It's not mentioned in the drafts I saved of this conference paper. but I know that when I presented -- there was an extra introduction. You see, there was a seminary conference lodging at the same site as our conference -- and a young, overweight, priest-in-training wandered over to our table and said "I know bugger all about Robin Hood, but I have booze! May I join you?" So in a way, I feel as if this paper had been blessed by Friar Tuck himself.
VIDEO CLIP: [Video clips. 1 min., 37 seconds.]
Abbot Hugo’s caravan passes through Sherwood, with Robin Hood waiting in a tree above. Robin jumps onto the cart and puts a knife to the abbot’s throatROBIN: Tell your guards to lay down their weapons.
ABBOT: Villain, have you no respect for the church?
ROBIN: Not while you’re in it. Go on!
ABBOT: Lay down your weapons! (To Robin) You’ll burn in hell for this.
- Robin of Sherwood: "The Prophecy", written by Richard Carpenter <1>
A packed Nottingham church. Robin, in disguise of a monk, approaches the altar.
ABBOT: In nomine patrus et fili et spiritus sancti. Amen.
ROBIN: Amen. (Slips sword under the abbot’s robe.) I apologize if the steel is cold, it couldn’t be helped. Bless me, Father, for I have sinned .. a whole lot and I’m doing it again. Today there will be a special collection for St. Robin.
ABBOT: There’s no such saint.
ROBIN: Robin, Father. Tell them that as a symbol of his vow of poverty, the church renounces all gold and silver, and that includes the emptying of pockets. Announce it, unless you want to become more nun than abbot.
Robin moves his sword up the abbot’s robes and he stiffens.
ABBOT: Today, in holy observance of St. Robin, we remove all gold and silver from sight, as a symbol of his vow of poverty and we ask for a generous offering. (To Robin) You realize this is a mortal sin, my child.
ROBIN: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
- Robin Hood (1991 film), written by Sam Resnick and John McGrath<2>
Those scenes are in keeping with the Robin Hood legend. In one of the earliest surviving ballads, A Gest of Robyn Hode, Robin instructs his men “These bisshoppes and these archebishoppes,/Ye shall them bete and bynde.” From the early ballads to the modern children’s books, the legend is filled with avaricious abbots, bossy bishops, malicious monks, perfidious prioresses and “faithless friars”. In some versions of the tale, members of the religious establishment outlaw Robin Hood. They are nearly always behind his death. So, I was confused by American film critic Roger Ebert’s review of the 1991 film Robin Hood – Prince of Thieves, starring Kevin Costner. Ebert remarks “You know we have entered a shaky liturgical era when Friar Tuck is the most religious person in the film.” Now, it’s true that Tuck’s sermons are a bit suspect.
[Video Clip, 8 secs.]
TUCK: Let us give praise to our maker and glory to his bounty by learning about .... beer.<3>
- Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, written by Pen Densham and John Watson
But compared to the Bishop of Hereford or Abbot of St. Mary’s, Tuck’s pretty holy. So, the review got me thinking... just how is religion portrayed in the modern Robin Hood legend? It is an important theme, but one that seems under-developed in scholarship on the modern legend. Not surprisingly for a figure said to live in many different times and places, there is no one answer. Sometimes Robin robs from the clergy. Sometimes, he is a devout follower of the Christian church. Sometimes, he’s a follower of a completely different religion. And then there are times, quite a few, where he’s all of those things at once. Or none of them. This paper serves as a far too brief survey of the many contradictory religious themes in the legend.
I started by talking about all the corrupt figures in holy orders. But in the early legend, Robin Hood himself is a very devout Catholic with a special interest in the Virgin Mary. The Gest informs us that he says three masses a day before sitting down to dinner.<4> In Robin Hood and the Potter, Robin says that “Howr Lady” will allow him to visit Nottingham safely.<5> In yet another, arguably, medieval ballad, Robin is losing a fight to Guy of Gisborne. He calls out to “Our Lady deere” and immediately leaps up and kills his foe.<6> The 15th century chronicler Walter Bower reports that while Robin Hood is a “famous murderer”, “certain praiseworthy things are told” about him including a moralistic tale supporting Robin’s devotion to hearing the mass.<7> Bower uses Robin’s religion as a way to mollify his unsavoury reputation. And he may not have been alone in this. Robin’s highly ironic devotion to St. Mary, the Virgin, is used as justification to rob the monks of St. Mary’s Abbey of York. Moreover, it might be seen as commendably religious that Robin so desperately wants to attend church in Robin Hood and the Monk – except that the bold outlaw kills 12 people during the service.<8> Perhaps it was the Robin Hood legend itself that was seeking sanctuary inside the church walls.
