Robin Hood: A Legend in Many Forms

"Give ear and listen, Gentlemen,
Who are of Freeborn Blood.
I shall tell you of a good yeoman,
His name was Robin Hood”

-- The Gest of Robyn Hood

Another Robin Hood? Really?

Robin's been given the Gladiator makeover, directed by Ridley Scott and with Russell Crowe tightening up in the Lincoln Greens. We've already had Clark Gable, Disney, Sean Connery, Kevin Costner, and even the Oscar-overlooked, most natural of them all, Kermit. Surely Miss Piggy (Maid Marion) saving Kermit Hood from the evil Sheriff Gonzo with the help of some angry chickens should complete the Pantheon?

In the latest incarnation, Mr. Crowe has drops the frog-talk and the Costner twang in favor of a Rutland accent. Who knew Robin was from Rutland?

Rutland is somewhere around Leicestershire and Lincolnshire is the smallest English county with a lovely Latin motto "Multum In Parvo," "much in little" and its wetlands are a popular breeding ground for ospreys. Amongst the Nurdling community in Rutland, the Jackson Stops Inn at Stretton is their Mecca, their Vatican, their Jerusalem. Every Late May Bank Holiday, men can be found tossing old pennies into a hole drilled into the seat of an oaken settle. These are the Nurdlers. Welcome to Rutland.

But was Robin a Nurdler? Possibly, although there's no evidence either way, but the facts have never got in the way of the legend. Mainly because there are no "facts" and Robin is an invention of the scribes of the day, changing through the times to appear relevant to every generation.

Was Robin Hood real? Watch Thursday at 8 pm E/P on the Discovery Channel.

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Historians have trawled the archives searching for a real Robin, sadly without much luck. By 1300, at least eight people had assumed the name Robin Hood (or Robehod etc.), but it seems likely it was just a nickname given to outlaws and fugitives, whose real names were unknown to the authorities. In Ye Olde English, the origin of the name is perhaps clearer -- "Robin" being used as a shortened version of Robber and the Hood referring to the common attire of Medieval England, an era defined with the fashion sensibility of the hoodie.

Robin really entered the public space through the ballads of the 14th and 15th centuries -- "Robin Hood and the Monk," "Robin Hood and the Potter," and "A Gest of Robyn Hood." In these early stories, there was no love interest from Maid Marion, no link to Richard I, no mention of the resistance versus the Norman Conquest. Instead he was a yeoman, not a peasant, knight or disposed Nobleman, and he wasn't even a social rebel.

But the identity of the man matters less than the persistence of the legend. Through 700 years of ballad, book, poem, play, radio and film, Robin has stood the test of time, foreshadowing the superheroes, whilst constantly being reinvented to meet the changing social and political landscape of his changing audience.

Robin has travelled beyond literature into culture, politics and economics to become an attitude and a social philosophy. Chancellor Darling's last stab at house taxation was labelled a Robin Hood Tax, there's even a Robin Hood Tax Campaign in the U.K. Robin exists beyond the English shores, in Switzerland and Latvia where hackers and thieves are claiming the Robin Hood defense for stealing and leaking data about corrupt banks and tax evaders.

Even on the Arab street, some young men refer to Osama Bin Laden as Robin Hood -- a man who gave up great family wealth, became an outlaw to fight in the trenches against what he believes is evil and defend what he believes is right, surrounded by the kinship of his rebel army and offering to some a principled resistance to wrongful authority.

Mr. Hood still means many different things to many different people. But so long as there is injustice, tyranny, oppression and inequality, there will always be a place for the beloved outlaw hero, even if he was a Nurdler.