API tools faq
paste
jonstond2

Robin Hood (Medieval Studies)

jonstond2
Feb 13th, 2017
140
0
Never
Add comment
Not a member of Pastebin yet? Sign Up, it unlocks many cool features!
text 61.55 KB | None | 0 0
raw download clone embed print report
  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. For someone who probably never existed, Robin Hood has led a remarkable life. Indisputably a creation of the Middle Ages, Robin has not been confined by periodization. Unlike other medieval outlaws, real and fictional, Robin Hood has remained a cultural force from the first mention of him in a literary context in the late 14th century to a major Hollywood film in 2010. His appeal transcends the limitations of origin. As a significant player in popular culture he has responded to and been transformed by generic developments and technological advances. Beginning as an outlawed yeoman in the early poems and an efficient money gatherer in parish games, he becomes gentrified in the Renaissance drama to fit the character demands of tragedy. Through post-Napoleonic war novels he emerges as a national figure embodying Saxon bravery and identity. In pantomime the principal boy adopts the iconic tights that s/he is only now beginning to shrug off. In film and television his derring-do of the past is revitalized in swashbuckling action. He is adopted by New Age believers as a pagan deity and by rap artists “from the hood’” as a hero of retribution. All possible because, in the early material, he lacks definition: no biography, no family, no love interest, no specific period, and no consistent location. As an almost invisible man, he came to personify the central concerns, after poverty, of all human beings: natural justice and unconditional freedom.
  4.  
  5. General Overviews
  6.  
  7. For the most part the following offer more than general overviews. All extend beyond the period of medieval studies. Bradbury 2010 and Spraggs 2001 provide introductions to the medieval Robin Hood for the nonspecialist and general reader. Neither offer incisive new insights but facilitate an opening to further study. Holt 1989 and Knight 1994 represent the megaliths of late 20th-century Robin Hood scholarship. Holt, a medievalist and historian, concentrates upon the archival evidence for an historical Robin Hood while Knight is more concerned with the cultural history of Robin Hood manifested through literature and performance; a critical conviction developed further in Knight 2003. Pollard 2004 centers his study within the 15th century in a thorough analysis of the political and economic dimension to the emergence of Robin Hood. Singman 1998, on the other hand, concentrates on the social contexts of the ballad and play texts pre-1700.The astonishing variety of purpose and range of media that Robin Hood has served through the ages is entertainingly demonstrated in the catalogue that accompanied a major exhibition, Carpenter 1995.
  8.  
  9. Bradbury, Jim. Robin Hood. Stroud, UK: Amberley, 2010.
  10. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  11. The most useful of a recent surfeit of popular accounts of Robin Hood. Written with enthusiasm by a well respected military historian of medieval archery the book relies heavily on selective secondary sources. Provides a basic introduction, in reverse chronology, to the history and literature of Robin Hood for the nonspecialist.
  12. Find this resource:
  13. Carpenter, Kevin. Robin Hood: The Many Faces of that Celebrated English Outlaw. Oldenburg, Germany: Bibliotheks-und Informationssystem der Universität Oldenburg, 1995.
  14. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  15. Essentially a catalogue, written in German and English, of an outstanding and comprehensive exhibition of Robin Hood material and artifacts held in Europe and North America between 1995 and 1997. In addition to a description of exhibits, many of which are illustrated, the volume contains important essays by a number of leading authorities including Holt, Dobson and Taylor, Knight, and Ohlgren.
  16. Find this resource:
  17. Holt, James. Robin Hood. London: Thames and Hudson, 1989.
  18. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  19. A revised and enlarged edition of the 1982 groundbreaking study by an eminent medieval historian. Driven by a desire to identify the original Robin Hood, Holt meticulously interrogates documentary evidence from the Middle Ages in particular. Tendency to use the literary material for the same historical purpose. Inevitably dated, a reprint of 1989 appeared in 2011 with an unrevised text, new illustrations, and Child’s edition of A Gest of Robyn Hode appended.
  20. Find this resource:
  21. Knight, Stephen. Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994.
  22. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  23. Scholarly, encyclopedic and fluent introduction to the subject from a literary and cultural studies perspective. At the time of publication, an iconoclastic antidote to the dominance of historical studies in the field of Robin Hood. Half of the book is devoted to the early period with later chapters examining the modern manifestations of the legend in “heritage” and “film.” Very nearly lives up to the lofty subtitle.
  24. Find this resource:
  25. Knight, Stephen. Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003.
  26. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  27. Knight recasts the material from his 1994 study in a more modern and literary mould. Rather than privilege chronology and form as in his earlier study, Knight examines transformations in the mythic and biographic aspects of Robin Hood within the social, political, and cultural contexts in which they occurred.
  28. Find this resource:
  29. Pollard, A. J. Imagining Robin Hood: The Late-Medieval Stories in Historical Context. London and New York: Routledge, 2004.
  30. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  31. A leading historian’s contextualization of the early Robin Hood material in the economic, social, and political environment of the 15th century. Emphasizes the importance of the ideologically dominant concept of “good fellowship” in the literature. Argues for the texts to be seen as an articulation of a popular desire to challenge authority. Excellent bibliography for historical material.
  32. Find this resource:
  33. Singman, Jeffrey L. Robin Hood: The Shaping of the Legend. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1998.
  34. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  35. A little dated now but a genuine attempt to explore the interaction between fictive texts and social contexts. Mainly concerned with the late medieval period, although considers the legend to 1700. More confident in exploring the play-games from the evidence of accounts than critically analyzing the poems and ballads.
  36. Find this resource:
  37. Spraggs, Gillian. Outlaws and Highway Men: The Cult of the Robber in England from the Middle Ages to the Nineteenth Century. London: Pimlico, 2001.
  38. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  39. Not intended to be as comprehensive as other works in this section. Nevertheless, the chapters on Robin Hood provide a lucid, knowledgeable, and uncontroversial introduction for a reader with more than a casual interest in the cult of outlaws.
  40. Find this resource:
  41. Bibliographies
  42.  
  43. Bibliographies in books are limited by their publication date, particularly in the case of Gable 1939 where the cut-off limits the value to prewar references. With this caveat in mind, Knight 1994, Knight 2003, and Pollard 2004 (all cited in General Overviews) offer extensive lists. By far the most useful, though, are those capable of online updating such as The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester.
  44.  
  45. Gable, J. Harris. Bibliography of Robin Hood. The University of Nebraska Studies in Language, Literature and Criticism 17. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1939.
  46. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  47. Limited in value by publication date and lack of organization into categories. Over exhaustive for the general enquirer but enticing for the specialist for the little known works.
  48. Find this resource:
  49. The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester.
  50. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  51. Among many other online resources provided by the Rochester site, the bibliography, maintained by specialists, is invaluable.