Perhaps Robin’s own worship of the Virgin Mary was needed to justify his clerical robberies in the early ballads. But devotion to a Catholic saint was not needed in the Post-Reformation era. From a Protestant perspective, humiliating the old Catholic clergy was considered a religious act. In Robin Hood and the Bishop, and at least one version of Robin Hood and the Bishop of Hereford, Robin forces a bishop to sing a mass. This seems like more a mockery of the religious service than any reverence on Robin’s part. Especially as he tells the Bishop of Hereford “come sing us a mass” and then “take a kick in the arse”.<9> The abbot of St. Mary’s, the Bishop of Ely and a faithless friar all bedevil Robin in Martin Parker’s A True Tale of Robin Hood, and Robin’s anti-clericalism reaches heights not seen before or since. If monks or friars complained about being robbed by Mr. Hood, “their stones [ie: testicles] he made them lesse.”<10> Immediately after describing how Robin would geld monks to prevent them from fathering bastard children, the ballad says
But Robbin Hood so gentle was,
And bore so brave a minde,
If any in distresse did passe,
To them he was so kinde.
And I’m not sure the transition from castrating avenger to gentle helper was meant to be ironic. Stephen Knight notes that by attacking the corrupt Catholic church and yet being ultimately destroyed by that church, “the royal Protestant state is both safe and clean-handed”.<11> It also shows a trend, first demonstrated by chronicler John Major in 1521, to replace overt religion as Robin’s moderating factor with charitable good works. Major noted that Robin would not “spoil the poor, but rather enriched them with the plunder taken from abbots.” The tradition of robbing from the rich and giving to the poor has carried over to the modern conception of Robin Hood.
It is a sense of tradition that required me to spend time describing the pre-modern Robin Hood. For the books and films of today still look to the early ballads and plays for their plots and incidents. The books of Howard Pyle, Carola Oman, Paul Creswick, Henry Gilbert, Roger Lancelyn Green and many others recycle the Gest, where Robin steals from an abbey to repay Sir Richard of the Lee, and other anti-clerical ballads such as Robin Hood’s Golden Prize or the Bishop of Hereford. And Robin’s death at the hands of the prioress of Kirklees provides a tragic end to most of the children’s books.
The best-known, and often adapted, children’s book is by the 19th century American Howard Pyle. As a Quaker, Pyle brings anti-Catholicism to a ballad incident originally devoid of it when he has Robin impersonate the butcher and sell meat at widely varying rates. “Three pennyworths of meat I sell to a fat friar or priest for six pence, for I want not their customs.” This is one of Pyle’s milder anti-Catholic statements, although it is missing from the various abridgements and adaptations of Pyle. One, which sticks fairly close to Pyle’s text, has Robin announcing he’ll overcharge the sheriff rather than the clergy.<12> The dumbed-down adaptations of Pyle also omit the robberies of the Abbot of Emmet and Bishop of Hereford, as well as the accounts of Robin Hood’s death.
These are also missing in the comic book versions of legend, published in the 1950s and 1960s. Both Classics Illustrated and Dell Comics did not subscribe to the Comics Code of the time, which prohibited mockery – and in practice, even mention – of religion in the other American Robin Hood comics of the era. But they do little with their freedom. Both contain largely devout portrayals of Friar Tuck, who marries Robin and Marian in Classics Illustrated<13> and Allan and Ellen a Dale in the Dell version<14> The villainous bishop is left out of the wedding sequences. Also, the Classics Illustrated story, ends with a scene from the Gest and later tellings, where King Richard sets out in the guise of an abbot to meet Robin Hood. The sheriff had advised the king, “Nothing maddens the outlaw as a Holy man with a purse heavier than his beads.<15> But the only holy man that Robin accosts for money is the disguised king. The comics end with Robin Hood being pardoned.
But in 1978, Marvel Comics published its own Classics Illustrated-knockoff. This later version, in a time when the provisions against comics had been eased, restores the wicked prioress and her murder of Robin.<16>
The 1998 comic book mini-series about Robin’s daughter, Robyn – with a Y – of Sherwood, written by Paul Storrie shows a very lusty prioress dispatching Robin.<17> After she unsuccessfully tries to seduce a knight, Sir Giles threatens to report her to the Bishop. “As for the Bishop,” the prioress replies, “he knows full well what sort of convent I keep, and visits as often as he may!”<18>
Robin Hood films and TV shows may have somewhat less anti-clericalism than the books. The abbots are partly to blame from Robin being outlawed in the 1969 Hammer film Wolfshead and the 1975 BBC Legend of Robin Hood. Robin of Sherwood has the Abbot of St. Mary’s, cruel Templar knights and Satanists posing as nuns. Much to Roger Ebert’s chagrin, the 1991 Prince of Thieves has a bishop as a minor bad guy. And in the 1938 Adventures of Robin Hood, the Bishop of the Black Canons storms into the Kent Road Tavern, complaining “What’s this country coming to when even a high churchman can’t travel through the forest in safety?”<19> . Film historian Rudy Behlmer notes that this Bishop was a late addition to script, little more than a cameo until they replaced a siege of Nottingham scene with Prince John’s coronation attempt. An early screenwriter on the Flynn film acknowledged that the omnipresence of clerical foes in the legend and the historical corruption of the medieval church was undoubted. But he added “Equally undoubtedly, we have no desire to offend either the Catholic or Protestant church of today, and I feel that a tactful compromise will have to be arrived at.” <20>
The tactful compromises with the Bishop of the Black Canons are typical of ways to minimize the anti-clerical sentiment. It’s stated very clearly that this bishop is a Norman. Stephanie Barczewski describes the myth of “a pure Saxon church” was propaganda from the Reformation days, assigning the ills of the medieval Catholic church to Norman Conquest.<21> With the strong anti-Norman sentiment in the modern Robin Hood legend, it’s not surprising that the Saxon vs. Norman politics would tie into the anti-clericalism. The most striking use of this is in Parke Godwin’s novels set shortly after the conquest where Saxon churchmen were displaced by Normans and the pope supported the conquest. Robin makes a slight addition to his mother’s prayer: “And the false bishop of Rome .. who gave his blessing to these thieves, may he sicken and die.”<22> Holy man Father Beorn states he cannot preach obedience to the church while it supports Normans.<23> Godwin’s anti-Norman – and anti-Catholic – sentiment is much stronger than a 1938 film would be allowed to get away with.
