Expert: Laura Trauth - 6/6/2005

Question
Was Robin Hood a myth or real?

Answer
Hi Darlene,

The answer to your question, as with many myths, is "probably both."  There is some evidence that there was a famous bandit who was at the core of the legends, but the legends are almost certainly nothing like that man's life or exploits.

There were two 13th century robbers who might have been the basis for the story.  In the early 1200s, was Robert Hod and in the mid-1200's there was a fugitive named William Robehod. Robehod at the time seemed to be used as a general term for a highwayman or robber rather than an actual surname.  We don't know much about either man, jsut that they were wanted fugitives.  However, they lived a good 25-50 years after Richard Lionheart and Prince John -- the real people who populate the Robin Hood stories.  So he wouldn't have been a mis-treated Saxon lord fighting for justice against evil Normans.   

Another person who might be the basis for the legends lived even later, in the early 1300's.  His name was Robert Hood and he was a forester or porter for king Edward II.  That's where the forest-dwelling part of the story may have come from.

In fact, there are no legends of such a person until well after the events were supposed to take place. And there's no mention of Robin's birthplace of Loxley until a book written about AD 1600!  In fact, it wasn't until the 1500's that the Robin of the stories became an outlawed nobleman at all.  Before that time he was just a dashing robber.  Interestingly enough, there was an "Earl of Huntingdon" who rebelled against king Henry II and was outlawed for a few years during the late 1100's.  That's about the right time and he's even accused of trying to assassinate Price (King) John.  However, there's no evidence he became a bandit or lived in Sherwood forest.

So there's no one man who was the Robin Hood of myth.  However, there was a rebellious earl, a woodsman, and a number of bandits with local reputations whom story-tellers blended into one man over time.  A core of truth beneath a legend that was centuries in the making!   

And of course the legend became very well known.  Robin Hood was a powerful folk hero figure for the common man, all through the middle ages.  The peasants in the villages even chose a village Robin and Marian for their summer festivals much as high-schoolers today might choose a prom queen and king.  And Robin-images appear in art as well as in story and song.  Today in England and America the tale of the rebel hero continues to be popular and has been made into movies and television shows.  It's easy to see why -- we all admire someone with the courage to stand up to corrupt authority figures.  All the real men who underly the legend shared that mystique, and so perhaps it shouldn't surprise us that they all became a part of the legend.

I hope that answers your question! If you'd like to learn more about Medieval outlaws and their stories, I'd suggest this book, which is available in paperback and at good libraries: _The Outlaws of Medieval Legend_ by Maurice Keen.  Thank you for writing!

Sincerely,
Laura Trauth