Robin Hood is a character hundreds of years in the making who evolved through the works of many authors to become the hero known through literature.

Lit-Hood: Robin Hood in Literature

Robin Hood. The very name conjures images of a man of adventure, a nobleman forced into outlawry who retaliates by robbing the rich to aid the poor and, with the help of his merry men, vexing his enemy the Sheriff of Nottingham. This is a character hundreds of years in the making who evolved through the works of many authors to become the hero known through literature, film and television.

The earliest recorded reference to Robin Hood is found in The Vision of William Concerning Piers Plowman (1377) in which the character Sloth states: “I can noughte perfitly my pater-noster as the prest it singeth, But I can rymes of Robyn Hode and Randolf, Earl of Chester.” This suggests the character of Robin Hood was well known through popular ballads.

A great number of Robin Hood ballads have been recorded, but a special section is dated likely to the mid- to late fifteenth century. These include “A Lytell Geste of Robyn Hode,” “Robin Hood and the Monk,” “Robin Hood and Guy of Gisbourne,” and “Robin Hood and the Potter.” In these early ballads, Robin Hood is presented as a yeoman, outlawed, living in the forests by eating the king's deer and imposing levies upon wealthy travelers. Francis James Child, in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (1859), explains the early Robin Hood was not a nobleman nor a political character, but a simple man of the people. The “Geste” defines certain rules Robin lives by. He has a pious love of the Virgin Mary, and because of this devotion has sworn never to harm a woman or any man in a woman's company. He instructs his men never to harm an honest farmer, yeoman, or knight or squire striving to lead a good and honest life. However, he orders his men to beat and bind the wealthy churchmen and always to keep in mind the Sheriff of Nottingham. In the ballad “Robin Hood and Guy of Gisbourne,” Robin engages in a duel to the death against Guy, an infamous Yorkshireman hired by the Sheriff of Nottingham to kill Robin.

Although Robin Hood is an outlawed yeoman, he is not alone. The “Geste” identifies Little John, Will Scadlock (sometimes called Scarlet), Much the Miller's Son, Reynold Greenleaf, and Gilbert of the White Hand as principal followers. The familiar characters of Maid Marian and Friar Tuck do not appear in the early ballads. They became important parts of English May Games of the fifteenth through seventeenth centuries, however, where the May King was often called Robin Hood and the May Queen Maid Marian. Often a play of Robin Hood would also be performed.

Robin Hood's popularity obviously continued into the seventeenth century. William Shakespeare's works make reference to the character and his followers in a manner suggesting familiarity. In As You Like It, the banished Duke is said to be living “like the old Robin Hood of England.” In Henry IV, Part II, Silence chimes in with the ballad refrain “And Robin Hood, Scarlet and John.” In The Two Gentlemen of Verona, one of the outlaws exclaims, “By the bare scalp of Robin Hood's fat friar.” And, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff asks his followers, “What say you, Scarlet and John?” Shakespeare's contemporary Ben Jonson also wrote of Robin Hood in his play The Sad Shepherd, which remained unfinished at the time of Jonson's death in 1637. In this play, Robin, along with followers Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet, Little John and Much plan a feast for shepherds and encounter an evil witch. In both Shakespeare's and Jonson's work, Robin Hood continues to manifest the ballad tradition of a yeoman.

The assignment of noble rank to Robin Hood begins with two plays by Anthony Munday, The Donwfall of Robert, Earl of Huntington (1597, printed in 1601) and The Death of Robert, Earl of Huntington (1597, printed in 1601). Munday presents Robin Hood as the outlawed Earl of Huntington, combining in him elements of the traditional ballad character and the emerging dramatic romantic hero. Munday's Robin is a deeply pious and religious man. While the ballad Robin told his followers to “beat and bind” certain enemies, Munday's Earl Robert forgives his enemies. These enemies have also changed from the sheriff and churchmen to Prince John and Queen Eleanor, thus placing Robin Hood in the time of King Richard I. Robin's romance with Marian is a major component of the play. Identified as Matilda Fitzwalter, betrothed to Earl Robert, she takes the forest name of Marian. The Death of Robert, Earl of Huntington revolves almost completely around the life of Matilda after Robin's death.

After the end of the eighteenth century, Robin Hood appears in such literary works as Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe (1819), in the role of Locksley; Thomas Love Peacock's Maid Marian (1822); Lord Alfred Tennyson”s play, The Foresters (1892); and Alfred Noyes' play, Sherwood (1911). All of these are based either on the ballads or the Munday plays, and all are set in the time of King Richard I.

Robin Hood owes his status as a child's hero to Howard Pyle. In The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (1883), written and illustrated by Pyle, a yeoman hero in the ballad tradition is presented. While there are passing references to Robin's lass, Marian, she is not a character in the book. Each chapter offers a story in itself, often based on a traditional ballad telling of Robin's encounter with another character. Robin is placed in the time of King Henry II. Pyle also concludes the book with the story of the death of Robin Hood (though some editions omit the final chapter). This book remains one of the most popular versions of Robin Hood.

Robin Hood's story has been told by far too many authors of children's literature to mention here. Some favorite works include: The Adventures of Robin Hood, by Roger Lancelyn Green; The Silver Horn of Robin Hood, by Donald E. Cooke; Robin Hood, by Henry Gilbert; and Robin Hood and His Merry Outlaws, by J. Walker McSpadden.

Robin Hood's popularity, in literature for children and adults alike, continues to the present day. Recent publications include: Sherwood, by Parke Godwin (1991); Lady of the Forest, by Jennifer Roberson (1992); The Sheriff of Nottingham, by Richard Kluger (1992); Robin and the King, by Parke Godwin (1993); The Forestwife, by Theresa Tomlinson (1997); In a Dark Wood, by Michael Cadnum (1998); Lady of Sherwood, by Jennifer Roberson (2000); Forbidden Forest, by Michael Cadnum (2002); and Maid Marian, by Elsa Watson (2004).

Whether yeoman or nobleman, Robin Hood represents a challenge to corrupt authority, a champion of the oppressed, a respectful and devoted lover, and a jolly friend and companion. It is no wonder he has endured as an important literary figure for over 600 years. Such a hero is needed in every generation.

Also Read Deborah Ground Buckner’s Article about Robin Hood in Film.