[MR] 'Negative' attitude to Robin Hood --- BBC NEWS | UK | Scotland | Edinburgh, East and Fife |

[David Chessler]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/uk_news/scotland/edinburgh_and_east/7941504.stm

00:20 GMT, Saturday, 14 March 2009

'Negative' attitude to Robin Hood

Robin Hood statue



A Scottish expert has uncovered a medieval document suggesting 
negative attitudes towards Robin Hood.

The story of how Robin and his men stole from the rich to give to the 
poor has long been part of English folklore.

However, Julian Luxford of St Andrews University found a dissenting 
voice in a Latin inscription from about 1460 in a manuscript owned by 
Eton College.

The previously unknown chronicle entry says Robin "infested" parts of 
England with "continuous robberies".

Dr Luxford, an expert in medieval manuscript studies, said: "Rather 
than depicting the traditionally well-liked hero, the article 
suggests that Robin Hood and his merry men may not actually have been 
'loved by the good'.

"The new find contains a uniquely negative assessment of the outlaw, 
and provides rare evidence for monastic attitudes towards him."

The pre-Reformation article is the only English chronicle entry to 
have been discovered which mentions Robin Hood.

Three Scottish medieval authors are also thought to have set Robin in 
a chronological context.

Partners-in crime

Dr Luxford said: "The new find places Robin Hood in Edward I's reign, 
thus supporting the belief that his legend is of 13th Century origin."

A translation of the short inscription, which contains only 23 words 
in Latin, reads: "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."

Dr Luxford said, "While Little John is not mentioned here, Robin is 
assigned partners-in crime.

"And the inscription's author does at least acknowledge that these 
men were active elsewhere in England.

"By mentioning Sherwood it buttresses the hitherto rather thin 
evidence for a medieval connection between Robin and the 
Nottinghamshire forest with which he has become so closely associated."

An article on the discovery will be published later this month in the 
Journal of Medieval History.


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