  52. Find this resource:
  53. Primary Sources
  54.  
  55. The understanding of Robin Hood within the Middle Ages relies on a disappointing number of primary sources. The early poems are made up of two 15th-century manuscript ballads, now known as Robin Hood and the Monk and Robin Hood and the Potter, and the longer romance/epic/ballad compilation known as the Gest of Robin Hood printed at the end of the 15th and throughout the 16th centuries. The play/games of Robin Hood are recorded in various churchwardens’ accounts but never fully described. One play-text manuscript of a household performance also survives. Three Scottish chronicles and one insertion into an English manuscript give some credence to a historical Robin Hood. There is also the archival evidence of actual people having or adopting variants of the name “Robin Hood”; not all of whom were outlawed or had criminal convictions.
  56.  
  57. Collections
  58.  
  59. Given the rarity of medieval texts of Robin Hood, the study of them has been extremely well served. From Ritson 1997 (originally published 1795) to Knight and Ohlgren 1997, proficient and reliable editions have been available for more than two hundred years. Ritson, in particular, was instrumental in providing a reasonably accurate collection of almost all poems and ballads of Robin Hood known to have survived. This laid the foundations for the serious study of the early materials of Robin Hood. Gutch 1847 largely followed Ritson in format and content. Child 1965, in a reprint of his late 19th-century collection of English and Scottish ballads, placed the Robin Hood ballads in the wider national context of balladry and provided much needed editorial apparatus and critical introductions. Although Dobson and Taylor 1997 inevitably relied on Child for their selection of ballads and references, they made them popular to a wider audience as well as developed the quality of Robin Hood scholarship in their extensive introduction. Percy 1765 was responsible for bringing public attention to a ballad that may have late medieval origin even though it only survives in a 17th-century manuscript. Although not strictly a Robin Hood text, Axton and Stevens 1971, some scholars have considered the possibility of the French pastourelle having influenced the shape of the Robin Hood legend.
  60.  
  61. Axton, Richard, and John Stevens, trans. Medieval French Plays. Oxford: Blackwell, 1971.
  62. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  63. Includes an English translation of the late 13th-century French pastourelle by Adam de la Halle, Le Jeu de Robin et de Marion. This sung drama is thought by many Robin Hood scholars to have had some influence on the development of the Robin Hood legend in England and Scotland.
  64. Find this resource:
  65. Child, Frances James. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. 5 vols. New York: Dover, 1965.
  66. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  67. A reprint of the original work published in series between 1882 and 1898. Volume 3 incorporates a magisterial collection of Robin Hood ballads that combines editorial diligence with scholarly, if sometimes querulous, analysis. The model for almost all subsequent collections of Robin Hood ballads.
  68. Find this resource:
  69. Dobson, R. B., and J. Taylor. Rymes of Robin Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw. Rev. ed. Stroud, UK: Sutton, 1997.
  70. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  71. A revised edition of the first publication by Heinemann in 1976. An extremely useful collection of Robin Hood texts that includes all early material. The introduction is exemplary of a scholarly tradition that combines historical and literary methodologies. Superseded by later works while remaining a valuable and forthrightly guided introduction for those with serious interest.
  72. Find this resource:
  73. Gutch, John Mathew. A Lytell Geste of Robin Hode: With Other Ancient and Modern Ballads and Songs Relating to this Celebrated Yeoman. London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1847.
  74. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  75. Relies heavily on the 1832 edition of Ritson for ballad collection and biography. Includes some additional poems and contributions on the morris dance and musical accompaniment to the ballads.
  76. Find this resource:
  77. Knight, Stephen, and Thomas Ohlgren, eds. Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1997.
  78. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  79. The most accessible modern collection of Robin Hood texts; poetic and dramatic. Also includes other outlaw tales of the medieval period with Robin Hood parallels. Each text is prefaced by a concise introduction, a selective bibliography, and accompanied by knowledgeable notes. Intended for undergraduate use. The texts are also available at The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester (cited under Bibliographies)
  80. Find this resource:
  81. Percy, Thomas. Reliques of Ancient English Poetry. 3 vols. London: Dodsley, 1765.
  82. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  83. Publication of Percy’s acquisition of a 17th-century manuscript that includes the ballad of Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne that on linguistic and circumstantial evidence may have a late medieval origin.
  84. Find this resource:
  85. Ritson, Joseph. Robin Hood: A Collection of all the Ancient Poems, Songs and Ballads, now extant, Relative to that Celebrated English Outlaw. 2 vols. London: Routledge/Thoemmes, 1997.
  86. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  87. Remains the most comprehensive collection of Robin Hood works. Originally published in 1795, the 1832 edition benefits from inclusions and annotations made by Ritson to his first edition. Contains his own “The Life of Robin Hood” which has historiographical interest but should be regarded with academic caution. The edition cited is a reprint of the 1887 edition (based on 1832) and represents the most complete and readily available version.
  88. Find this resource:
  89. Chronicles
  90.  
  91. Three Scottish chronicles, Andrew of Wyntoun 1872–1879, Bower 1722, and Major 1892, and one English chronicle, Luxford 2009, refer to Robin Hood. This might seem to offer some support to the idea of an historical Robin Hood. If this were the case, though, it is difficult to see why English chronicles, of which there were many, would not have mentioned Robin Hood more frequently and within the main text. Some of the information, in all four instances, may have been drawn from an awareness of the Gest. This does not, though, explain the choice of different date entries, which progressively move back from the reign of Edward I (Andrew of Wyntoun 1872–1879 and Luxford 2009) via Henry III (Bower 1722) to Richard I (Major 1892). The discrepancies may have arisen from the Gest not being specific about the historical setting other than a reference to “Edwarde, our comly kynge.” The chronicles also disagree over their degree of disapproval of Robin Hood’s actions and popular appeal.
  92.  
  93. Andrew of Wyntoun. The Orygynale Cronykil of Scotland. Edited by David Laing. 3 vols. Edinburgh: Edmonton and Douglas, 1872–1879.
  94. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  95. Written in the 1420s by an Augustinian canon. Little John and Robin Hood are located in Inglewood and Barnsdale in the entry for 1283. Andrew observes that they were highly regarded rather than condemned. The entry is extracted with commentary in Knight and Ohlgren 1997 (cited under Collections). It also appears at The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester (cited under Bibliographies).
  96. Find this resource:
  97. Bower, Walter. Continuation of Fordun’s Scotichronicon. Edited by T. Hearne. Oxford: Sheldonian Theatre, 1722.
  98. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  99. In the 1440s, Bower updated and reworked the Latin chronicle of John Fordun. One of his insertions referred to Robin Hood, under the year 1266, as a famous murderer and cutthroat. Aligning him, by association, with the disinherited followers of Simon de Montfort, Bower criticizes the foolish people who celebrate Robin Hood in tragedies, comedies, and ballads. Extract in translation in Knight and Ohlgren 1997 (cited under Collections) and at The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester (cited under Bibliographies).
