New-York tribune., 1900-08-25
ROBIN HOOD.
NOTES ON THE ORIGIN OF HIS LEGEND.

NOTES ON THE ORIGIN OF HIS LEGEND.
Andrew Lang in Longman's Magazine.
1t is very hard to get at the origin Of Robin
Hood. The editor points out to me that after
a progress Of Edward II in the Sherwood re-
gion Q42S) one Robyn Hode appears among the
retainers Of our goodly King, as the ballad
calls him. Now Edward II was In person good
Iy though the adjective may be a mere ballad
commonplace. To this Robyn and his claims
return later. Ritson in a collection OF
PeclI's q Latin poem apparently of 1906. in the
title of which much was said 10 the discredit OF
William Wallace, that Scottish Robin Hood
This would throw Robin back behind Edward H.
but then the Latin title may have been written
much later than the poem, and, in fact seems
to have been written by Peck himself am
stealing the erudition of the late DR.. Child The
earliest known reference to the outlaw sports
man is in Piers Plowman," about 1877. some
forty years after Edward II. Robin and his
games popular in Scotland by 144O, and
were celebrated in ballads, in rOmanCiiS, which
were sung by bards. bardani says Bower, Now,
it is odd that the Scots borrowed a hero from
hostile England. If that hero was real per
son. and not an old mythical character common
to the English race in the Scottish lOwlandS
we'll as to the English south of Tweed. But
English garrisons were so long in RoXburgh and
James IL that their spring games and their
Robin Hood might be borrowed. in the same way
the Jews of the Exile seem TO have borrowed. in
the Book of Esther. the Persian festival Of the
Staying of the Magi Wyntoun, writing about
the end of the fourteenth century, regarded
Robin as a real person who fourshed his quar-
terstaff under Edward l. in 1888. DIR. Child will
not be moved by the reference to Robyn HOde
in the account books Of Edward II, in 1923. II
November this RObyn given five shillings
because he was incapable Of work and he disap-
pears from the accounts DIR. Child does not
believe that the Robyn Hode who was incapaci-
tated by eleven months work, and turned of
with five shings, can have been our hero. He
knows, from records, OF six real Robin Hoods in
a period Of forty years, between 80 Edward I
and 10 Edward III. The name was therefore
common enough; and, on the whole I doubt II
the dismissed porter was man enough to have
been the hero OF a great legend.
Some Of the learned mix him up with Wooden
which seems wild conjecture. Let me offer a
guess of my own. The Robin Hood sports were
what the French call quotes; that is. collections
were made from passerSby, and at houses as in
the old Greek spring sports OF the swallow or
the Scottish Hogmanay games, or as even now
on Guy Fawkes Day and May Day. Children
now, and men Of Old made the Vernal and other
sports an excuse for demanding money And
this was the reason why, about 1855 the Scots
Parliament denounced Robin Hood he and his
band extorted money too violently too much
in their assumed character as outlaws The
kind OF way. Now. granting that there were
from remote antiquity vernal sports, originally
magical and meant TO aid 'the spirit OF vegeta-
tion. and grant that they lost that sense and
fingered as mere revelries and excuses for asking
Tor money, the old King of May might easily
be conceived genial, jolly robber collect
Ing coin by a show of violence. Then, If there
ever was popular brigand called Robin Hood,
his name might be applied to the chief figure
In the brawls. while the Queen of the May be-
came Maid Marion. We know that Kings and
Queens OF the May were crowned in Scotland be-
for the time of Robert Bruce On this cOnject-
ure. they were later named Robin Hood and