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Robin Hood
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Robin Hood
Most of our information comes from early ballads. The earliest surviving ballad is from 1450 - Robin Hood and the Monk.
However, the best known is A Lyttell Geste of Robyn Hode of which there are a number of surviving copies from 1500-1550 but which was probably originally written around 1400.
A Lyttell Geste consists of four tales: Robin and the Knight - the tale of Sir Richard atte Lee; Robin, Little John and the Sheriff - the archery competition with the sheriff being killed; Robin and the King - king goes disguised into the forest, Robin Hood's Death - his betrayal at Kirklee's where he is bled to death.
Maid Marion is not part of the original tales and likely comes from French pastourelles where she was associated with a shepherd Robin.
Little John, Friar Tuck and the Sheriff are also characters likely borrowed from other tales. The outlaw theme was common, in two 13th century ballads: Fulk FitzWarin has King John as the villain and Marian de la Bruere as a maiden in distress (this may be the other tale mentioned in Piers Plowman - Medieval Archer p62) and Eustace the Monk.
The earliest mention of a king's name is Edward which was changed to Henry in later tales - this was possibly to keep the tales current, which may also have happened with Edward.
1227 pipe rolls list a Robert Hood as fugitivus 1338 - Isle of Wight - on the rolls of over 500 names, only one is given which is a shortform rather than a Christian name, listed with 42 other archers joining at that time - Robyn Hod
This is not likely to be the real Robin, but it indicates that the scribe and/or the archer was familiar enough with the name to have it listed on official rolls. This shows that the tales were well known by this time and the name Robin Hood was associated with archers
With all of the raiding which English armies made on the continent, it is not surprising that many of the peasants would not wish to return to their former lives - it also was not uncommon for some of the men not to be paid, inevitably leading to the formation of outlaws and tales of these men fighting injustice. If there was a real Robin Hood, he certainly did not perform all of the feats recorded.
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