  100. Find this resource:
  101. Luxford, Julian M. “An English Chronicle Entry on Robin Hood.” Journal of Medieval History 35 (2009): 70–76.
  102. DOI: 10.1016/j.jmedhist.2009.01.002Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  103. An important discovery of an insertion, in the 1460s, into a copy of Ranulf Higden’s Polychronicon of a reference to Robin Hood. The twenty-three-word Latin inscription places the outlaw in Sherwood between the years 1294 and 1299. His robberies are reproved and the source of information given as popular opinion.
  104. Find this resource:
  105. Major, John. A History of Greater Britain As Well England and Scotland. Translated and edited by Archibald Constable. Scottish History Society. 10. Edinburgh: University Press, 1892.
  106. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  107. Influentially, Major, in this early 16th-century work, places Robin in the reign of King Richard I. He censures the robberies but otherwise offers a positive and heroic assessment of Robin’s principles and actions. Extract in translation in Knight and Ohlgren 1997 (cited under Collections and at The Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester (cited under Bibliographies).
  108. Find this resource:
  109. Records
  110.  
  111. Robin Hood play/games are extremely difficult to categorize. The simplest explanation is that they are church ales with a Robin Hood flavor. Intended to raise funds for parish purposes they seem to involve the dressing-up of chosen parishioners as Robin Hood and Little John. Their primary task was to raise money within the context of feasting, drinking, and entertainment that may have included an element of performance. Particularly popular in the Thames Valley, the southwest of England and the Severn Valley, they were also significant in Scotland (Mill 1927). What is known about the play/games comes largely from churchwardens’ and in some instances town accounts (Lancashire 1984 and Singman 1998). The most valuable source of information for these play/games is the ongoing series of Records of Early English Drama (see MacLean and Johnston 1980) based at the University of Toronto. References to Robin Hood in these volumes are tabulated and discussed by Marshall 2006.
  112.  
  113. Lancashire, Ian. Dramatic Texts and Records of Britain: A Chronological Topography to 1558. Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
  114. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  115. Slowly being superseded by the emergence of Records of Early English Drama volumes, this remains a superb digest of evidence for dramatic activity in Britain. Includes an invaluable collection of references to Robin Hood games and plays.
  116. Find this resource:
  117. MacLean, Sally-Beth and Alexandra F. Johnston. Records of Early English Drama. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1980.
  118. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  119. The following volumes have references to Robin Hood play/games: Devon 1986, Herefordshire/Worcestershire 1990, Lancashire 1991, Shropshire 1994, Somerset Including Bath 1996, Bristol 1997, Dorset/Cornwall 1999, Sussex 2000, Kent 2002, and Ecclesiastical London 2008. Forthcoming volumes covering the counties of Surrey, Berkshire, and Oxfordshire will provide extensive additional evidence of Robin Hood play/games in the Thames Valley. Records of Early Drama: Scotland, when published, will extend the early work of Anna Jean Mill 1927 on Robin Hood play/games and other Scottish drama, and furnish Robin Hood scholars with much needed material.
  120. Find this resource:
  121. Marshall, John. “Gathering in the Name of the Outlaw: REED and Robin Hood.” In REED in Review: Essays in Celebration of the First Twenty-Five Years. Edited by Audrey Douglas and Sally-Beth MacLean, 65–84. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006.
  122. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  123. Surveys and analyses references to Robin Hood play/games that appear in REED volumes from 1979 to 2004. Challenges notions of Robin Hood games as emblematic celebrations of spring or as carnivalesque expressions of anti-authoritarian sentiments. Instead, examines the destination of the funds raised as indicators of intentions. Includes a useful tabulation of references.
  124. Find this resource:
  125. Mill, Anna Jean. Mediaeval Plays in Scotland. Edinburgh: St Andrews University Publications 24, 1927.
  126. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  127. In spite of its age this remains the most comprehensive transcription of extracts from Scottish records dealing with dramatic activity that includes a vibrant tradition of Robin Hood play/games.
  128. Find this resource:
  129. Singman, Jeffrey L. Robin Hood: The Shaping of the Legend. Westport, CT, and London: Greenwood, 1998.
  130. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  131. Devotes a chapter to Robin Hood play/games and in Appendix A lists references to games by region. The records vary in reliability according to the source.
  132. Find this resource:
  133. Historical and Textual Scholarship
  134.  
  135. Considering the limitation in volume of medieval source material, Robin Hood has been the subject of extensive and impressive scholarship. This is particularly evident in the period from the second half of the 20th century following what has come to be known as the Past and Present debate after the series of articles in that journal that made different claims for the constituency of the medieval audience for Robin Hood poems and ballads. Scholars new to the subject are aided enormously in getting to grips with this and other issues, historical and textual, by the immensely valuable collection of previously published articles in Knight 1999.
  136.  
  137. Knight, Stephen, ed. Robin Hood: An Anthology of Scholarship and Criticism. Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer, 1999.
  138. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  139. Some of the articles cited in this online bibliography are quite difficult to access even for those able to consult academic libraries. In this anthology of Robin Hood scholarship and criticism, Knight has selected groundbreaking articles and chapters that have defined the study of Robin Hood in multiple critical and historical guises.
  140. Find this resource:
  141. Poems and Ballads
  142.  
  143. For a long time the early poems or ballads of Robin Hood and the Monk and Robin Hood and the Potter, and the romance influenced Gest of Robin Hood have been regarded as the core texts of the medieval Robin Hood. The texts have been used in various ways. Historians have tended to view them as evidence of historical reality. More recently this has been opened up to see them rather as critiques of law enforcement, Chism 2002, and attitudes to banditry, Hanawalt 1992. Literary critics have pursued an avenue of structural and thematic analysis (Clawson 1909, Fowler 1968, Gray 1984, and Pearsall 2005). Stallybrass 1985 applied Bakhtinian theories to Robin Hood that are no longer convincing. Ohlgren 2007 has introduced a profoundly significant dimension to criticism by rigorously examining the material culture of the manuscripts and early printed versions.
  144.  
  145. Chism, Christine. “Robin Hood: Thinking Globally, Acting Locally in the Fifteenth-Century Ballads.” In The Letter of the Law: Legal Practice and Literary Production in Medieval England. Edited by Emily Steiner and Candace Barrington, 12–39. Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press, 2002.
  146. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  147. A theoretical analysis, following Pierre Bourdieu, of the early poems within the critical territory of the contemporary localization of law enforcement. Argues for the poems as an active critique of “fellowship,” “association,” and “masculinity.”
