Robin Hood

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Have you seen these movies? Did you know that the stories may be based on truth? Well thats true Robin Hood is an archetypal English folk tale. He is said to have been an outlaw of the medieval era that, in modern versions of the legend, robbed the rich to give to the poor & fought against injustice & tyranny. His group consisted of "seven score" (140) fellow outlawed yeomen – called his "Merry Men". Robin Hood & his group are usually associated w/Sherwood Forest & Nottinghamshire. He has been the subject of a lot movies, books, comics & plays. In many of the stories, Robin's nemesis was the Sheriff of Nottingham. In the oldest legends, this was merely because the sheriff is the outlaw's natural enemy, but in later versions, the despotic sheriff gravely abuses his position, appropriating land, levying excessive taxation, and he unfairly persecuted the poor. In some tales the antagonist is Prince John, based on the historical John of England, who is seen as the unjust usurper of his pious brother Richard. In the oldest versions surviving, Robin Hood is a yeoman, but in some later versions he is described as a nobleman, the earl of Loxley, who unjustly lost his lands. In other stories, he has served in the crusades, returning to England to find his lands pillaged by the dastardly sheriff. In some tales he is the champion of the people, fighting against corrupt officials, while in others he is an arrogant & headstrong rebel, who delights in bloodshed, cruelly slaughtering & beheading his victims. The stories are different in every period of time. He is continually reshaped & redrawn, made to exemplify the values seeming important to the storyteller at the time.