The bishop in the Flynn film is also a minor lackey of Prince John, much like the bishop in Prince of Thieves is in the sheriff’s employ. The eccesiaticals’ stature is much reduced. As both Prince John and the sheriff are seeking to overthrow established authority, it makes the churchmen’s power seem far less legitimate. Even then the Bishop of the Black Canons balks at the plan to murder Richard. Prince John tells the Bishop that King Richard would not let the bishop keep his lands when he discovered what the bishop was up to. This suggests that only under a corrupt leader like John would a villain be allowed to hold a high holy office.
When the Richard Greene TV series came to adapt the Gest’s story of the knight and abbot, it also reduces the anti-clericalism. When asked about the abbot, Tuck replies “Abbot? He’s nothing but a Norman captain who’s grown too old for active banditry. He probably wasn’t even ordained.”<24> In another episode, a character doubts that yet another evil abbot and his followers are truly annointed priests.<25> The implication that these churchmen, false are not, were the true thieves is common to film and books.
The books are often more strongly worded. Henry Gilbert isn’t content to let Robin merely suggest that bishops and archbishops should be beaten and bound.
Abbots and bishops, priors, and canons, and monks – ye may do all your will upon them. When ye rob them of their gold or their rich stuffs ye are taking only that which they have squeezed and reived from the poor. Therefore, take your fill of their wealth, and spare not your staves on their backs. They speak the teaching of the blessed Jesus with their mouths, but their fat bodies and their black hearts deny Him every hour.<26>
- Robin Hood and the Men of the Greenwood by Henry Gilbert
And then, immediately after saying this, Robin tells his men that they need to go to church and hear the mass and make confession. Even when bad guys attack, Robin refuses to leave until after the mass is finished.<27> Later in the book, when Robin forces the bishop to sing a mass, the outlaws are not mocking but reverent.<28> By contrast, when the film Robin Hood goes to church it’s usually for less than pious reasons. Flynn’s Robin attends a religious service to stop a coronation. Costner’s Robin goes to see Marian and gather information. And as we’ve seen at the beginning, Bergin’s Robin just robs the place.
The books are divided on Robin’s Catholicism, however, in particular – his worship of the Virgin Mary. His love of the mass and reverence to Mary can be found in Gilbert’s novel.<29> And with their pride in historical accuracy and fidelity to the medieval texts, there are heavy traces of Catholicism in the novels of Carola Oman and Roger Lancelyn Green. Like in the Gest, Gilbert, Green and Oman all have the distressed knight promising the Virgin Mary as a guarantor to Robin’s loan.<30> Oman even has Sir Richard and Little John stopping in to hear an extra mass on their way to York.<31> But in the retellings of Howard Pyle, Paul Creswick and Bob Blaisdell, Sir Richard has no virginal guarantor.<32> Pyle uses expressions like “By Our Lady” but the overt Catholicism has fallen victim to a changing era. In film, a character might be seen to cross himself, but explicit references to the Virgin Mary are rare – as are all but the most cursory signs of religion in Robin himself. He oftentimes has all the religious background of Superman. One assumes he has a religion, but it is not dwelt upon. Even in Prince of Thieves, Azeem may constantly call Robin “Christian” but there’s few signs of Robin practicing his religion. Or at least, the outward trappings of his religion.
In one episode of the Richard Greene series, Tuck is seized by an inquisitor and told to renounce his association with Robin Hood. Robin overpowers the inquisitor and takes his place. When the disguised Robin reads Tuck’s confession, it is a list of virtues. Among them, “we have tried to put into practice the Christian precepts of charity and brotherhood to which the lord abbot of Beresford gives lip service, making a mockery of the true offices of religion.” <33> This is a fairly accurate description of the modern Robin Hood’s activities – particularly his charity – which is somewhat evident in the Gest but not elsewhere in the early ballads. It is now not necessary to repeatedly describe Robin’s Christian devotion because he was now doing things that Christians, and other religions, would approve of.