  148. Find this resource:
  149. Clawson, William Hall. The Gest of Robin Hood. Toronto: University of Toronto Library, 1909.
  150. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  151. A century after its publication this is still the most comprehensive analysis of the compilation of the Gest. Using close reading of the text and analogous literature makes a claim for the poetic skill of the late 14th-century compiler.
  152. Find this resource:
  153. Fowler, David C. A Literary History of the Popular Ballad. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1968.
  154. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  155. In the chapter “Rymes of Robyn Hood,” Fowler presses the evidence for narrative symmetry in the Gest that indicates the work of a skilled artist rather than a clumsy redactor. Believes that the Robin Hood ballads previously thought to have been the sources for the Gest actually followed its composition. Advocate of the opinion that the early ballads were spoken not sung. Reprinted in Knight 1999.
  156. Find this resource:
  157. Gray, Douglas. “The Robin Hood Poems.” Poetica 18 (1984): 1–18.
  158. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  159. Perhaps the most concise and scholarly analysis of the early poems, offering literary insights of great value. Emphasizes the manipulation of levels of “game” and “earnest” and the use of comic and ironic effects. Ranges beyond criticism to engage with issues of audience and appeal. Reprinted in Knight 1999.
  160. Find this resource:
  161. Hanawalt, Barbara A. “Ballads and Bandits: Fourteenth-Century Outlaws and the Robin Hood Poems.” In Chaucer’s England: Literature in Historical Context. Edited by Barbara A. Hanawalt, 154–175. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1992.
  162. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  163. Examines the early literature in the light of evidence of contemporary banditry and asks why Robin Hood as fugitive and criminal retained popular appeal when real bandits were often vilified. Reprinted in Knight 1999.
  164. Find this resource:
  165. Ohlgren, Thomas H. Robin Hood: The Early Poems, 1465–1560: Texts, Contexts, and Ideology. With an Appendix: The Dialects and Language of Selected Poems [by] Lister M. Matheson. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2007.
  166. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  167. An absorbing work that concentrates in rigorous detail on the material reality of the poems as a means of uncovering their intertextual and cultural contexts. Creates an important revision of prevailing views on dating, ownership, and provenance.
  168. Find this resource:
  169. Pearsall, Derek. “Little John and the Ballad of Robin Hood and the Monk.” In Robin Hood: Medieval and Post-Medieval. Edited by Helen Phillips, 42–50. Dublin, Ireland: Four Courts, 2005.
  170. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  171. Proposes a critical refocus on the ballad that repositions Little John, rather than Robin Hood, as the conceptual epitome of “fellowship.”
  172. Find this resource:
  173. Stallybrass, Peter. “‘Drunk with the Cup of Liberty’: Robin Hood, the Carnivalesque, and the Rhetoric of Violence in Early Modern England.” Semiotica 54 (1985): 113–145.
  174. DOI: 10.1515/semi.1985.54.1-2.113Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  175. Not restricted to medieval material, this is a rarity in that it examines Robin Hood through the application of critical theory. Robin Hood poems and games are subjected to an analysis structured on the carnivalesque theories of Mikhail Bakhtin. Since publication, Bakhtin’s ideas, as applied to medieval culture, have undergone considerable academic reassessment and no longer sufficiently illuminate the appeal of Robin Hood. Reprinted in Knight 1999.
  176. Find this resource:
  177. Plays and Games
  178.  
  179. Once the poor relative of the early poems, the play/games are increasingly being seen as the prime movers in the dissemination of the Robin Hood legend in the Middle Ages (Wiles 1981, Marshall 2001, Knight 2008, and White 2008). Occupying a central role in parish finance and entertainment in medieval England it is clear that Robin Hood may have been regarded simultaneously as countercultural and ideologically positive. The play/games were widespread in southern England (Johnston 1998 and MacLean 1986–1987). Only one play-text survives (Marshall 1998). This putative performance raises interesting questions about the nature of dramatic performance in the 15th century. Forrest 1999 explores the relationship between Robin Hood games and the phenomenon of morris dancing.
  180.  
  181. Forrest, John. The History of Morris Dancing, 1458–1750. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999.
  182. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  183. This is not only the most accomplished study of early morris dancing but it also sympathetically explores the close late-medieval relationship between the dance and Robin Hood games. The analysis is precise and perceptive and unavailable in this detail elsewhere.
  184. Find this resource:
  185. Johnston, Alexandra F. “The Robin Hood of the Records.” In Playing Robin Hood: The Legend as Performance in Five Centuries. Edited by Lois Potter, 27–44. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1998.
  186. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  187. A concise, well organized, and authoritative survey of Robin Hood play/game records from one of the founders of Records of Early English Drama (see MacLean 1979 under Records). The detailed references in the Notes are excellent.
  188. Find this resource:
  189. Knight, Stephen. “Robin Hood: The Earliest Contexts.” In Images of Robin Hood: Medieval to Modern. Edited by Lois Potter and Joshua Calhoun, 21–40. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2008.
  190. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  191. A radical analysis of the sociocultural significance of the early play/games. Observes a predominantly coastal distribution. Argues for trade with France as conduit for the influence of pastourelles on the subject of Robin et Marion on the development of the Robin Hood games in England and Scotland.
  192. Find this resource:
  193. MacLean, Sally-Beth. “King Games and Robin Hood: Play and Profit at Kingston upon Thames.” Research Opportunities in Renaissance Drama 29 (1986–1987): 85–94.
  194. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  195. Although brief, this is a crucial article that brought academic attention to one of the foremost and well documented locations of Robin Hood games in the early 16th century.
  196. Find this resource:
  197. Marshall, John. “‘goon in-to Bernysdale’: The Trail of the Paston Robin Hood Play.” In Essays in Honour of Peter Meredith. Edited by Catherine Batt, 183–217. Leeds Studies in English n.s. 29. Leeds, UK: School of English, University of Leeds, 1998.
  198. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  199. The most comprehensive and detailed analysis of the only surviving late-medieval performance text involving Robin Hood. Examines evidence for associating the play with the Paston family, explores performance conditions and the cultural and political interests production may have served.
  200. Find this resource:
  201. Marshall, John. “‘Comyth in Robyn Hode’: Paying and Playing the Outlaw at Croscombe.” In Porci ante Margaritam: Essays in Honour of Meg Twycross. Edited by Sarah Carpenter, Pamela King, and Peter Meredith, 345–368. Leeds Studies in English n.s. 32. Leeds, UK: School of English, University of Leeds, 2001.
  202. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  203. A close examination of the church-wardens’ records from the Somerset village of Croscombe. The parish held Robin Hood “revels” at various times during the 15th and 16th centuries. Identifies those who played Robin Hood and discovers the destination of the funds raised. Suggests new ways of viewing the social and financial implications of the games.
