Norwich bulletin., 1922-08-15
Famous Literary Mysteries
WHO WAS ROBIN HOOD 7

Robin Hood lives with us as Iit erary mystery. The romantic career of the English knight errant is known to us almost entirely through the many and varied stories that have been told Of him by the romancer and the poet and if there actually existed Robin Hood history Is very vague regarding him. There has been a great diversity of opinion regarding this hero-outIaw. Some writers give him historical ori- gin, others present him as a mythical character, while still others regard him as creature of the popular imagina- tion.
 It is well-known fact that many of the ballads regarding Robin Hood are tradition, such as those of the Arthur dian cycle "Hynd Horn" and others. which were simply abridgements of old CT metrical romances. These rornances were too long to be recited at a single sitting and were therefore shortened by the minstrels and fitted to tunes of which there are some still extant.
 Prof. W. F. Child in the introduction to the fifth volume of his English and Scotch Ballads" says: My hypothesis is that the series of ballads associated with the name of Robin Hood are bas- ed partly on an earlier English romance and partly on historical "reminiscences of the hero of that romance
 The first notice of Robin Hood in En- glish literature is in the second version l of "Piere the Plowman,'' which, accord ! ing to Prof Skeat, cannot be earlier than about A. D., 1877. The lines run |: "I ken noght parfitly my paternoster, As the priest Is singeth:
 But I ken lines of Robin Hood
 And Rudolf, Earl of Chaster."
 Several names are mentioned in the romance of Robin Hood which seem to be equally fictitious, including Maid Marion and Clorinda, the wife of Robin Hood.
 The commonly accepted belief regard ing Robin Hood is that he was the cap- tain of a band of robbers or outlaws who inhabited the forest of Sherwood in Nottinghamshire and the nearby nei- ghborhood. Even though they took de- light in robbing bishops and rich eccie- siastics, they are reported to have been religiously disposed and retasned in their band domestic chaplain, Friar Tuck who has been immortalized in "fvanhoe.' .'
 Robin Hood is supposed to have been born at Locksley, in the county of Not tingharn, about 1160 A. D., the date as signed to his death Is November, 1247 The site of his grave, which Is vel
 marked is on the extreme edge of Kirk less Park, not far from Huddersfield
 This would make 1t seem that there was historical foundation for the story but many writers are inclined to tho
 opinion that the name Is of fictitiou.
 origin and applied to a combination o
 persons whose outlawry was told anc
 retold in England many centuries ago By some writers of a later age it uAs
 been supposed that the prince of rob bers was no other than the Earl o
 Huntingdon, who, for misfortunes of hi
 own management, had been compelled
 to adopt a predatory life.
 A collection of Robin Hood ballads printed under the title "A Lytell Gest } (history) of Robyn Hood" was issuet about 1495. It forms the most satisfac
 tory and reliable evidence that we P
 ssess of the life and deeds of the syl van hero. One of these ballads men tions that Edward IT. having arrived a , Nottingham, resolved forthwith on tn extermination of Robin Hood and hi band. But on the ground of the absene
 of any direct historical evidence, 1t ha
 been conjectured that the name "Robi
 Hood" is a corruption of Robin of tn Wood" and that he is only 10 regarde as mythical character, euibodying tn : spirit h unrespainsd freedom and syl ivan q krt.