49 pages • 1 hour read
Roger Lancelyn GreenThe Adventures of Robin Hood
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1956A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Socio-Historical Context: Outlawry in 12th-Century England
As perpetual imprisonment was not a commonplace punishment for crimes committed in England in the 12th century, outlawry was a usual recourse for those who would infringe against the English medieval civil law system. Influenced by both the German tradition and canon law (which operated outside of the country’s legal system at the time), English medieval law used outlawry as a response for a variety of transgressions, be it as a result of failing to uphold financial obligations, as direct consequences from committing a serious injury or death to another person, or, unlawfully, as an abuse of power by people of authority. Typically, outlawry was avoided when the accused could settle their wergild, literally “man price,” a financial compensation to make up for whatever crime was committed. If, however, the accused party could not properly compensate the injured party or their family, or if they did not meet their legal obligations, the accused would be stripped of their rights and sent to live on the outskirts of society.
Once declared an outlaw, the individual in question would lose all forms of societal protection, as well as any property or assets in their name. They were denied the right to a fair trial and were often subject to vigilante justice or other extrajudicial measures should the injured party decide to retaliate. They were also denied any protections from the law, which would void any legal recourse or repercussions should they be captured, harmed, or killed. Since outlaws were no longer considered part of a community, they also symbolically lost their citizenship and dealt with extreme social ostracism. Few possibilities existed to redeem their status, as only official pardons, through acts of service or valor, could reintegrate an outlaw into society. Though the Robin Hood stories would lead to the development and appreciation of the outlaw hero archetype, and while some outlaws did take to resisting oppressive authorities and seeking social justice through vigilantism, most outlaws lived in squalor and died gruesomely on the fringes of their community.
Literary Context: The Enduring Literary Legacy of the Robin Hood Myth
While the tale of Robin Hood holds an iconic place within the English literary canon, the story itself has an unsettled history. Little is known of the original Robin Hood myth, as most of the original medieval stories were presumably part of an oral tradition that was never transcribed or, if the stories were transcribed, lost to the passage of time. To date, the earliest extant textual recordings of Robin Hood date back to the 15th century (possibly as early as the 1400s), the most popular of which is a lengthy, eight-fytte (sections) ballad called A Gest of Robyn Hode, also known as A Lytell Gest of Robyn Hode. Other ballads and poems, such as “Robin Hood and the Monk” and “Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham,” were also recorded within other manuscripts, though the authors typically remain unknown. As printing presses became more available and engaged with texts in vernacular writing along with or as opposed to religious texts for the Church, collections of Robin Hood stories, folk plays, and poems were more readily available to the public, inspiring new writers to create adaptations of the outlaw hero and his merry band of men. Robin Hood had something of a literary revival during the 18th century (along with other medieval heroes like King Arthur) as the subject of cheap chapbooks or of more illustrious writers such as Sir Walter Scott and Alfred Lord Tennyson, who took it upon themselves to write new poems and plays about Robin. With time, media formats diversified, and numerous retellings of the outlaw king now exist in animated movies and series (as both human and anthropomorphic characters), children’s literature, numerous live-action movies, audiobooks, and adult fiction stories that, at times, take up the tale of secondary characters like Maid Marian. Though Robin Hood’s adventures are several hundred years in the making, the amalgamation of all his legendary feats continues to fascinate contemporary audiences as much as they once did medieval ones.
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By Roger Lancelyn Green