  204. Find this resource:
  205. White, Paul Whitfield. Drama and Religion in English Provincial Society, 1485–1660. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
  206. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  207. Although the dates in the title might suggest otherwise, the chapter on “The Parish Robin Hood and the Religious Guilds” is directly relevant to the late-medieval play/game. Argues powerfully for the central importance of the parish guild as the administrative institution responsible for initiating and sustaining Robin Hood games.
  208. Find this resource:
  209. Wiles, David. The Early Plays of Robin Hood. Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer 1981.
  210. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  211. Although inevitably outdated, critically and historically, this is essential reading. In its time, a pioneering work that established the importance of customary performance to the popularity and development of the Robin Hood legend. Controversially proposed that the play/games were anterior to the ballads. Records taken from antiquarian sources should be viewed with some caution.
  212. Find this resource:
  213. Patrons and Audiences
  214.  
  215. After the question of whether Robin Hood was “real,” the debate over the nature and composition of the audience for the poems, ballads, and plays has occupied scholars most. Beginning as a lively opposition between peasants with agrarian grievances, Hilton 1958, and the members of gentry households, Holt 1960 and Holt 1989, opinion has been divided and refined. Coss 1985 argued for a more complex relationship between aristocratic and popular culture. Richmond 1993 sided in the direction of Hilton’s social scale by proposing an audience of “husbandmen.” For the Gest,a case for an audience of guildsmen has been made by Ohlgren 2007 and for journeymen by Tardif 1983. Ohlgren 2007 has identified the owners of the earliest poems as a priest and an estate manager. Marshall 1998 confirms the ownership of the only extant medieval play of Robin Hood as John Paston II, the then head of a lower gentry household. Added to this list is the early 16th-century active interest in Robin Hood of Henry VIII. This evidence combined suggests a broadly based rather than coterie audience.
  216.  
  217. Coss, Peter. “Aspects of Cultural Diffusion in Medieval England: The Early Romances, Local Society, and Robin Hood.” Past and Present 108 (1985): 35–79.
  218. DOI: 10.1093/past/108.1.35Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  219. An influential article that articulated a more complex relationship between audiences for aristocratic and popular culture than the binary positions of earlier historians. Locates the origin of the Robin Hood ballads in the late 14th century. Abbreviated version reprinted in Knight 1999.
  220. Find this resource:
  221. Hilton, R. H. “The Origins of Robin Hood.” Past and Present 14 (1958): 30–44.
  222. DOI: 10.1093/past/14.1.30Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  223. The paper that started the debate, which continues, on the audience for the early Robin Hood material. Surveys the then-evidence for a historical Robin Hood and interprets his social position in the ballads as a free peasant. This leads to a context for the ballads in the 13th or early 14th century for a peasant audience harboring agrarian discontent. Reprinted in Knight 1999.
  224. Find this resource:
  225. Holt, J. C. “The Origins and the Audience of the Ballads of Robin Hood.” Past and Present 18 (1960): 89–110.
  226. DOI: 10.1093/past/18.1.89Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  227. Robust challenge to Hilton 1958. Dismisses his thesis on the basis of lack of evidence for peasant concern or grievance in the ballads. Argues, more convincingly, for a socially mixed audience maintained within gentry households. Reprinted in Knight 1999.
  228. Find this resource:
  229. Holt, J. C. Robin Hood. Rev. ed. London: Thames and Hudson, 1989.
  230. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  231. Holt devotes an entire chapter in his groundbreaking study of Robin Hood to “The Audience.” Fundamentally a version of Holt 1960 but revised and reworked. For a newcomer to the “audience” debate a helpful starting point.
  232. Find this resource:
  233. Marshall, John. “‘goon in-to Bernysdale’: The Trail of the Paston Robin Hood Play.” In Essays in Honour of Peter Meredith. Edited by Catherine Batt, 183–217. Leeds Studies in English n.s. 29. Leeds, UK: School of English, University of Leeds, 1998.
  234. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  235. Explores the relationship between the only reasonably certain patrons of a surviving medieval Robin Hood play text and their household. To some extent supports Holt 1960 and Holt 1989 in his view of a socially mixed audience.
  236. Find this resource:
  237. Ohlgren, Thomas. Robin Hood: The Early Poems, 1465–1560: Texts, Contexts, and Ideology. With an Appendix: The Dialects and Language of Selected Poems [by] Lister M. Matheson. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2007.
  238. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  239. In addition to a rigorous study of the material culture of the early poems, Ohlgren identifies the owners of the two surviving 15th-century manuscripts of the earliest ballads as a priest and the estate manager to the Paston family. Ohlgren also makes a case for the Gest being redolent of merchant guild culture.
  240. Find this resource:
  241. Richmond, Colin. “An Outlaw and Some Peasants: The Possible Significance of Robin Hood.” Nottingham Medieval Studies 37 (1993): 90–101.
  242. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  243. Written with verve and passion, sets the early Robin Hood material in a period of transition in English social culture. Regards Robin as an asocial hero and an instance of “yeomanliness.” Considers him to be a hero for the class of “husbandmen” whom Robin instructs his followers in the Gest not to harm. Reprinted in Knight 1999.
  244. Find this resource:
  245. Tardif, Richard. “The ‘Mistery’ of Robin Hood: A New Social Context for the Texts.” In Words and Worlds: Studies in the Social Role of Verbal Culture. Edited by S. Knight and S. J. Mukherjee, 130–145. Sydney: Sydney Association for Studies in Society and Culture, 1983.
  246. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  247. Resisting the quest for origins, Tardif concentrates on the social formations of the time the surviving ballads appeared. Examines in detail the connections between medieval town economies and the content of the ballads. Leads him to an urban lower-class audience represented by the journeymen of craft guilds. Reprinted in Knight 1999.
  248. Find this resource:
  249. The Historical Robin Hood
  250.  
  251. A great deal of popular and academic energy has been spent by historians in the quest for the historical Robin Hood. At its best the archive searching has been diligent if inconclusive (Hunter 1852, Crook 1984, Bellamy 1985, and Holt 1989). Harris 1973 and Walker 1952 followed Hunter 1852 closely but also claimed to have discovered evidence that has not survived scrutiny. Prideaux 1886 was one of the first to associate Robin Hood with an actual outlaw and Maddicott 1978 sits within the scholarly tradition of historians seeking individuals in the archives who fit the political circumstances of the literature. A number of people with the name Robin Hood, or variations of it, have been discovered, though many yield no evidence of being outlawed or even criminal. As elegantly demonstrated by Crook 1984, though, fugitives were being branded as versions of Robin Hood as early as 1262 suggesting that the legend was flourishing some time before. Literary and cultural studies scholars have varied in their level of disdain for the search of a definitive Robin Hood.
  252.  
