapable part of medieval life.

Was Robin Hood real?

Numerous attempts have been made to prove that there was a historical Robin Hood, though references to the legend by medieval writers make it clear that the ballads themselves were the only evidence for his existence available to them. A popular modern belief that he was of the time of Richard I probably stems from a “pedigree” fabricated by an 18th-century antiquary, William Stukeley. None of the various claims identifying Robin Hood with a particular historical figure has gained much support, and the outlaw’s existence may never have been anything but legendary.

Social and historical background

The authentic Robin Hood ballads were the poetic expression of popular aspirations in the north of England during a turbulent era of baronial rebellions and agrarian discontent, which culminated in the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381. The theme of the free but persecuted outlaw enjoying the forbidden hunting of the forest and outwitting or killing the forces of law and order naturally appealed to the common people.

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The ballads

Although many of the best-known Robin Hood ballads are postmedieval, there is a core that can be confidently attributed to the medieval period. These are Robin Hood and the Monk, Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, Robin Hood and the Potter, and the Lytyll Geste of Robin Hode. During the 16th century and later, the essential character of the legend was distorted by a suggestion that Robin was a fallen nobleman, and playwrights, eagerly adopting this new element, increased the romantic appeal of the stories but deprived them of their social bite. Postmedieval ballads (which gave Robin a companion, Maid Marian) also lost most of their vitality and poetic value, doubtless as a result of losing the original social impulse that brought them into existence.

The Merry Men and Maid Marian

The earliest surviving ballads name only three companions consistently at Robin’s side: Little John; Much, the miller’s son; and Will Scarlet (also known as Scathelock). Little John enters the legend as a stranger who blocks Robin’s path on a narrow bridge over a stream. Neither of them is ready to move aside to let the other pass. The two fight with quarterstaves, and John knocks Robin into the water before agreeing to join his band.

Much, the miller’s son, proves his loyalty to Robin through murder. In the 15th-century ballad Robin Hood and the Monk, the Sheriff of Nottingham is notified by a monk who had recognized Robin in Nottingham. This results in Robin’s capture for killing 12 of the Sheriff’s men. Little John kills the treacherous monk while Much kills the monk’s page to silence him.

During their initial encounter, Will Scarlet impresses Robin by boldly killing a deer. Scarlet’s introduction is pivotal—he is the one who first tells Robin of a formidable fighting friar living in Fountains Abbey, setting the whole adventure of the ballad Robin Hood and the Curtal Friar in motion. Curious to test the friar’s strength and wit, Robin seeks him out. The friar becomes Robin’s fourth named companion, though the oldest texts do not name him Tuck. The friar carries Robin across the river on his back a few times before dumping his passenger in the water. The two then fight to a standstill. The friar whistles to summon 50 hounds before the two men strike a truce and he joins the outlaws.

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Robin and Marian appear paired in medieval English poet John Gower’s didactic poem Mirour de l’omme, written in the late 1370s. The pairing suggests she began in a separate shepherd-and-shepherdess love story that only later merged with the outlaw legend in the 16th century. Centuries later, Victorian poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson gave Marian a far more active role in his 1892 play The Foresters: Robin Hood and Maid Marian. Disguised as a knight, she follows Robin into the forest, and when he challenges the unrecognized knight to a duel and demands her glove as a pledge, her identity is exposed by his own betrothal ring on her hand. His outlaws then crown her “queen of the wood,” and she sits in judgment beside Robin, helping decide how much toll the band’s captives must pay.

A modern taxation symbol

Beyond literature and film, Robin Hood’s name has shaped real-world debates about wealth and fairness. Since 2010, campaigners in the United States and elsewhere have promoted a “Robin Hood tax,” a small levy on financial trades to fund public services. They explicitly use Robin Hood’s reputation for taking from the rich to help the poor. Although none are called Robin Hood taxes officially, several European countries have implemented financial transaction taxes that vary in scope and design.