Although many films may be deliberately vague about Robin’s religion, there are other characters who represent the positive side of religion. In the Richard Todd movie, Robin makes a token reference to purloining ripe brown October ale from the Bishop of Hereford. But the primary religious character in that film is the archbishop of Canterbury, who is a good man and reports “The monasteries have melted up their plate hearing the king stood in need of ransom.”<34> The archbishop in the Richard Greene TV series releases Robin and Tuck bonds and says if they try to escape, then he’d merely consider it an act of God.<35> Archbishop Hubert Walter, mostly for his role of king’s chancellor, is considered so virtuous that he’s singled out for assassination by the villains in The Sword of Sherwood Forest. The modern Robin of Sherwood has a more cynical view showing Hubert Walter actively assisting in the plan to kill Robin Hood.<36> However, even Robin of Sherwood showed some helpful and appropriately religious abbots in the show’s finale year.<37> Nods to history have a helpful Bishop Hugh of Durnam in the 1975 BBC Legend of Robin Hood and the Forestwife novels of Theresa Tomlinson.<38> Tomlinson also makes the Bishop of Hereford willingly give gold to help free those imprisoned by the harsh forest laws.<39> It’s a nod, she says in the afterword, to his historical character. Despite Robin’s commands in the Gest to beat and bind clergy, there was a positive figure in holy orders – the prior of St. Mary’s Abbey, York, who argued with his abbot about showing more compassion to the distressed knight. The prior still plays that role in some modern tellings.<40> But there’s less of a need for him now. In the May Games of the 15th and 16th centuries, two characters in holy orders joined Robin’s band – Friar Tuck, obviously, but less obvious is Maid Marian.
In the 1938 Adventures of Robin Hood, Friar Tuck asks Marian to swear by “Our Lady” and calls her a “good daughter of the church”.<41> Other versions of the legend took the daughter of the church expression more literally. In the 1976 film Robin and Marian, the aged Robin, back from the crusades, is told that Marian resides at Kirklees Abbey. He’s shocked. “Nun, she can’t be? Not my Marian.” And while the twist ending with Marian as the prioress who kills Robin is perhaps unique to this film, Robin should not have been entirely surprised by her holy status. In Munday’s Elizabethan plays, the widowed Matilda aka Marian retreats to a priory and is laid to rest alongside the hallowed nuns.<42> Marian becomes the abbess and prioress of Kirklees – after the wicked one’s death – in the children’s novel by Roger Lancelyn Green.<43> And in E. Charles Vivian’s novel, Marian resides in Kirklees until the villainous Belame tries to seize her.<44> This plot point was reused in the Robin of Sherwood TV series. And Marian ends that TV series as a nun in Halstead Priory.<45> In many of these cases, Marian’s religious vocation comes from a desire to be protected from unwelcome suitors as it does from a strong pious zeal. In Robin and Marian, Marian aka Mother Jennet has piety, but her initial motivation for becoming a nun was quite different. “I thought, of all men, you’d mind most if I married Jesus.”<46> That imposes a secular motivation on the religious institution of nunnery. A possible early appearance of Marian in the legend is far more secular.
In the play Robin Hood and Friar, Tuck is offered a lady free. He proclaims that “She is a trul of trust/To serve a friar at his lust”.<47> In Tuck’s first appearance in Prince of Thieves, he is singing about beer and whoring, in keeping with the old misrule nature of the character. His alcoholism is a running gag in Prince of Thieves and appears in many other films and books.<48> In Robin and Marian, Tuck explains his partnership with Will Scarlet. “I take confessions. He takes the horses.” And the Friar Tuck is even more of a con artist in the Patrick Bergin film, where he makes holy relics out of chicken bones. It’s small wonder that he’s frequently called a mock priest.<49> Yet Tuck will defend his reputation. “You doubt my oaths of sancity?”, he rages in the 1975 BBC TV series with righteous anger instead of ironic. The character also has a strong devout streak in addition to jollity. For example, in the 1950s TV series, he says “I work amongst the common people and try to do God’s will with them.”<50> Film Robins Flynn, Todd and Costner all recruit the seemingly worldly Tuck to give the outlaws’ spiritual guidance.<51>
Some versions, such as the novels of Parke Godwin, deal with the opposing aspects of Tuck’s personality by splitting the character into two. Brother Tuck, the Sexton, is a worldly alcoholic; whereas Father Beorn, the novels’ primary clerical figure, is devoutly religious.<52> Micheal McShane’s Tuck from the 1991 Prince of Thieves frequently swings between Tuck’s dual nature. From drunken lout, to being humbled by the offer to shepherd Robin’s flock, to preaching about beer, to religious bigotry, towards being humbled again and finding spiritual acceptance, back to beer, and finally he becomes a full-fletched late 1980s/early 1990s movie revenge hero.
VIDEO CLIP
TUCK: So. You sold your soul to Satan, your grace. You accused innocent men of witchcraft and let them die.
BISHOP: Friar, you would not strike a fellow man of the cloth?