  253. Bellamy, John. Robin Hood: An Historical Enquiry. London and Sydney: Crook Helm, 1985.
  254. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  255. The most exhaustive historical study attempting to identify the major characters of the Gest. Provides a useful two-part survey of previous searches. Follows and extends Hunter 1852 in opting for the Robin Hood of Wakefield as the origin of the legend.
  256. Find this resource:
  257. Crook, David. “Some Further Evidence Concerning the Dating of the Origins of the Legend of Robin Hood.” English Historical Review 99 (1984): 530–534.
  258. DOI: 10.1093/ehr/XCIX.CCCXCII.530Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  259. A momentous discovery in the history of Robin Hood. Demonstrates that the legend of an outlaw Robin Hood was known in 1262 when an actual fugitive had his name in the records changed from “le Fevere” to “Robehood.” Reprinted in Knight 1999 (cited under Historical and Textual Scholarship).
  260. Find this resource:
  261. Harris, P. Valentine. The Truth About Robin Hood: A Refutation of the Mythologists’ Theories, with New Evidence of the Hero’s Actual Existence. Mansfield, UK: W. and J. Linney, 1973.
  262. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  263. Essentially an extension of the work by Hunter 1852. Claimed to have discovered, in the Wakefield Court Rolls, names that coincided with those mentioned in the Gest.
  264. Find this resource:
  265. Holt, J. C. Robin Hood. Rev. ed. London: Thames and Hudson, 1989.
  266. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  267. Of all book-length studies of Robin Hood, Holt provides the most complete and authoritative analysis of documentary evidence for an historical origin to the legend.
  268. Find this resource:
  269. Hunter, Joseph. “The Great Hero of the Ancient Minstrelsy of England: Robin Hood, his Period, real Character, etc., Investigated.” In The Great Hero of the Ancient Minstrelsy of England, Robin Hood. Vol. 4, Critical and Historical Tracts. By Joseph Hunter, 28–38. London: Smith, 1852.
  270. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  271. The first investigator to use genuine record evidence and promote the case for Robert Hood, a tenant of Wakefield Manor during the reign of Edward II, as the “real” Robin Hood. Reprinted in Knight 1999 (cited under Historical and Textual Scholarship).
  272. Find this resource:
  273. Maddicott, J. R. “The Birth and Setting of the Ballads of Robin Hood.” English Historical Review 93 (1978): 276–299.
  274. DOI: 10.1093/ehr/XCIII.CCCLXVII.276Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  275. On the basis of surviving references and the language of bastard feudalism identified in the Gest suggests an early 14th-century origin for the legend. Then seeks to detect the people behind the abbot, the high justice, and the sheriff, but not Robin Hood. Reprinted in Knight 1999 (cited under Historical and Textual Scholarship).
  276. Find this resource:
  277. Prideaux, W. F. “Who was Robin Hood?” Notes and Queries 7th series 2 (1886): 421–424.
  278. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  279. One of the first to associate the origin of Robin Hood with an actual outlaw: the noble fugitive, “Fulk Fitz Warine.” Reprinted in Knight 1999 (cited under Historical and Textual Scholarship).
  280. Find this resource:
  281. Walker, J. W. The True History of Robin Hood. Wakefield, UK: West Yorkshire Printing, 1952.
  282. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  283. Walker extended Hunter 1852 by claiming that the Wakefield Robin Hood served in Thomas, earl of Lancaster’s army for which he was dispossessed of his property. Walker either misread, was mislead, or worse. No longer given much credibility although has a place in the history for the search of a “real” Robin Hood.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. The Mythical Robin Hood
  286.  
  287. The belief in an entirely mythical Robin Hood attracted a great deal of popular interest, particularly in the second half of the 20th century. Much of it has been baseless wish-fulfillment and properly ignored by serious students of the legend. Nevertheless, it is clear that aspects of the telling of the tales of Robin Hood in poetry and performance incorporate motifs of myth. The setting, the season, use of disguise, trickery, and feats of physical skill all contribute to the possibility of a nonhuman life force. The case for a mythical Robin Hood was given an enormous boost when Lee 1885–1910 wrote the entry for Robin Hood in the first edition of the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB). From the beginning of his article he boldly claimed that Robin Hood derived from a forest-elf of Teutonic folklore: an idea he probably received from Wright 1846. Drawing on the play/games as evidence of ritual drama with pagan origins some authors interpret Robin as a deity associated with vegetation and the coming of spring (Murray 1981, Raglan 1936, Matthews 1993). Other associations have been made with the green-man and the wild-man (Matthews 1993, Stock 2000). A more theoretical exploration of the mythical trope is conducted by Nagy 1980.
  288.  
  289. Lee, Sydney. “Robin Hood.” In Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith Elder, 1885–1910.
  290. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  291. The only entry for a properly fictional figure in the first edition of the DNB. Lee claims that the name “Robin Hood” belonged to a mythical forest-elf derived from Teutonic folklore. Reprinted in Knight 1999 (cited under Historical and Textual Scholarship).
  292. Find this resource:
  293. Matthews, John. Robin Hood: Green Lord of the Wildwood. Glastonbury, UK: Gothic Image, 1993.
  294. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  295. One of the more serious recent treatments of the mythical motif. Views Robin as a pagan deity, or life force, associated with vegetation and the season of spring. Robin as King of the May: a descendant of the Green Man. Owes a debt to Raglan 1936. Partly reprinted in Knight 1999 (cited under Historical and Textual Scholarship).
  296. Find this resource:
  297. Murray, Margaret. The God of the Witches. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.
  298. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  299. A rather bizarre attempt to associate Robin with the cult of witches and pagan gods.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Nagy, Joseph Falaky. “The Paradoxes of Robin Hood.” Folklore 91 (1980): 198–210.
  302. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  303. Following Victor Turner’s anthropological theories, Nagy views Robin Hood as a mythical figure who occupies the liminal space between nature and culture. Reprinted in Knight 1999 (cited under Historical and Textual Scholarship).
  304. Find this resource:
  305. Raglan, Lord. The Hero. London: Methuen, 1936.
  306. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  307. In the section on Robin Hood, Raglan identifies Robin as a hero of the ritual drama, which he regards as of pagan origin. Partly reprinted in Knight 1999 (cited under Historical and Textual Scholarship).
  308. Find this resource:
  309. Stock, Lorraine Kochanske. “Lords of the Wildwood: The Wild Man, the Green Man, and Robin Hood.” In Robin Hood in Popular Culture: Violence, Transgression, and Justice. Edited by Thomas Hahn, 239–249. Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer, 2000.
  310. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  311. Argues for a conjunction of the mythical functions of wild men, green men, and Robin Hood. Claims that medieval audiences would have similarly been aware of the connections.
  312. Find this resource:
  313. Wright, Thomas. “On the Popular Cycle of the Robin Hood Ballads.” In Vol. 1, Essays on Subjects Connected with the Literature, Popular Superstitions, and History of England in the Middle Ages. 2 vols. By Thomas Wright, 164–211. London: John Russell Smith, 1846.
