Robin Hood

Robin Hood is a legendary English outlaw, known principally from ballads.

The historical origins of the story are uncertain. Official records dated 1225-7 refer to a fugitive from justice in the York area named Robert Hod or Hobbehod, who has been suggested as a possible original for the story, though it seems likely that stories of a variety of outlaws with different names came to be attached to Robin. From 1261 onwards, examples are found in various records around the country of people surnamed Robinhood or similar. At this place and time surnames were not hereditary, so they were rather in the nature of nicknames. These occurrences suggest there was already a well-known character after whom they were named. There is a reference to poems about Robin Hood in the work of William Langland in 1377, but that gives no information.

The next sources are two Scottish historians from the first half of the 15th century, who date Robin Hood and Little John to 1283-5 and 1266 respectively. Shortly after, around 1450, we have the first surviving stories. There are three short stories and a long collection. Two of the short stories present Robin and John's conflicts with the Sheriff of Nottingham and their hideout in Sherwood Forest. The third, in contrast, places Robin in Barnsdale in the West Riding of Yorkshire; it also mentions Guy of Gisborne. The long collection, The Gest of Robyn Hode, is set mainly in Barnsdale and nearby Wentbridge, but includes some Nottinham and Sherwood material as well, and says Robin died at Kirklees Priory in the West Riding. It refers to the king of the time as Edward, and the details of a royal progress it describes have been used to establish its identity with one made by Edward II in 1323.

Robin Hood plays were being performed by 1425, but early texts have not survived. A fragment from 1475 features Guy of Gisborne and Friar Tuck. The latter was a real individual (though under apseudonym), an outlaw in Surrey and Sussex (nowhere near Robin Hodd country) in the period 1417-1429 (long after Robin Hood could have lived). Similarly, Maid Marion starts to be associated with Robin by about 1500. She originates from a 13th-century French play featuring a completely different Robin.

A Scottish historian writing in 1521 dates Robin and John to 1193-4. In the early stories Robin is essentially a criminal. The idea that he robbed the rich to give to the poor appears in 16th- and 17th-century sources. Another 16th-century development is the idea that he was of noble birth: Robert, Earl of Huntingdon.