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

Reading Robin Hood explores and explains stories about the mythic outlaw – a figure who always represents the values of natural law and stands up for true justice – from the Middle Ages to the present.

While a few books have described the outlaw myth, usually in its earlier forms, and occasional academic essays have commented on elements of the Robin Hood story, this is the first in-depth analysis of the whole sequence and the varying elements of the adventures of Robin Hood. First, it explores the medieval tradition from early poems into the long-surviving sung ballads – and also two major early developments; the Scottish version of the outlaw hero, here called Rabbie Hood, and then around 1600 the gentrified Robin, the exiled Earl of Huntington, created by socially aspirational writers and partnered by Lady Marian.

Medievalism passed into memory, and early nineteenth-century Romantic authors re-imagined Robin as strongly involved with nature, deeply in love with Marian, definitely English – not Norman or French – and representing in the time of reform the rights of the ordinary man. That fitted Robin for the modern world, but he did not stop developing.

In film, he has stood up for international Western values – even those of a crusader – while the modern Marian plays a much more substantial role: here for the first time she has a chapter to herself. The multiple Robin Hood myth continues to flourish, producing new forms of the hero’s story, and new understandings of his meaning.

This book explores and explains stories about the mythic outlaw, who from the Middle Ages to the present day has stood up for the values of natural law and true justice. Analysing the whole sequence of Robin Hood adventures, it begins with the medieval tradition, including early poems and 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 Robin as a modern figure – a lover of nature, Marian, England and the rights of the ordinary man. In novels and 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.