  314. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  315. One of the earliest scholars and antiquarians to argue for Robin Hood as an entirely mythical figure. He believed his origins were to be found in Teutonic folklore.
  316. Find this resource:
  317. Other Medieval Outlaws
  318.  
  319. Robin Hood was by no means the only outlaw loose in medieval Europe. Moreover, some of them actually lived (Burgess 2009). Anthologies of tales of other outlaws (Ohlgren 1998) and commentary upon them (Keen 2000), while interesting in their own right, clearly show how many coincidences of action and parallels of plot are shared by Robin Hood with his contemporaries. Given the widespread geographical appeal of Robin Hood it is surprising that more has not been made of his Scottish connection, recently addressed by Knight 2008. Welsh bandits were also active at the time and are outlined by Price 2008. A collection of essays on outlaws, Appleby and Dalton 2009, recently focused much needed attention on the legal aspects of outlawry and points to a new source of contextualizing study for the most famous outlaw of all.
  320.  
  321. Appleby, John C., and Paul Dalton eds. Outlaws in Medieval and Early Modern England: Crime, Government and Society, c. 1066–c. 1600. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2009.
  322. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  323. A fine collection of essays addressing legal, criminal, and ideological aspects of outlawry. Includes a chapter each on Hereward the Wake and Robin Hood.
  324. Find this resource:
  325. Burgess, Glyn. Two Medieval Outlaws: Eustace the Monk and Fouke Fitz Waryn. Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer, 2009.
  326. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  327. Excellent source for discussion and modern English translation of the two 13th-century romances detailing the exploits of these outlaws. Disentangles fact from fiction and explores stock romance motifs. Close reading will reveal coincidences and parallels with Robin Hood. Edition cited is the paperback that includes an updated bibliography.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Keen, Maurice. The Outlaws of Medieval Legend. Rev. ed. London: Routledge, 2000.
  330. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  331. Originally published in 1961 this study of six medieval outlaws has been revised three times, most recently in 2000. The revisions map radical changes in scholarly opinion on Robin Hood over forty years. Keen, reluctant to completely rewrite, has issued recantations, especially concerning the issue of class antagonism. It is essential that these, in two new introductions, are read before venturing into the body of the book. In spite of these developments the study has much to offer students of medieval outlaws.
  332. Find this resource:
  333. Knight, Stephen. “Rabbie Hood: The Development of the English Outlaw Myth in Scotland.” In Bandit Territories: British Outlaws and their Traditions. Edited by Helen Phillips, 99–118. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2008.
  334. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  335. A much needed examination of the interrelationship in the myth of the outlaw between England and Scotland in the late medieval period. Uncovers parallels between Robin Hood and William Wallace.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Ohlgren, Thomas H., ed. Medieval Outlaws: Ten Tales in Modern English. Stroud, UK: Sutton, 1998.
  338. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  339. An invaluable introduction to medieval outlaws. At the core is a series of modern translations by respected scholars. Each tale is prefaced by a succinct introduction covering matters of historical background, sources, and themes. There is a select bibliography for each outlaw that provides the resources to further study the texts in their original language.
  340. Find this resource:
  341. Price, Adrian. “Welsh Bandits.” In Bandit Territories: British Outlaws and their Traditions. Edited by Helen Phillips, 58–72. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2008.
  342. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  343. Very brief but a good starting point for discovering Welsh bandits operating during the 15th and 16th centuries. The copious notes are a useful resource for extending interest and study in the area.
  344. Find this resource:
  345. Post Medieval Robin Hood
  346.  
  347. In a fictional context, Robin Hood is as alive today as he was in the Middle Ages, possibly more so given the prevalence of electronic and digital technologies. He has taken to film as though it were invented to exploit the high levels of action that characterize him (Behlmer 1990). He is seen as a central figure in the 20th-century emergence of cultural studies (Hahn 2006), which justifies his inclusion in this online bibliography. He takes his place as a paradigm outlaw by which later bandits are measured (Hobsbawm 2000 and Seal 1996). Since the early 19th century, Robin Hood has become emblematic of British national identity and character (Barczewski 2000). From the earliest cultural manifestations of Robin Hood the foremost means of expression has been performance. From the medieval play/games to Renaissance drama on the London stage (Nelson 1973), through light operas, musicals, and pantomimes to film and television (Potter 1998). In between, Robin Hood returned to the customary performance of the play/games through his incorporation in the folk drama or mummers’ plays of south central England (Preston 1976). For almost six hundred years someone somewhere has been playing Robin Hood.
  348.  
  349. Barczewski, Stephanie L. Myth and National Identity in Nineteenth-Century Britain: The Legends of King Arthur and Robin Hood. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
  350. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  351. An inspired study, impeccably researched, that explores the ways in which Robin Hood and King Arthur contributed to the construction of national identity in 19th-century Britain.
  352. Find this resource:
  353. Behlmer, Rudy. Behind the Scenes. Hollywood, CA: Samuel French, 1990.
  354. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  355. The chapter “‘Welcome to Sherwood’ The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)” offers an acute insight into the making, editing, and reception of the most famous Robin Hood film of all time. Reprinted as “Robin Hood on the Screen: From Legend to Film.” In Robin Hood: An Anthology of Scholarship and Criticism. Edited by Stephen Knight, 441–460 (Cambridge, UK: D. S. Brewer, 1999).
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Hahn, Thomas. “Robin Hood and the Rise of Cultural Studies.” In Medieval Cultural Studies: Essays in Honour of Stephen Knight. Edited by Ruth Evans, Helen Fulton, and David Matthews, 39–54. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2006.
  358. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  359. A fascinating and perceptive account of the emergence of cultural studies in the 1950s. Clearly demonstrates the significance of the study of Robin Hood to the movement. Provides the essential cultural and academic background to most of the works cited in this bibliography.
  360. Find this resource:
  361. Hobsbawm, Eric. Bandits. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2000.
  362. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  363. Originally published in 1969 (extended and revised edition cited here), this book opened up the territory of bandit history. Coined the term “social bandit” to describe robbers, like Robin Hood, whose actions or rebellions were met with acceptance in peasant societies.
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Nelson, Malcolm A. The Robin Hood Tradition in the English Renaissance. Salzburg Studies in English Literature. Elizabethan and Renaissance Studies 14. Salzburg, Austria: Institut für Englische Sprache und Literatur, 1973.
  366. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  367. English Renaissance drama was critical in the development of the Robin Hood legend. This book-length study is both dated and limited in its breadth of reference but provides an essential introduction to the plays of the late 16th and early 17th centuries.
  368. Find this resource:
  369. Potter, Lois, ed. Playing Robin Hood: The Legend as Performance in Five Centuries. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1998.
