Over the holiday season, Southwark Playhouse is presenting their reinterpretation of The Ballad of Robin Hood.
5 Fun Facts About Robin Hood
August 17, 2015 By
Robin Hood has enthralled generations of readers and movie goers. This English outlaw-hero has become of symbol of freedom against tyranny, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. But who was Robin Hood? How much is grounded in myth and how much is reality?
The Arrow of Sherwood by Lauren Johnson
August 16, 2015 By
My book review of Robin Hood tale, Arrow of Sherwood by Lauren Johnson.
Robin Hood: A Legend in Text, Film and Popular Consciousness
July 20, 2015 By
All four films entirely reject the setting for the legend given by the early/scholarly tradition. All four are set firmly and unmistakably in or just after the reign of Richard I (1189-99), either during Richard’s absence on Crusade, or (Marian alone) just after his death at Chaluz.
Extralegal and English: the Robin Hood Legend and Increasing National Identity in the Middling Sorts of Late Medieval England
September 15, 2014 By
The legend was clearly not the only work of popular culture in what I propose as the long fifteenth century, but it does serve as a very useful representation for examining the growth of Englishness.
Staging Medievalisms: Touching the Middle Ages through Contemporary Performance
May 13, 2014 By
Examining the Middle Ages through modern eyes: movies, TV, stage, tourism and books. How do we perform the Middle Ages?
Robin Hood: The Original Rebel With a Cause and Fundraising Mascot
November 6, 2013 By
By Danièle Cybulskie When we think about Robin Hood these days, we have him firmly placed in Sherwood Forest, outside of Nottingham, in the time of “Good King Richard” (Richard I, “The Lionheart”). This would put him in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. The first written records of the Robin Hood legend don’t […]
Robin Hood as a Festive Figurehead for Local Autonomy in the 16th Century
August 18, 2013 By
Winner of the University of Chicago’s National Guild of St. Margaret of Scotland Prize for the best BA paper on a medieval topic
The Virgin Mary in High Medieval England, A Divinely Malleable Woman: Virgin, Intercessor, Protector, Mother, Role Model
March 31, 2013 By
This thesis examines the significance of the Virgin Mary in England between the late fifteenth century and early sixteenth century. The primary sources selected indicate the variety of ideas circulating about her during this period. Strictly religious texts such as the Bible and early Christian writings ground Late Medieval beliefs about Mary in their historical context.
Under the Greenwood Tree : Outlaws in Medieval England and modern medievalist crime novels
January 27, 2013 By
A recurring theme in several medievalist crime novels is the subject of outlaws. They are used to create ambience, they can be the adversary and main threat to the protagonists, they can be cast in somewhat more heroic roles, and they are sometimes essential to the plot.
“What do we do? Hop on a bus to medieval times?”:Medievalisms of Robin of Sherwood and Charmed
January 8, 2013 By
Three different medievalist narrative styles have been identified for the purposes of this volume, Medieval in Motion: modernist medievalism, post-modernist medievalism and neo-medievalism.
The King’s Mercy. An Attribute of Later Medieval English Monarchy
September 9, 2012 By
Modern assumptions about medieval justice still tend to see this process of amelioration as merely occasional and exceptional: mercy needed to be applied only where special circumstances made it inappropriate to apply the full rigours of the law. This, however, is seriously to misunderstand both the purpose and the pervasiveness of mercy in the operation of medieval justice.
Shooting Arrows Through Myth and History: The Evolution of the Robin Hood Legend
June 12, 2012 By
This study begins with an examination of Robin Hood as he appeared in popular media from the fourteenth century through the twenty-first century.
Deception and Impersonation in the Robin Hood Tradition: A Comparison of Medieval and Nineteenth-century Approaches
May 29, 2012 By
The linked themes of deception and impersonation have played a key role in the literary tradition of Robin Hood since its medieval inception.
The Court of Beast and Bough: Contesting the Medieval English Forest in the Early Robin Hood Ballads
May 6, 2012 By
The medieval English forest has long been a space of contested legal meanings. After King William I first created the 75,000-acre New Forest, the English monarchy sought to define the vert, both legally and ideologically, as a multiplicity of sites in which the king’s rights were vigorously enforced.
Robin Hood Comes of Age
May 6, 2012 By
While some Robin Hood books are clearly intended for young readers, others blur the boundaries, sometimes in ways we can applaud, since they help break down artificial boundaries dividing fiction for children from that for adults.
That country beyond the Humber”: the English North, regionalism, and the negotiation of nation in medieval English literature
December 28, 2011 By
The English North is “Not London” but is “before Scotland,” a strangely liminal space between the familiar
South and those undesirables north of the River Tweed.
Robin Hood and the Crusades: When and Why Did the Longbowman of the People Mount Up Like a Lord?
November 28, 2011 By
This paper will discuss issues like these in light of the long-lasting Robin Hood tradition. But the most interesting question is simply where this idea of Robin on horseback came from, and where and why the crusades became involved.
Robin Hood: A Historiography
October 3, 2011 By
Dialectical Heroes: Robin Hood and King Arthur Across Time, Genre and Politics
July 31, 2011 By
Dialectical Heroes: Robin Hood and King Arthur Across Time, Genre and Politics By Stephen Knight Research Papers in the Humanities No.6 (2007) Introduction: Initial reflection on Robin Hood and King Arthur suggests that they fulfil the most opposite, even unrelated form of dialecticality. Robin represents resistance to bad authority, Arthur represents good authority under fatal […]
Robin Hood, Sherwood Forest and the Sheriff of Nottingham
April 29, 2011 By
This piece, as befits a journal of medieval studies, focuses on the earliest known versions of the stories of Robin Hood. It does not consider the manifestations of Robin Hood after the Reformation, let alone his resuscitation in Music Hall, Film and Television in the last century and more.
Robin Hood “Under the Greenwood Tree”: Peasants’ Revolt and the Making of a Medieval Legend
February 25, 2011 By
Robin Hood “Under the Greenwood Tree”: Peasants’ Revolt and the Making of a Medieval Legend By Danielle Sabatka Distinguished Senior Thesis, Pacific University, 2008 Introduction: England in the fourteenth century was in a transitional phase, experiencing social changes as a result of multiple factors, including an outbreak of the plague in 1348, the ongoing Hundred […]
The Origins of Robin Hood
February 6, 2011 By
The Origins of Robin Hood By R. H. Hilton Past and Present, Vol.14:1 (1958) Introduction: Thomas Becket, Henry II’s chancellor and later Archbishop of Canterbury, was an officially canonised saint, the most celebrated object of medieval English pilgrimage Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, a transplanted baron from the Ile de France, was popularly and […]
Robin Hood DVD released
September 21, 2010 By
The DVD and Blu-Ray versions of Robin Hood have been released. They contain the theatrical version of the film as well as an unrated version, which is approximately 15 minutes longer. Other extras on the film include twelve minutes’ worth of deleted scenes, with optional commentary and an introduction by editor Pietro Scalia; an hour-long documentary […]
Robin Hood: From Medieval Outlaw to Postmodern Media Creature – undergraduate class begins
September 12, 2010 By
University of Houston students don’t have to venture into Sherwood Forest or Nottingham to learn about Robin Hood. A new undergraduate literature class is taking aim at the iconic archer antihero using classic texts and contemporary technology. “Robin Hood: From Medieval Outlaw to Postmodern Media Creature” follows the character’s evolution from his medieval beginnings to […]
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