Above: Occasionally I have been watching the BBC dramatisation Robin Hood, starring Jonas Armstrong and produced by Dominic Minghella. Although aimed at children, it works as a drama within its own terms (which do not include historical veracity). The dialogue is bad, the plots are far-fetched, the authenticity is poor - and yet it works (although occasionally there is an element of the knights who say ni).
Above: the inclusion of a black character in the third series led to accusations of political correctness and political re-education. There has been a number of these highly suspect (and clunky) attempts to rewrite historical narrative to support modern political policy. I would like to know who is funding the Francis Pryor revisionist documentaries that very persuasively argue that the Anglo-Saxons never existed (persuasive until you realise that the spoken language completely changed in the fourth century, evidence that the population had completely changed).
Above: the most recent versions of the Robin Hood legends locates them in Nottinghamshire, but in reality there were probably many "outlaw" gangs throughout the country, and over a period of time these coalesced into the archetypal "Robin Hood" we know today.
Above: Ronald Hutton has tracked the performance of Robin Hood folk plays in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. They show that awareness of the Robin Hood legends was very widespread, and this reinforces the idea that there was more than one "Robin Hood". Sir James Frazer identified Robin Hood with the fertility figure Jack-in-the-Green.
Above: Robin Hood plays have remained popular throughout history - the scene you can see above is from a local play in the 1950s and shows Robin Hood and Maid Marion.
Above: the Robin Hood character still figures in modern pageants, plays and parades.
Above: this pub supposedly has connections with a local version of the legend, although it might be just a marketing invention by the landlord.
Above: the Robin Hood legends include references to a massive hollow oak tree which acted as the outlaws' headquarters. This oak tree is the largest in the county, and fits the description. It is on a local farm.
Above: this is a photo of an old photo which shows the oak tree in Victorian times when a door was fitted to the entrance and the hollow interior was used as a dining room.
Above: to sum up, the Robin Hood legends are a ubiquitous strand of national folklore, continually developing and transmuting into different mediums (folk tale, printed book, television, film, Youtube etc). Possibly they represent a longing to escape the restrictions of urban life and return to the primeval forest life of our ancestors. The United Kingdom has lost much of its broadleaf woods and forests since the Second World War - a situation the Woodland Trust is trying to redress.
More on the series: http://www.bbc.co.uk/robinhood/
The knights who say ni: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTQfGd3G6dg
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