  370. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  371. A universally excellent and coherent collection of essays on Robin Hood in mainly post-medieval performance. Benefits from cross-cultural referencing.
  372. Find this resource:
  373. Preston, Michael J. “The Robin Hood Folk Plays of South-Central England.” Comparative Drama 10 (1976): 91–100.
  374. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  375. An important article in an underrepresented area of Robin Hood studies. Identifies and analyzes the adoption of Robin Hood and Little John from the ballads into some of the 19th and 20th century mummers’ plays of south-central England. Reprinted in Clifford Davidson, C. J. Gianakaris, and John H. Stroupe, eds. The Drama in the Middle Ages: Comparative and Critical Essays (New York: AMS, 1982).
  376. Find this resource:
  377. Seal, Graham. The Outlaw Legend: A Cultural Tradition in Britain, America and Australia. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
  378. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  379. Uses examples across time and place to investigate the sociocultural aspects of the outlaw tradition. Notes the relationship between the tradition flourishing and moments of social, economic, and political unrest. A useful counterpart to Hobsbawm 2000.
  380. Find this resource:
  381. Robin Hood on Film and Television
  382.  
  383. Without the invention of a means to record and project the moving image, Robin Hood’s preeminent place in adult popular culture might have been lost. By the beginning of the 20th century heroic tales were increasingly the province of juvenile literature. The coming of film with its formal emphasis on the contrast between spectacular action and intimate romance, often within a historical setting, drew directors to the tales of Robin Hood. This was particularly so in the case of silent films where image was paramount (Dwan 1922). After the Second World War, television with its continuous flow reinvented serialization and found common ground with the self-contained episodes of Robin Hood in the early ballads (Knowles, et. al., 1955–1960 and Sharp, et al., 1983–1986). The growth of “medievalism” in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries provided a further impetus to recreate the imagined setting of a Robin Hood in the time of Richard I. From the beginning, this enabled films about the medieval past to comment upon and contest the present. Although issues tended to be treated superficially rather than interrogated, Robin Hood films and television series have questioned military invasion (Scott 2010), foreign aggression and tyranny (Curtiz and Keighley 1938), feminism and multiculturalism (Reynolds 1991), and, more fundamentally, the very concept of a heroic myth in a mature environment (Lester 1976). According to the credits, only one film (Irvin 1991) has called upon academic consultation and it shows. It is important to remember that these films and television series were primarily intended to entertain and make profit. To criticize them for historical inaccuracy and deviance from the medieval material is to miss the point of a multivalent Robin Hood. Questions of artistic merit lie beyond this bibliography as do detailed synopses. Plot outlines, cast lists, and a bibliography of history and criticism can be found in Harty 1999.
  384.  
  385. Curtiz, Michael and William Keighley, dirs. The Adventures of Robin Hood, 1938. DVD. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2003.
  386. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  387. The classic Robin Hood film by which all others have been measured and found wanting. Errol Flynn as Robin Hood laughs and swashbuckles his way through a screenplay aware of the ballads and Dwan 1922. Accompanied by a searing romantic score by Erich Wolfgang Kernold.
  388. Find this resource:
  389. Dwan, Allan, dir. Robin Hood, 1922. DVD. New York: Kino on Video, 2004.
  390. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  391. The silent film that first married celebrity actor to Robin Hood. Douglas Fairbanks in his most spectacular role defined the meaning of cinematic swashbuckling. Very much a film of two parts: the first interior and insipid, the second exterior and exciting.
  392. Find this resource:
  393. Harty, Kevin J. The Reel Middle Ages: Films About Medieval Europe. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland, 1999.
  394. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  395. An indispensable encyclopedia of films with a medieval setting. Lists Robin Hood films from 1908 to the date of publication. Provides cast lists, synopses, and bibliographies.
  396. Find this resource:
  397. Irvin, John, dir. Robin Hood, 1991. DVD. Beverly Hills, CA: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, 1994.
  398. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  399. Underrated and massively overshadowed by the release in the same year of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves: so much so that it was not distributed in America other than on video. The film benefited from excellent performances, quality cinematography, a screenplay cowritten by a respected British playwright (John McGrath), and consultation from J.C. Holt.
  400. Find this resource:
  401. Knowles, Bernard, Lyndsay Anderson, Terence Fisher, and Ralph Smart, dirs. The Adventures of Robin Hood, 1955–1960. DVD. Enfield, UK: Mill Creek Entertainment, 2008.
  402. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  403. By far the longest running (165 episodes) and audience-cherished television series. Redolent of post–World War II concerns about a land fit for heroes. Notable, too, for the number of writers self-exiled as a consequence of McCarthyism. Not surprisingly, episodes frequently dealt with issues of betrayal.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Lester, Richard, dir. Robin and Marian, 1976. DVD. Culver City, CA: Columbia Tristar Home Entertainment, 2002.
  406. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  407. A very different adaptation of the legend that deals with an aging Robin and Marian. Sean Connery plays Robin without a cause but reluctant to relinquish the active life that gave him meaning. A gentle debunking of the place of heroic myths in a mature context. Seen, at the time, as a treatise on veteran trauma post-Vietnam.
  408. Find this resource:
  409. Reynolds, Kevin, dir. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, 1991. DVD. Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, 2003.
  410. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  411. The Robin Hood film that has engendered the greatest discrepancy between critical and popular opinion: a box-office success and a critical disaster. A one-dimensional, accent-challenged performance by Kevin Costner and a misplaced wave in the direction of feminism and multiculturalism.
  412. Find this resource:
  413. Scott, Ridley, dir. Robin Hood, 2010. DVD. Universal City, CA: Universal Studios, 2010.
  414. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  415. Included here as the most recent cinematic reincarnation of Robin Hood rather than for any inherent qualities. Rather cynically ends where most tales begin with Robin Hood outlawed. Suggests this may be the establishing prequel to sequels. Bears almost no relation to earlier material and renders followers and Sheriff of Nottingham peripheral.
  416. Find this resource:
  417. Sharp, Ian, Robert Young, Alex Kirby, and James Allen, dirs. Robin of Sherwood, 1983–1986. DVD. Silver Spring, MD: Acorn Media, 2007.
  418. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  419. A series very much of its time. Combined traditional stories with magical allegiance to the natural world and the political awareness and resistance of a freedom fighter. Allusions to the Falklands War and the miners’ strike in Britain left few viewers in doubt about the contemporary relevance of a medieval hero.
  420. Find this resource:
Add Comment
Please, Sign In to add comment
Public Pastes
We use cookies for various purposes including analytics. By continuing to use Pastebin, you agree to our use of cookies as described in the Cookies Policy.  OK, I Understand
Not a member of Pastebin yet?
Sign Up, it unlocks many cool features!