TUCK: No. No, I wouldn’t. In fact, I’ll help you back for your journey. You’re going to need lots of gold to help you on your way. You’re a very rich man. Enough? Here’s thirty pieces of silver – to pay the devil on your way to hell. (Pushes Bishop out of the window.)<53>
- Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, written by Pen Densham and John Watson
From drunkard to action hero, Tuck gets more character development than anyone else in the film. But contrary to Ebert's review, Tuck is not the most religious person in Prince of Thieves.
Morgan Freeman’s Azeem is actually shown practicing his religion, as he faces east to pray to Allah or refuses to drink alcohol. He dispenses admirable religious wisdom more often than Tuck does. But Azeem’s Islamic religion serves much the same purpose as Robin’s religion of times past. It reveals a positive trait of the outlaw hero to counterbalance his robberies. In this case, Robin’s religious and racial tolerance are highlighted. The hero has the proper liberal values of the late 20th century. Azeem is not the first Muslim in the Robin Hood legend. While Muslim villains appeared in the 19th century and early 20th century Robin Hood,<54> it has only been in the last 20 years that positive Muslim characters have become semi-regular fixtures of the band <55> Nasir, played by Mark Ryan, in the 1980s TV series Robin of Sherwood started this modern trend. Originally Nasir was meant to be a quickly dispatched villain’s henchman until the actor proved popular with a cast and crew. A last minute change of heart was added, and Nasir became a silent and deadly addition to the Merry Men. By and large, Nasir was not used to press the issue of tolerance. However, one episode did feature Nasir and guest-starring Jewish characters working together without a trace of modern-day animosity. <56> [“Children of Israel”] Recent versions of the Robin Hood legend have poached more than Muslims from Robin of Sherwood. What I’m talking about is … well, I’ll let a flustered Sir Guy explain… [Lead into video clip.]
VIDEO CLIP:
GISBURNE: I’m not talking about poaching. I’m talking about blasphemy, paganism, Herne the Hunter!
ABBOT: Are you? And what brought on this surge of missionary zeal?
GISBURNE: I’m surprised you’re so complacent about it. I thought the church was supposed to condemn witchcraft.
ABBOT: We’re not talking about witchcraft, Gisburne! As long as they come to mass, have their children baptized, are married and buried as Christians, I’m not too bothered what they get up to. You leave well enough alone, or you may find the old gods aren’t as dead as you think.
GISBURNE: Dead? They never existed!<57>
- Robin of Sherwood: "Lord of the Trees", written by Richard Carpenter
The witches and wizards offered up in Robin of Sherwood, and later the New Adventures of Robin Hood, are nothing new. They’d been stock characters in pantomimes and such for years. In The Sword and the Stone, Robin helps the young Arthur fight Morgan le Fay. But while folklorists like Margaret Murray and Robert Graves had postulated Robin Hood was the head of a pagan religion, there was little religiosity in the appearances of magic. But in Robin of Sherwood, although Herne the Hunter could oftentimes be a stag-headed deus ex machina, he was actually worshipped as god, a religious alternative to Christianity.
ROBIN: May Herne the Hunter, Lord of the Trees, protect us.
VILLAGERS: Herne protect us.
ROBIN: This seals the bond, between we of the forest and you of the village. Between the outlawed and the oppressed. Blessed be.
- Robin of Sherwood: "Lord of the Trees", written by Richard Carpenter
In the 1980s, when New Age religions were becoming increasingly common, Robin Hood became a positive role model. In some senses, religion was still being used to make the hero respectable – just a religion more appealing to the times. This time, Robin returned the favour and helped make a religion more respectable too. Many pagans have said this series was responsible for their interest and belief in paganism.
With the increasing popularity of fantasy fiction and television shows, since Robin of Sherwood, magic has dominated legend. The New Adventures of Robin Hood went back to the panto use of magic, with appearances by trendy Celtic gods and monsters like Macha or Balor.<58> Ellen of the Wells appears as Herne’s female counterpart, a spiritual mentor for Marian, in one comic book.<59> In Rowan Hood, Outlaw Girl of Sherwood Forest by Nancy Springer, Robin has fathered a child to the half-elvish woman.<60> And the fairies grant Robin both protection and his name in a story by Jane Yolen.<61> Although the Robin Hood of Clayton Emery’s Tales of Robin Hood frets that about whether or not he’s doing enough to live by God’s teaching<62> , Herne and Puck make appearances. Even novels with no overt magic, like Parke Godwin’s novels or Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley are shelved in the fantasy sections of bookstores.
But there are two series of novels which follow Robin of Sherwood in exploring magic as something more than merely a special effect. In the trilogy of young adult novels by Theresa Tomlinson, Marian is the Forestwife, an herbalist who lives in the forest helping those in needs. Although her and her friends are, at least presumably, Christian, they still celebrate May Day, have festivals where people dress in deer costume and one character chants to Brig in hopes of having a child. <63> Like Robin of Sherwood, these elements are an expression of belief and seem to co-exist better with the more common Christian beliefs.
