Reading Robin Hood: Content, Form and Reception in the Outlaw Myth

2017 | Essays

Reading Robin Hood explores and explains stories about the mythic outlaw, who from the Middle Ages to the present stands up for the values of natural law and true justice. This analysis of the whole sequence of Robin Hood adventures begins with the medieval tradition, from early poems into the long-surviving sung ballads, and goes on to look at two variant Robins: the Scottish version, here named Rabbie Hood, and gentrified Robin, the exiled Earl of Huntington, now partnered by Lady Marian. The nineteenth century re-imagined medieval Robin as modern, a lover of nature, Marian, England and the rights of the ordinary man. In novels and especially films he has developed into an international figure of freedom, while Marian's role has grown in a modern feminist context. Even to this day, the Robin Hood myth continues to reproduce itself, constantly discovering new forms and new meanings.

Stephen Knight (Author)