Robin Hood [Paperback]

Holt has written an enthralling study of Robin Hood, of both the man (what little remains of him in the ballads) and the legend. He discusses the five earliest surviving ballads - "A Gest of Robyn Hode," "Robin Hoode his Death," "Robin Hood and the Monk," "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne," and "Robin Hood and the Potter" - and from them details all that can be inferred of the original Hood and of the transmission of the legend in the 200 years before the songs of Robin Hood were first written down. Even after they began to be written down new elements in the legend emerged - Maid Marian and Friar Tuck only joined Robin's merry men in the 15th century. Although today we commonly think of Robin Hood as hanging around in Nottingham and Sherwood Forest, the early ballads most strongly connect him with Barnesdale ("My name is Robin Hood of Barnesdale," the outlaw once remarks in a ballad). Holt details the physical setting in which Robin Hood and his legend traversed, and also the type of people who were his original audience.

So who was Robin Hood? Holt answers, "There were more than one." Many outlaws later called themselves Hood, and some elements of the legends were possibly added on because a storyteller confused one Hood with our Robin Hood - this may explain why a actual march of Edward II's in 1322 is incorporated into the life of a bandit who probably lived a hundred years earlier. Holt does think there was an original Robin Hood, who inspired the legend, and believes that he lived in the first half of the 13th century. He is possibly identical with a certain outlaw named Robert Hod, aka Hobbehod, who is mentioned in records from 1225-26. Although there are many uncertainties, of all the suggested candidates for the "real" Robin Hood, Robert Hod is the most plausible, based on the existing evidence. If you get only one book about Robin Hood, make it this one.

The years that started with "13" lived up to their expectations. The 1300's started out with a Mini Ice Age. The Baltic Sea froze over in 1303, 1306 and 1307. Then, between 1310 and 1330, the rains came. And came and came. Crops would not grow. People starved. Three was nothing, nothing to eat. Except "strange food." That is to say, your and my European ancestors survived by dining on each other! But that was only the first half of the century. In 1348 the worst disease epidemic in recorded history began: The Black Death. Like the rains, the Black Death came and came and came. Four distinct "pestilences" played themselves out before the century ended. This was the backdrop for the Robin Hood legend. The first literary reference to the legendary outlaw is found in William Langland's "Piers Plowman." The earliest ballad about Robin Hood, is is generally agreed, was probably "Robin Hood and the Monk." J.C. Holt has spent an entire lifetime researching the Robin Hood legend. In "Robin Hood" he sticks to one aspect of the legend: The man Robin Hood himself. Holt takes the man Robin Hood very seriously, insisting that, unlike other fabulous heroes, Robin Hood faces very real problems. In 18 of the Francis Child ballads about Robin Hood, Hood actually loses his battles. Dragons, fairies and magicians do not arise in the most authentic Robin Hood ballads. Holt knows the Barnsdale region well, having been born in that part of the country. As a professor of medieval literature, he also has the vast libraries of Oxford and Cambridge to brows. In "Robin Hood" he includes (some disappointingly murky) photographs taken from the very locations where the outlaw must have stood as he waited for hapless victims to travel south from Yorkshire--as they do in the ballads. Holt includes detailed maps of highways and identifies geographical locations that a tourist can go and visit. "Robin Hood" is a small book, but the careful reader will be absorbed in it for hours. So who was the original Robin Hood? Holt makes two close calls but pulls back from drawing any conclusions. He tallies up a list of almost twenty fellows with names like Robyn Hode, Robinhood (a very rare patrinomic), Hobbehod, etc. Only one is identified as a fugitive from justice... but he's too far from Barnsdale! There's always some detail out of place. Another convincing candidate turns up in Cirencester, virtually in Wales. English historians are blessed with a rich supply of court roles and other official documents to browse. Thanks to the litigiousness of the Normans, who ruled England from 1066 onward, the problem is usually too much material rather than too little! Somewhere, the evidence for a blood and flesh Robin Hood is still waiting to be discovered and assembled. J. C. Holt has laid the groundwork for future historians to build on. -30-

This book has the ring of authenticity about it. One British reviewer called it "Probably unsurpassable," and I agree. In this way it is like an Arthurian book by Ashe or Alcock. (I am thinking of "In Search of Arthur's Britain," which described the 1967 South Cadbury dig.)

You will learn the truth about the earliest Robin Hood stories - he was a yeoman, not a nobleman or a peasant, his earliest haunt was Barnsdale, not Sherwood. There was no Maid Marian at first, etc.

An excellent book for British history buffs and English lit types.