This is even more true of Parke Godwin’s novels, Sherwood and Robin and the King, where Robin and other characters are clearly established as devout churchgoers.<64> But there are older elements still affecting their religion. Both Robin and Sheriff, showing their Viking and Germanic roots, lapse into prayers to Odin or Woden.<65> And following a tradition of his parents, Robin and Marian perform the “bargain” where they ritually mingle their blood with the land to assure a good harvest.<66> Robin’s thoughts about his and Marian’s approach is “His Marian was devoutly Christian, yet to draw a clean line between her holy and pagan practices would be a coil for scholars and perhaps orthodox embarrassment.”<67>
But Tomlinson and Godwin’s novels offer an alternative, and fairly modern, view of Christianity beyond just the pagan traditions. In the Godwin’s Sherwood, when Father Beorn is excommunicated from the Norman Catholic church, he holds true to his inner religion. Tuck says to Beorn: “Christ’s vicar or not, it ent right for a man to sit on purple in Rome and condemn us here. No, by rutting Jesus Christ – forgive me, father, but it is not right.”<68> Beorn was forced to walk alone with God himself<69> , and agreed like another rogue Saxon churchman, he was “absent merely from an office, not from God.”<70> The outlaw clergymen had a proto-Protestant version of Christianity, not too distant from the predominantly Protestant culture of the novelist.
In The Forestwife, Marian befriends a group of imprisoned heretic nuns who she rescues and helps to form a convent in the greenwood, called the Madgalen Assart after their patron saint (taken from the Gest and Barnsdale geography). The sisters were in trouble because they practiced their religion without a supervision of a man.<71> When freed to practice in the forest, Brother James tells Mother Veronica “We are true heretics now, so lead your own services. You were always better than me .. ready to mouth the words when I forgot the chant.”<72> The sisters take this advice to heart. Little John and Emma are not married by a priest, but rather by six nuns, which is a true enough religious service for them.<73> In trouble with the official church and unconcerned by traditional trappings, the nuns of the Magdalen Assart form a version of Christianity that seems more modern – Protestant to some extent, but even more so feminist.
Robin Hood has always been adapted to fit new times and contexts, and it is no different for religion. So, some versions of Robin Hood feature the outlaw and his allies as virtually Protestant, or feminist Christian or a New Age pagan. And yet, there is always the older tradition affecting the story. Religion has long been an important element of the Robin Hood legend. And it is one that writers in our day still embrace or adapt or if they ignore it, it is with usually with deliberate intent than absent-mindedness.
Primary Sources
Blaisdell, Bob. Robin Hood [In Easy-to-Read Type]. New York: Dover, 1994.
Creswick, Paul. Robin Hood. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1957. [Original edition published in 1902.]
Dunkerley, Desmond. Robin Hood Outlawed. Loughborough: Ladybird Books, 1978.
Dunkerley, Desmond. Robin Hood and the King’s Ransom. Loughborough: Ladybird Books, 1978.
Dunkerley, Desmond. Robin Hood to the Rescue. Loughborough: Ladybird Books, 1978.
Dunkerley, Desmond. Robin Hood and the Silver Arrow. Loughborough: Ladybird Books, 1978.
Emery, Clayton. Tales of Robin Hood. New York: Baen Books, 1988.
Gilbert, Henry. Robin Hood [and the Men of the Greenwood]. New York: Garden City Publishing Co., 1932. [Originally published in 1912].
Godwin, Parke. Sherwood. New York: Avon Books, 1991.
Godwin, Parke. Robin and the King. New York: Avon Books, 1993.
Green, Roger Lancelyn. The Adventures of Robin Hood. Middlesex: Puffin/Penguin Books, 1956.
Oman, Carola. Robin Hood – The Prince of Outlaws, a tale of the fourteenth century from the ‘Lytell Geste’. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 1949. [Originally published in 1939.]
Pyle, Howard. The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire. New York: Signet Classic, 1985. [Originally published in 1883.]
Pyle, Howard. [Adapted by Deborah Kestrel] The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. New York: Moby Books, I. Waldman & Son, Inc., 1979.
Pyle, Howard. [Adapted by Willis Lindquist] Golden Picture Classics CL-410 [The Merry Adventures of] Robin Hood. New York: Simon and Schuster, Publishers.
Pyle, Howard.[adapted and abridged by unknown] Some Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown in Nottinghamshire. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1954.
Springer, Nancy. Rowan Hood, Outlaw Girl of Sherwood Forest. New York: Puffin Books, 2001.
Tomlinson, Theresa. The Forestwife. New York: A Yearling Book, 1993.
Tomlinson, Theresa. Child of the May. New York: A Yearling Book, 1998.
Tomlinson, Theresa. The Path of the She-Wolf. London: Red Fox, 2000.
Yolen, Jane. “Our Lady of the Greenwood” in Sherwood - Original Stories from the World of Robin Hood {Jane Yolen, ed.). New York: Philomel Books, 2000.
Filmed Sources
The Adventures of Robin Hood. Directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley. Warner Bros, 1938.
The Adventures of Robin Hood. ITV TV series, 1955-58.
The Legend of Robin Hood. BBC TV Series, 1975. Shown in 12 parts on A&E as “Family Classics”.
