Luke Ellett

Robin Hood: Folklore or Historical Figure

Robin Hood is perhaps one of the most influential characters in Nottingham’s history, although it has been debated how much of the stories are actually true. Some of the literature written of Robin Hood’s deeds date back to 15th century but most of them date to the 16th or even 17th century1. However the fact that these stories were made to be fictional has led to the belief that Robin Hood never actually existed. One factor that makes his existed widely debated is that many of the references to him argue that he was around in different time eras. However others say that there was more than one Robin Hood. ‘Stephen Knight, the leading authority on Robin Hood, argues that there have been at least four types of Robin Hoods’.2 All this considered, is it actually possible that the Robin Hood from the stories written in the 15th century are true but alongside them are a number of other Robin Hoods from a number of other times that we haven’t acknowledged due to the fact their stories aren’t as well known?The first Robin Hood that Knight mentions isn’t anything like the Robin Hood from the stories but instead ‘He does still rob, but for himself rather than for the poor’.3 This is a big comparison to the third Robin Hood which is more like the one in the stories and songs. However this Robin, discovered in the 18th century also fights the medieval church and oppressive kings4 which is definitely more of a modern concept where philosophers saw themselves ‘in a state of perpetual opposition: to the church...’5 So there could be a possibility that the third Robin Hood was created to voice certain modern thinker’s views on hold the church used to control medieval England and that he could have been a modern thinker for his time.Another reason why the figure of Robin Hood could have been created is to serve a group a ‘symbol of resistance to perceived oppression’6 like what was suggested about the Robin Hood created in the 18th century. However the difference is that he was used as a symbol for hope instead of being ahead of his time. However there is another factor that makes him less likely to have existed since he follows the same narrative frame work of other outlaw heroes like Pancho Villa (a famous Mexican outlaw) as suggested by Seal.Many cultures and countries have similar historical figures that are justified as being symbols of hope but due to the evidence raised by Knight, it’s possible he did exist after all and that the stories grew and were exaggerated to give people hope.

1 Robert E. Morsberger, In Quest of Robin Hood ( Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, 1971) Page 75 of 75-852Robert A. Segal, Journal of American Folklore ( University of Illinois Press, 2007) Page 366 of 366-3673 Robert A. Segal, Journal of American Folklore ( University of Illinois Press, 2007) Page 366 of 366-3674 Robert A. Segal, Journal of American Folklore ( University of Illinois Press, 2007) Page 366 of 366-367

5 Charles W.J. Withers, Placing the Enlightenment (University of Chicago Press, 2007) Page 316 Graham Seal, The Robin Hood Principle: Folklore, History, and the Social Bandit (Indiana University, 2009) Page 9