According to a recent discovery, apparently the poor didn't really like Robin Hood (yeah, right...)

[Mrs. Overall]

I found this article interesting. It states that a scholar has recently found an old text written in Latin by a monk in 1460 stating:

"Around this time, according to popular opinion, a certain outlaw named Robin Hood, with his accomplices, infested Sherwood and other law-abiding areas of England with continuous robberies,"

and from this the article concludes that there is now:

"proof that Britain's legendary outlaw Robin Hood wasn't as popular with the poor as folklore suggests."


I find it fascinating that the scholar can deduce information about Robin Hood's popularity among the poor from the 23 Latin words found in a monk's text written 200 years after the events. It is interesting that since church/state were virtually one in the Middle Ages and dominated by the upper classes and nobility, that somehow this monk is speaking for the majority of the "poor".

I also think it is interesting that Obama has been recently referred to as a "Robin Hood" by the Republicans (as though it's a terrible thing) and that there is fear among the wealthy that their money might possibly be "redistributed".

So, it's a relief to find out that Robin Hood wasn't really a hero among the poor--whew! We can all rest easy!

Link to full article:http://www.komonews.com/news/national/41257367.html

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. When they kicked our branch of SDS off campus we renamed it.

The Robin Hood Debating Society.

Actually, after the rename, we just ignored the ban.

[skooooo]

2. Yeah, and they didn't like Jesse James either....

'cept a lot of poor people liked those old outlaws.

[nxylas]

3. Ridley Scott is jumping on this bandwagon too

He's been plugging a revisionist movie called Nottingham, seemingly written by two Randroids, that paints the Sherriff of Nottingham as the good guy and Robin Hood as a parasite, robbing wealth creating 13th century John Galts in order to feed the less productive members of society.

[shadowknows69]

6. That's not my understanding of the plot

What I've read, and the film is officially called "Robin Hood" now, was that Robin in fact also doubles as the Sherrif of Nottingham in order to infiltrate Prince John better.

[nxylas]

11. IMDb says that the script was "extensively rewitten" by Brian Helgeland

Perhaps the studio felt that a film that stood "on the side of the nobles and barons, drawing up the drawbridge against the peasants" (to quote William F Buckley's description of the function of the conservative movement) might be a tough sell in the current climate. Or maybe the report I read was just bullshit - wouldn't be the first time an entertainment journalist had got their information spectacularly wrong.

[sufrommich]

4. Robin Hood was fiction, there is absolutely no proof that

such a person existed,it's a story passed down through the ages. There is about as much "proof" of his deeds as there is proof of the city of Atlantis or the island of Avalon.

[Mrs. Overall]

7. I disagree. The story is legend--based on stories that there was a bandit

or group of bandits operating in Northern England in the 1200's. The accounts are written in various texts and many scholars believe that the "Robin Hood" character is a compilation of several notable medieval thieves. There are some scholars, though, who reject Robin Hood's existence outright, but it is definitely open to debate.

Obviously this scholar believes that the legend has some veracity.

[troubleinwinter]

10. There were most assuredly plenty of bandits.

My clan located just north of the Scotland/England border were known back as early as the early 1300s as "border rievers"... in other words, 'highwaymen'. It was the practice to kidnap wealthy Englishmen travelers and hold them for ransom. It was a standard way of making a living to supplement cattle raising and cattle theft among people and clans of the northern England/southern Scotland area.

[ClassWarrior]

5. Apparently the Sheriff was as good a propagandizer as Cheney**...

Watch the recent BBC "Robin Hood" series. Sure, it's just a TV program, but it draws analogues to modern times: a despot who's whipping up fear and hatred in the form of a holy war overseas, which allows the pillaging of the commons back home by the rich. There are episodes in which old Vaisey (the Sheriff) quite effectively turns the townsfolk against Robin and his gang using Rovian tactics. So I'm not surprised if this "discovery" is in any way true.

NGU.

[havocmom]

9. And when you can punish innocent people just on a whim

there may be temptation to punish them as a way of making sure they hate the guys who inspire you to get pissy.

[w4rma]

8. The short notes from the book's margin only state a few facts. It doesn't state anyone's opinion on

the ethics or morality or popularity of the events.