The New Adventures of Robin Hood. Warner Bros. TV series. 1997-9.
The Prince of Thieves. Directed by Howard Bretherton. Columbia/Katzman, 1948.
Princess of Thieves. Directed by Peter Hewitt. Disney/Granada, 2001.
Robin and Marian. Directed by Richard Lester. Columbia Pictures, 1976.
Robin Hood. Directed by John Irvin. 20th Century Fox, 1991.
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Directed by Kevin Reynolds. Warner Bros., 1991. [Extended DVD edition, 2003.]
Robin of Sherwood. HTV/Goldcrest TV series, 1984-6. 26 Episodes.
The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men. Directed by Ken Annakin. Disney, 1952.
The Sword of Sherwood Forest. Directed by Terence Fisher. Columbia Pictures/Hammer, 1960.
Wolfshead [US Video release: The Legend of Young Robin Hood] Hammer, 1969/1973.
Secondary Sources and Ballad Collections
Barczewski, Stephanie L. Myth and National Identity in Nineteenth-Century Britain: The Legends of King Arthur and Robin Hood. Oxford University Press, 2000.
Behlmer, Rudy. “Robin Hood and the Screen: From Legend to Film.” in Robin Hood: An Anthology of Criticism and Scholarship (ed. Stephen Knight). Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1999.
Dobson, R.B. and Taylor, J. Rymes of Robyn Hood, An Introduction to the English Outlaw. Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing Limited, 1997. [Original edition appeared in 1976.}
Ebert, Roger. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. [Movie Review.] Accessed at http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/1991/06/655129.html on June 29, 2003. Originally published in the Chicago Sun-Times on June 14, 1991.
Keen, Maurice. The Outlaws of Medieval Legend. London: Routledge, 2000. (Original edition appeared in 1961.)
Knight, Stephen. Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw. Oxford: Blackwell, 1994.
Knight, Stephen. Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography. Cornell University Press, 2003.
Knight, Stephen and Ohlgren, Thomas H. (eds.) Robin Hood and Other Outlaw Tales Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, Western Michigan University.
Comic Books
[Uncredited] (w), [Baker, Matt] (p) and [Cuidera, Chuck] (i), AThe Capture of Robin Hood.@
Robin Hood Tales #5 (Oct. 1956), Comic Magazines [Quality Comics]: [pp.17-24] (1-8)
[Uncredited] (w) and [Uncredited] (a) ARobin Hood@Classics Illustrated #7 [Ed. 16, HRN
153] (1959) [Revised version of #7, with updated story and art appeared with Ed. 14, 1957]
Gilberton Company, Inc.
[Uncredited (w) and Uncredited (a)] Robin Hood (May - July 1963), Dell Publishing Co.
Moench, Doug. (w) and Mesina, Rudy and Alcala, Alfredo (a). Marvel Classics Comics
series (Featuring Robin Hood) #34 (1978), Marvel Comics Group.
Ryan, Mark and Grell, Mike (w) and Pensa, Shea Anton (a). “The Black Alchemist”, Green
Arrow Annual 4 (1991), DC Comics, Inc.
Storrie, Paul (w) and Larson, Michael (p. issues 1-2), Szoloski, Glen (a. issue 3), Davis, Rob.
(a. issues 3-4), Dery, P.A. (i., issue 1), and Zahler, Thom (i, issue 2). Robyn of Sherwood.
#1-4 (1998-9), Caliber Comics.
Storrie, Paul (w), Gulick, Rich (p) and Bird, Steve (i). Robin Hood and the Minstrel (2001),
Moonstone Books.
Jones, Valerie (w) and Schenck, Christopher (a), Truman, Timothy (breakdowns/layouts),
Peterson, Roger (layouts, issue 2) Leif Eric Linder (assistant artist on issue 3). Robin Hood
# 1 - 3 (July - Dec. 1991), Eclipse Comics.
<1> . “The Prophecy” written by Richard Carpenter. Robin of Sherwood, 1985.
<2> . Robin Hood, dir. by John Irvin, 1991.
<3> . Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, dir. by Kevin Reynolds, 1991.
<4> A Gest of Robyn Hood, lines 31-36 in Knight & Ohlgren, p.91
<5> Robin Hood and the Potter, lines 109-112, Knight & Ohlgren, p.65
<6> Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, lines 155-162, Knight & Ohlgren, p.178
<7> Walter Bower’s Continuation of John of Fordun’s Scotichronicon, Knight & Ohlgren,
p.26
<8> Robin Hood and the Monk, line 110, Knight & Ohlgren, p.40
<9> Child ballad no. 144B, p.196
<10> Parker, Martin. A True Tale of Robin Hood lines 65-68, Knight & Ohlgren p. 607
<11> Knight, Complete Study p. 92
<12> Pyle, p. 63. Some Adventures, Scriber, 1954 p.47 for sheriff replacing the clerical
reference. Golden Picture Classics, p.19 omits the highest price altogether.
