Robin Hood: (E)

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This is a thorough interrogation of the history and literature surrounding Robin Hood. It is not a light read, but it is worth the candle, emphatically so.

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I am not a historian nor am I an expert in medieval literature but I have lived for almost 50 years in Nottingham or Barnsdale so I consider myself well qualified to comment on what Holt calls 'The Physical Setting'. I found his lack of knowledge of Barnsdale and the number of wild guesses he made, particularly regarding the Lancashire connection, raised doubts about the reliability of the rest of his book. As a result I found the book very disappointing, despite the amount of research Holt obviously undertook in producing it,The legend of Robin Hood is based on a number of poems or ballads and it is generally acknowledge that one of the earliest of these is the Gest. The surprising thing about the Gest is the accuracy and detail with which it describes the topography of the area around Wentbridge in Barnsdale. Not only does it enable one to identify places and locations, it also clearly identifies some individual buildings. It seems unlikely that the creator of the Gest, having been so careful in his description of the locality would have been any less diligent in composing the rest of the ballad.There are three references to King Edward in the Gest and as the story is clearly set after the Norman Conquest the references cannot be to Edward the Confessor. During most of his reign Edward I, who died in 1307, was engaged in campaigns against the Scots and the Welsh so it seems unlikely that he would have been overly concerned with poaching in the royal parks. The reference to the rhymes of Robin Hood in the poem 'Piers Plowman' by William Langland around 1380 indicates the story must have been fairly well known at the time, so if Robin was a real living person he probably died around 1350. It seems therefore that Robin lived during the first half of the fourteenth century.It is surprising that Holt fails to mention two major events of this period namely, the Great Famine which resulted in the deaths from malnutrition and starvation of around 10% of the population of Europe, and the Black Death which killed about a third of the remainder.Holt deals at length with the description in the Gest of the king's trip to Lancashire and the connection between Pontefract and Clitheroe. As far as the Robin Hood story is concerned this connection is irrelevant whether it existed or not. For some reason Holt makes a completely wild guess that Verysdale described in stanza 126 of the Gest is Wyresdale although there is absolutely no evidence linking Verysdale with Lancashire. He also assumes that the word lee in the name Richard at the Lee is the name of a village whereas there are several examples in other ballads in which the phrases 'at the lee' or 'over the lee' refer to uncultivated land. If Lee had referred to a village Richard would more likely have been known as Richard of Lee similar to Guy of Gisburn. The phrase 'at the lee' was probably used as part of his name merely to differentiate him from some other local Richard who possibly lived closer to a village.Neither Edward I nor Edward III visited Lancashire and Edward II only visited the county once in late October 1323 and went nowhere near Wyresdale. During this visit the closest he came to Wyresdale was thirty miles distant when he was passing through Blackburn on his way from York to Liverpool around 20 October 1323.Although stanza 309 of the Gest gives a very accurate, detailed and unmistakeable description of the 'fair castle', Holt fails to identify it. The church referred to in stanza 440 of the Gest and described by Holt as 'fictitious' is obviously the parish church dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene at Campsall, only three and a half miles from Wentbridge. Extensive building work was carried out at this church during Robin's lifetime, although there is no evidence that he was personally involved either physically or financially.The Robin Hood story is in fact two completely different stories: the legend as it has evolved over the last 700 years and the story of the original real person on whose life the legend originated. Holt fails completely to distinguish between the man and the legend.He made the mistake of trying to combine the two.

Professor Holt wrote what came to be acknowledged as the definitive work on Robin Hood in 1981, and it was published the following year. A second edition appeared in 1988, incorporating significant new research. So that's the first point to make; make sure you get the later edition. The second point is that this new evidence, which pushed the first reference to Robin Hood a century further back in time, merited a re-write. Instead, Holt leaves the main text almost unaltered and discusses the new information in a postscript, and gives it a brief mention in a preface. The result is that the reader is presented with much speculation about the origin of the legend which is invalidated in the postscript. It's rather like having the rug pulled from under your feet.Nonetheless, the work remains a fact-packed, authoritative guide to England's unlikely national hero. (Well, a thief who may or may not have existed seems an unlikely hero to me). Holt points the reader toward the earliest ballads, and I strongly recommend that you read these in parallel with the earliest chapters of this book. The ballads are all readily available, in the original and translated, on the Net, and they are great fun.Robin is as elusive as he is intriguing, but he is well worth tracking, and Holt is probably still the best guide.

Prof. Holt's book is now acknowledged as a classic, and quite rightly so. If you have any interest in History or the legend of Robin Hood, then this book is for you. It is well researched and is very easy to read. Richard Carpenter of Robin of Sherwood and Catweazle fame used it when researching for his televison series. In short, well done Professor, this is a right riveting read!