Perhaps no one can argue with the assertion that the most famous robber in the world is Robin Hood. In our view, this hero is purely positive, he is an ardent supporter of the poor and deceived, always ready to restore justice. With the help of his dexterity, cunning, and resourcefulness, he avoided death many times, although many of the wealthy British wanted to catch and send him to the gallows. This article talks about who wrote Robin Hood and why writers often make this robber and his friends the main characters in their stories. Let's try to find the right answers to these questions together.
Robin Hood. Book. Author
Writing about Robin Hood is a legion, because the image of this hero attracts with terrible force, as adventure attracts adventurers. Why do these toilers make him the hero of their novels? The answer, apparently, can be given as follows: Robin Hood is a well-established, very popular character, his features and character are known to everyone, which means that the writer simplifies the work and does not need to trouble himself with drawing the image. This greatly facilitates the process of creating a work. It is also not necessary to rack one's brains over especially when inventing the enemies and friends of the protagonist. The first are the rich, the second are the poor.
Did he exist
If you wonder about who wrote "Robin Hood," you first need to understand what kind of hero it is, whether he really was. English historians have long dealt with the identification of Robin Hood. They pick up documents, study folklore, court records of those distant times. So far, work in this direction has not yielded results and the person from whom the image of Robin Hood was written off is still not found. Today, scientists already agree that Goode is still a literary figure, although it has absorbed the features of many real people - from criminals to the righteous. By the way, Robin Hood - the image is quite vague and versatile, although the main definitions and behavioral motives of the hero almost always remained the same (nobility and help to the destitute, the fight against dishonest rich people and so on), commoners and writers still changed it in accordance with the era, in which they lived. Robin Hood of the twentieth century is little more than similar to Robin Hood of the nineteenth century, and even more so - of the XVIII or XVII century.
Primary source
If you ask the Englishman about who wrote Robin Hood, he will most likely answer that this is Howard Pyle. The writer released The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood in 1883. When working on the work, he took as a basis the legends and ballads about this noble robber and his team of associates. Sherwood Forest, which is designated as the abode of the robbers in all of his stories about Robin Hood, in the view of Pyle - is a charming and bright place. Here Robin and his friends feel at ease and liberated, which is why the reader also feels himself opening the book and plunging into the world of this illustrious hero. Pile's book is not easy to read, as it is written in a somewhat archaic manner, but it is it that is the basis for creating new works and films about Robin Hood.
Robin Hood is a book whose author is always less known than his hero. For example, Roger Lancelin Green, who published in 1956 the book "The Adventures of Robin Hood." This brainchild is an improved version of Pyle’s work, a love line already appears here with the heroine Marion, the chosen one of our brave hero.
Hood is not the first
In general, it’s hard for writers not to be tempted to create their own story about robbers from Sherwood Forest. And it’s not at all necessary that the main character should be Robin, often he is pushed into the background, and other, albeit familiar, faces are chosen ahead. Michael Cadnam, for example, cannot be ranked among those authors who wrote Robin Hood, since he made him a hero for the Thunderstorm of the Rich, and his faithful assistant, Baby John, in Forbidden Forest. In another work, the same writer again left Hood out of work, offering to look at the world through the eyes of Jeffrey, the sheriff who was opposing him. So this author can be added to the list of selected, extraordinary writers - those who wrote the book “Robin Hood and the Sheriff”, in which the latter plays the main role, and the first is the second-order hero. Apparently, the writer decided that the attitude of readers will change towards Robin, if you look at him from the side of his main opponent, the antipode. No less impressive are the representatives of the fair sex, who can also rightfully be included in the list of those who wrote "Robin Hood." Theresa Tomlinson, the author of The Forestwife, for example, highlights Marion. If you look at Robin Hood from the point of view of this writer, you come to understand that as a hero he was formed only thanks to the positive influence of his beloved.
Hood and the world of fiction
Some of those who wrote "Robin Hood" allow themselves to transfer the hero in time. Here at the Godwin Park in the book "Sherwood" Robin fights with the sheriff in the era of William the Red. There are those who are not interested in Robin himself, but his descendants. The writer Nancy Springer introduces readers to a brave girl - his daughter (in the book "Rowan Goode").
And in the fantasy genre, it was not without the participation of Robin Hood. In the book “The Sherwood Game”, written by Esther Friesner, the programmer Karl Fischner somehow managed to turn the game into reality, and his virtual Robin Hood suddenly comes to life.
Very fruitfully worked on the image of the hero Jane Yolen, who created a series of "Sherwood", consisting of nine books. In one of his stories, the author sent the spirit of Robin Hood to the web of the Internet, where he with the agility of a spider began to take over world wealth.
Is Robin Hood noble
The earliest in time Robin Hood was not seen in the transfer of the stolen money to the poor. This hero took the wealth from the wicked, but gave it not to the poor, but to those who were close and dear to him. The first legends about Robin Hood tell that he acted almost always quite simply when robbing: he called a traveler to a meal for which he demanded payment in return. And the one who accepted the offer to have dinner or lunch had to lay out everything that was in his pockets. However, Hood should not be condemned - after all, later he was corrected and transformed into a true hero, selfless, noble, giving himself all in order to help the poor. For this we love you, and therefore we are always happy to see on television screens or read the new adventures of Robin Hood, the robber with the heart of a knight. And no matter who wrote the book. Robin Hoods will always be remembered, but the authors of works about him?