<13> Classic Illustrated #7 (1957 revised text) p. 35
<14> Robin Hood, Dell Comics, p.18
<15> Classics Illustrated, p.44
<16> Marvel Classics, p.46
<17> Robyn of Sherwood #3, pp.18-19
<18> Ibid
<19> Advs. Of Robin Hood, dir. By Curtiz, 1938
<20> Behlmer, “Robin Hood of the Screen” in Anthology, ed. By Knight, pp.450-1
<21> Barczewski, pp.127-8
<22> Godwin, Parke. Sherwood p.59
<23> Ibid, p. 197
<24> “The Knight who came to Dinner”
<25> “The Inquisition”
<26> Gilbert p.46
<27> Ibid pp.46-49
<28> Ibid, p.230
<29> Gilbert, p.26
<30> Gilbert, p.169; Green, p.71; Oman, p.22
<31> Oman, p.25
<32> Pyle p.200; Creswick, p.270; Blaisdell, p.10
<33> “The Inquistion”
<34> The Story of Robin Hood and his Merry Men, 1952, dir. By Ken Annakin
<35> “The Inquisitor”
<36> “The King’s Fool”
<37> Abbot of Thornton Abbey in “Cromm Cruac”; abbot of Croxton in “The Cross of St.
Ciricus”, monks at Grinston – killed at the beginning of “The Time of the Wolf”
<38> Legend of Robin Hood, ep. 6 of 12. ; Robin and Little John worked for the Bishop of
Durham through the Forestwife, p.87 and on
<39> The Path of the She-Wolf, p.19
<40> Advs. Of Robin Hood “The Knight Who Came to Dinner”; BBC Legend of Robin Hood,
ep. 8 of 12; Oman p.29
<41> Advs. Of Robin Hood, dir. By Curtiz, 1938.
<42> Munday, Anthony. The Death of Robert, Earle of Huntington. Lines 3041-44. Excerpts
printed Knight & Ohlgren, p. 428
<43> Green, p. 254
<44> Vivian, E. Charles. Robin Hood and His Merry Men. London: Ward, Lock & Co. [Printed
sometime prior to 1940.] pp. 47-8, 95-103
<45> “Robin Hood and the Sorcerer” (1984) and “The Time of The Wolf” (1986), written by
Richard Carpenter.
<46> Robin and Marian, dir. By Richard Lester, 1976
<47> Robin Hood and the Friar and Robin Hood and the Potter in Knight & Ohlgren, p.289
<48> For example, Brother James in the Forestwife is said to be a good man – when sober,
p.75; The Legend of Robin Hood (BBC) episode 3 (asleep in wine cellar) and 5; Adv. Of
Robin Hood – “Friar Tuck” and “A Guest for the Gallows” (“It’s a curios thing to reform
sinners in the tavern by becoming one yourself.”); Wolfshead
<49> The Story of Robin Hood, 1952. Dir. By Ken Annakin; called “Impious” in BBC
Legend, ep. 8; Pyle, p.201; 1948 version of Prince of Thieves
<50> “The Inquisitor”
<51> Another description of Tuck tending to their souls is Emery, p.208. “a man who
believed in his vows, a sterling example of what a holy man should be. Friar Tuck worked for
God and not himself”.
<52> Godwin, Sherwood p.75
<53> Prince of Thieves, 1991, dir. By Kevin Reynolds
<54> In the ballad, the Prince of Aragon. (The villains reappear as giant Moors in Omar,
p.142.) Saracen named Suleiman accompanies Robin back from the crusades, but tries to
poison him in Stocqueller’s 1849 The Forest Queen. (According to Barczewski p. 225.) And
Melchior, a magic-weilding saracen that Tuck fights in 1912, Robin Hood Library #5: For
Richard and the Right, according to Barczewski, p.242
<55> These include Kemal, the black martial artist in the New Adventures of Robin Hood;
Rassan in Green Arrow Annual #4, 1991, although the co-writer of that issue was Mark
“Nasir” Ryan, Makir in Eclipse Comics Robin Hood, and Asneeze and Achoo in Men in
Tights.
<56> “Children of Israel”, 1985
<57> “Lord of the Trees”
<58> In “Robin and the Golden Arrow”, Prince John actually oversees a beauty contest
where the loser will be sacrificed to Macha.
<59> Green Arrow Annual #4.
<60> Springer, p. 22 and others
<61> Yolen
<62> Emery pp.47, 124, 197-99
<63> Forestwife, pp. 119, 125, 166; Child of the May pp. 7-8; Brig reference Path of the
She-Wolf, pp.4-5
<64> Sherwood, p.118 and many others. Full sermons in churches.
<65> Sherwood p. whatever for Ranulf references. And Robin and the King pp.193-4
<66> Sherwood pp.209-210
<67> Robin and the King, p.49 and Sherwood p.118 for a similar thought
<68> Sherwood p.271
<69> Sherwood, p.225
<70> Sherwood, p.343 and Robin has similar sentiments on p.227
<71> Forestwife p.73 for a description of their heresy
<72> Forestwife, p.100
<73> Forestwife, pp.156-7
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