EXTRACTS: Frank Bellamy's Robin Hood The Complete Adventures © 2008 The Book Palace (134 PAGES in Full edition)

3 The story of Robin Hood is one of the most romantic of British folk tales. Robin is the archetypal outlaw hero, an icon for the battle of good against evil and, more specifically, the battle of the righteous underdog against those who would misuse their power for their own ends. Trying to verify the origins of Robin Hood would be a life’s work as the reality of the character we know today has been veiled by nine centuries of romance built upon the slightest of historical accounts. The Robin Hood we think we know is a myth and, whilst we can pinpoint with reasonable certainty the era in which the people lived whose exploits were woven into the composite character we recognise as the Greenwood Outlaw, there is no single historical figure from which these legends sprang. The earliest trace of Robin located by scholars and amateur sleuths who have pored over documents dating back centuries would appear to be in the 13th century although some historical accounts date Robin’s appearance as the 12th century. In the Middle English alliterative verse The Vision of Piers Plowman , written in three revised versions over a period twenty years in the 1360s to 1380s, William Langland wrote: “I kan noght parfitly my Paternoster as the preest it syngeth / But I kan rymes of Robyn Hood and Randolf Erl of Chestre” – I don't know perfectly the Lord’s prayer as the priest sings it, but I know rhymes of Robin Hood and Ranulph, Earl of Chester. Before his death in 1420, Andrew of Wyntoun completed a rhyming Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland in which he refers – for the year 1283 – to “Lytil Jhon and Robyne Hude / Wayth-men ware commendyd gude / In Yngil- wode and Barnysdale / Thai oysyd all this tyme thare trawale.” From this it is clear that, by the late 14th and early 15th centuries, Robin Hood’s fame had already spread. Since education amongst the common man was poor, history was told through the songs and ballads of travelling minstrels and it is from these old recitations that Robin’s adventures as we know them are probably derived. The valiant fighting man struggling against tyranny and oppression is a familiar figure in ballads and legends in every country in the world and, no doubt, songs of heroic outlaws like Robin Hood and Hereward the Wake would have been popular; and the more convincing the story, the better chance the minstrel had of earning a crust. Langland’s alliterative poem is interesting because it links Robin with Ranulph de Blondeville, the fourth Earl of Chester (c.1172-1232) who, in 1194, besieged Nottingham Castle on behalf of King Richard I, Richard the Lionheart. In 1440, John Mair, in his Historia Majoris Britanniæ of 1512, links Robin and Little John to the years of King Richard’s captivity in Germany (1193-94). This was a historically turbulent period, with Richard engaged in the Third Crusade (1189-92) with many of his nobles; during this time Nottingham Castle was left derelict and was perhaps occupied by the Sheriff of Nottingham. Although based on a single account, it would seem that William de Wendenal was given the position of High Sheriff of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire during this period. A little known Norman baron, the choice of Wendenal may have antagonised the Anglo-Saxon population as it is likely he was a descendant of the nobles who invaded Britain with William the Conqueror in 1066. Most later stories that were spun around the Robin Hood legend used this period as a background and there is some evidence that Hood was, even by the 13th century – before his exploits were recorded in any way – already widely known. Contemporary records, for instance, record the appearance of one Robert Hod, a fugitive who failed to appear before the justices at the York assizes in 1225 and whose chattels, amounting to 32s. 6d., were forfeited at the account of the exchequer in Michaelmas 1226. Later, in the king’s remembrancer’s memoranda roll of Easter 1262, the prior of Sandleford was pardoned for seizing without warrant, the goods belonging to another fugitive known as William Robehod. The same case is mentioned elsewhere in the roll of the justices on eyre in Berkshire in 1261, which records the indictment and outlawing of a criminal gang suspected of robberies and harbouring criminals. The gang included William, the son of Robert le Fevre, whose chattels were indeed seized. The alias or nickname Robehod makes it appear likely that the choice was based on the already spreading legend of an outlaw with connections to a criminal gang of robbers. Other criminals were also similarly named – the outlaw John Rabunhod and thief Alexander Robehod, both recorded in 1272 – but the most likely candidate may still be Robert Hod, later nicknamed Hobbehod when the account for his chattels was repeated in 1227. The account was due from the liberty of St Peter’s and one must presume that Hod was a tenant of the archbishopric of York. In those days, Sherwood Forest (now reduced to about four square kilometres) extended beyond Nottinghamshire and into Yorkshire. These fragmentary accounts point more to the growth of the legend than its origins, although the stories that became incorporated into the mythical figure of the outlaw were recorded much later. Plays featuring Robin date back to at least 1426 but the earliest surviving texts are ballads. Robin Hood and the Monk From Ballads to Bellamy The Story of Robin Hood