Mystery Files TV - Graham Phillips - Rab C Nesbitt TV - The Death of Robin Hood ballad - Pauline Miller - Julian Luxford - Tony Robinson TV - Robin Hood 1938 - Sword of Sherwood Forest 1960 - Robin Hood 2010 - Robin Hood: The First Celebrity Outlaw TV -
This is Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire. Nestled in the centre of England it is home to the legend of Robin Hood. Popular as ever Robin helps to attract around 500,000 visitors every year. His adventures still spark imagination. But his story has evolved over the centuries, and now the genesis of his character is almost completely obscured by the folk tale hero he has become. Mystery Files: Robin Hood, National Geographic 2010
There is another surviving ballad which also holds clues to the identity of a real Robin: it’s called The Little Jest of Robyn Hode. ibid.
The legend of Robin Hood has probably brought about more books, poems, and films and television stories than any other character in English history. Graham Phillips, author The Man Behind the Myth
I’m actually going to become the Robin Hood of Govan. Rab C Nesbitt s10e7: Rab in Hoodie, BBC 2014
Let me have length and breadth enough,
And under my head a sod;
That they may say when I am dead,
Here lies bold Robin Hood! The Death of Robin Hood, ballad
The connection of Robin Hood with St Mary’s Church appears in a fourteenth-century ballad called Robyn Hode & the Munke. Robin Hood came into Nottingham on his own and was kneeling in St Mary’s Church when a monk recognised him because Robin and his merry men had robbed him in the forest. The Monk quietly left the Church, walked down the street to the Sheriff’s house, and told him where he was. Pauline Miller, St Mary’s Church historian
The newest piece of evidence is an inscription in a history book and it mentions that Robin was a hardened criminal, and that he and his accomplices infested Sherwood and other law-abiding regions of England with continuous robberies. It says that he did this sometime between 1294 and 1299 ... Why it’s interesting and useful is that it takes him seriously ... By the mid-thirteenth century you get criminals being called a Robin Hood, so it’s a nickname being applied to or adopted by criminals. Dr Julian Luxford, discoverer of new reference to Robin Hood in Eton College archives
Robin Hood is History’s most infamous outlaw, robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. Hiding away in Sherwood Forest, an expert archer. We like to think of Robin as a romantic bandit wearing green tights. In truth he would have been a violent man living in violent times. Mystery Investigator: Olly Steeds, Discovery 2010
What was he actually like? Did he really exist? Tony Robinson, Fact or Fiction: Robin Hood, Channel 4 2003
The Robin we know today is Robin of Loxley. ibid.
The earliest Robin story were ballads. ibid.
Robin Hood was a Yorkshireman. ibid.
There’s no mention of giving to the poor. ibid.
The Robin of the ballads is a bit of a thug. ibid.
The truth about Robin is fragile and complex. ibid.
Evidence turned up that pointed to an earlier Robin ... A man who lived in Sussex in 1296 called Gilbert Robinhood. ibid.
Later, Robinhood became a common criminal alias. ibid.
I’ve called you here as freeborn Englishmen, loyal to our king. While he reigned over us, we lived in peace. But since Prince John has seized the regency, Guy of Gisbourne and the rest of his traitors have murdered and pillaged. You’ve all suffered from their cruelty – the ear-loppings, the beatings, the blindings with hot irons, the burning of our farms and homes, the mistreatment of our women. It’s time to put an end to this! Now, this forest is wide. It can shelter and clothe and feed a band of good, determined men – good swordsmen, good archers, good fighters. Men, if you’re willing to fight for our people, I want you! Are you with me? Robin Hood 1938 starring Errol Flynn & Olivia de Havilland & Basil Rathbone & Claude Rains & Patric Knowles & Eugene Pallette & Alan Hale & Herbert Mundin & Melville Cooper & Una O'Connor & Ian Hunter et al, directors Michael Curtiz & William Keighley, Robin
Yes, I am, bitterly, but it’s the shame that I’m a Norman, after seeing the things my fellow countrymen have done to England. At first, I wouldn’t believe. Because I was a Norman I wouldn’t let myself believe that the horrors you inflicted on the Saxons were just and right. I know now why you tried so hard to kill this outlaw whom you despise. It’s because he was the one man in England who protected the helpless against a lot of beasts who were drunk on human blood. And now you intend to murder your own brother. ibid. Lady Marian
But I am Chancellor of England. And I will not have it said that the Law acts against the people. The people themselves have rights. Sword of Sherwood Forest 1960 starring Richard Greene & Peter Cushing & Sarah Branch & Nigel Green & Vanda Godsell & Edwin Richfield & Charles Lamb & Richard Pasco & Niall MacGinnis & Jack Gwillim & Oliver Reed & Patrick Crean & Dennis Lotis & Derren Nesbitt et al, director Terence Fisher, heroic dude
In times of tyranny and injustice when law oppresses the people, the outlaw takes his place in history. England at the turn of the 12th Century was such a time. Robin Hood 2010 starring Russell Crowe & Cate Blanchett & Max von Sydow & Mark Strong & Oscar Isaac & Mark Lewis Jones & Mark Addy & William Hurt & Danny Huston & Eileen Atkins & Jonathan Zaccai et al, director Ridley Scott, opening credits
Nottingham: King Richard the Lion Heart bankrupt of wealth and glory is plundering his way back to England after ten years on his Crusade. In his army is an archer named Robin Longstride. This is the story of his return home where, for defending the weak against the strong, he will be condemned to live outside the law. ibid.
Tower of London Royal Palace: Philip wants an excuse to cross the channel with an army, and you have given him that excuse. ibid. Mother to cavorting son
I could take London with an army of cooks ... There’ll never be a better time to invade. ibid. French bloke
The laws of this land enslave people to its king ... I know in tyranny lies only failure ... Empower every man and you will gain strength. ibid. Robin to John
How did an outlaw, a thief in green tights, become one of the major symbols of English popular culture, a myth who for eight centuries has continued to evolve. Robin Hood: The First Celebrity Outlaw, Sky Arts 2018
It all started in a forest, birthplace of legends and myths, in the shadow of Sherwood’s hundred-year oaks on the border between the real and the imaginary. ibid.
Along with Little John, Will Scarlett and a few others he founds a heterogeneous community, a brotherhood of brigands, a band of outlaws who pillage the forest, and who are not always friendly. ibid.
Ivanhoe is a true best-seller which turns Robin, who has become the Lord of Locksley, into the epitome of the English hero. ibid.
‘The power of the Errol Flynn movie was enormous.’ ibid. expert
Robin once again became the reflection of his time in the form of a more adult and serious hero. ibid.
Revered by the media, Robin Hood is a superstar, a super hero, and he is above all a super role model. ibid.