Thursday, 27 March 2008

Robin Hood

Robin Hood is a popular English hero and he is painted like a man known for robbing the rich to provide for the poor and fighting against injustice and tyranny.

His place of birth was apparently Loxley in South Yorkshire, while it is assumed that Robin Hood is buried in the monastery of Kirklees.
Probably he lived between the 12th and 13th century and he was the result of the merger of a really existed character (a noble Saxon revoked or a bandit) with the legends of a god of a forest.
Currently, in the modern version of the legend, he is imagined as a generous outlaw that is clever in the arch.

His first appearance in a manuscript is in "Piers Plowman" by William Langland in 1377.
The first historical mention of Robin Hood is in a movement of the “Scottish Cronicon", written in part by John Fordun between 1377 and 1384 and partly by his pupil Wlater Bower, more or less in 1450, which modified and integrated the work of his master.
In modern versions of the legend, Robin Hood takes refuge in Sherwood Forest in the county of Nottinghamshire.
The original ballads speak to us instead of Barnsdale, about 50 miles north of Sherwood, in the county of Yorkshire. One of Nottinghamshire's biggest tourist attractions is the Major Oak, a tree that local folklore claims was the home of the legendary outlaw.
In these ballads, friends of Robin are: Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet, Much the son of Miller and Little John.
The films and TV series dedicated to the legendary hero are very numerous, like "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves"(1991) by Kevin Reynolds and "The Adventures of Robin Hood"(1938) by Michael Curtiz.

Andrea Vagnoli

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