Robin Hood Manuscript Discovery

[Viggen]

Abstract: This short article introduces a previously unknown pre-Reformation chronicle entry about Robin Hood. Until now, no English chronicle entry has been discovered, and only Scottish authors are thought to have set Robin in a chronological context. The new find places Robin Hood in Edward I

[M. Porcius Cato]

Just to keep our site Roman-minded, here's the novel text that was found (in Latin, btw):

Circa h[ec] temp[or]a vulg[us] opinat[ur] que[n]da[m] exlegatu[m] dict[um] Robyn hode cu[m] suis co[m]plicib[us] assiduis latrocinijs apud shirwode & alibi regios fideles Anglie infestasse.

 

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.

[Nephele]

Ooo, thanks for this news! I'll have to share it with my man, as he grew up in Nottingham and has always been interested in the Robin Hood legends.

 

-- Nephele

[Caesar CXXXVII]

So he did take from the rich and gave to the poor or not ?

[caldrail]

No, thats a romantic vision created by authors dating back to the middle ages. Medieval writers loved romance, and did after all reinvent Arthur as chivalric king.

 

In all these stroies the activities of the hero,which may have fallen short of truly christian behaviour, were given nobility of purpose if not status, and the legend that Robin Hood was the dispossessed Earl of Locksley is typical.