Robin Hood: Outcast in a Forest Essay Example

scholars who attempt to understand the genesis of the legendary outlaw peel back the layers of rumor accreted by anthologists and historians for over five hundred years around the name of Robin Hood. Robin has engaged earlier scholars in at least three areas of study: political, social, and literary.The outcomes of their investigations divide into two claims: some version of a noble renegade, whose historical origins John Bellamy tracked in his study of the outlaw, or a low class peasant, transformed into a social bandit, who, in Maurice Keen's words "could emerge triumphant from his defiance of the injustice of the system" (Outlaws of Medieval Legend 173).

Missing from the earlier historians' study of Robin Hood is the domain of the imagination, best crystallized by the forest.In attempts to explain the continuing popular interest in the Robin Hood legend in juvenile stories and films, scholars overlook the intrinsic power of the forest in the early ballads and the Gest. The current, familiar iconography of the Robin Hood legend retains the overarching theme of the forest as a setting, but reduces the meaning of the forest as the locus of Robin Hood's power.This study of the Robin Hood legend, will draw upon the work of historians Richard B.

 Dobson and John Taylor's anthology, particularly, the Rymes of Robyn Hood: An Introduction to the English Outlaw, which charts the development of the legend and collects thirty Robin Hood texts ranging from an early fourteenth-century analogue to an early twentieth-century poem. The paper will focus primarily on the earliest ballads, for in their thematic content Robin Hood and the forest are best discovered. Three short rhyming ballads in Middle

English, Robin Hood and the Monk, Robin Hood and the Potter, and Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, are extant in printed versions.These three, dated from roughly the mid-fifteenth to the mid-sixteenth century, all contain remnants of what was probably an older oral tradition. The first known attempt to weave the outlaw legend into a narrative form is A Gest of Robyn Hode, a quasi-epic composition printed around 1500.

The origin of the legend is obscured by the uncertainty of sources of the ballads, and later retellings of older versions further complicate what J. C. Holt sees as "the living quality of the stories" (36).Lacking early manuscripts by which to set the legend in a particular era, antiquarians attempted reconstructions of a presumed original cycle of Robin Hood narratives by patching together the earliest of the ballads, the Gest, and additional later rhymes into varied compilations (Holt chapter 11, 15-16). Even the collection by James Child, whose work is most respected by scholars, Holt doubts, for "there is scarcely anything to suggest that it preserves older traditions ignored or bypassed in the earliest stories" (163).

Thus, reconstruction is spurious; the literary form that preceded the earliest known narratives traditionally called "ballads" may not have been epical, but, as Dobson and Taylor suggest, "a medieval literary genre more simple" (115). Yet, despite the uncertain origins of the legend, the early ballads and the Gest repeat certain foundational themes. As it will be shown in this study, these foundational themes on which the ballads are constructed concern location: the forest, which is Robin abode, and the town, which is the realm of the sheriff.It is significant that the

theme of enmity between the sheriff and Robin Hood is enacted in the location of the forest opposed to the town.

The essential story line of the outlaw cycle is developed by movement between these foci. It is in this oppositional movement that the idea of alternative justice becomes apparent. Simplistic reduction of Robin Hood's idea of justice has entered the later representations of the ballads; now in the twentieth century, he has come to stand as an icon who steals from the rich to give to the poor.The paper will also trace the theme of the greenwood as the place of terrible exile in Robin Hood and the Monk, Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, Robin Hood and the Potter, and A Gest of Robyn Hood. Robin Hood: Outlaw in the Forest In somer, when the shawes be sheyne, And leves be large and long, Hit is full mery in feyre foreste To here the foulys song. Robin Hood and the Monk (RRH 115, stanza 1) So begins Robin Hood and the Monk.

Another stanza continues to evoke the idyllic image of the greenwood in summertime.Similarly, Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne opens, but with two additional lines: "The woodweete sang and wold not cease, / Amongst the leaves a lyne" (RRH 141, stanza 2). Robin Hood and the Potter also opens with praise of the greenwood, but stresses the merry mood by twice repeating "merey" in the first stanza: "So merey doyt the berdys syng / Yn wodys merey now" (RRH 125, stanza 1). A Gest of Robyn Hode, although not praising the greenwood at the beginning, introduces the idyllic forest within the

narrative.

In the three short ballads, the evocation of the greenwood does not merely construct the physical setting; its frequent mention throughout the ballads creates a shifting backdrop, but one integral to the themes and actions. When themes and actions play out against the forest backdrop, the idyllic greenwood mutates, absorbing some influences from other aspects of the forest. In all the ballads, explicit references to place names associate the greenwood and Robin Hood with historical outlawry. In addition, older ideas of the mythological forest are rendered through the themes and language of the short ballads.Consequently, the terrifying reputations of the forest of outlawry and the mythological forest alter the mood of the greenwood.

Because of such complexities, the nature of Robin Hood's greenwood is best understood by examining the short ballads in light of analogues, whose heroes retain associations with the forest. On the other hand, when the greenwood in the Gest is examined in the light of later adaptations of the outlaw theme, the forest can be seen undergoing an inversion through role reversal and displacement, from the place of exile to an idyllic retreat.Because all outlaw tales share the similar theme of exile, the reputation of the historical outlaws attaches to Robin Hood. Yet, Robin Hood has no distinct parallels in tales of outlawry, for unlike heroes of other outlaw tales who enter the forest and often return to be vindicated and reinstated in society, Robin is a permanent resident of the forest from which he emerges.

Similarly, the reputation of the forest of outlawry attaches to the greenwood.From the tales of historical outlaws, such as Hereward the Wake and Fulk Fitzwarren (see

Keen Chapters II, 9-22 and IV, 39-52), the forest of outlawry introduces terror to the idyllic greenwood. The stories of these outlaws, though based on historical figures, are woven with fantasy to create the legends. Keen notes that the "infinite credulity of the middle ages peopled woods and waste places with all sorts of marvelous beings" (Outlaws of Medieval Legend 1).

Hereward, "the first of the English outlaws" (10) who hid out "among the fens" (11), shares similar outlaw themes with the exiled Fulk (44). Unlike Robin, whose place of origin is the forest of the ballads, Hereward and Fulk as displaced property owners enter the asylum of the forest. Not only is the outlaw forest a place of physical terror that stems from the experience of exile, but also the forest imparts the psychic terror of the old European forests when outlaws are described performing extraordinary feats.In Matthew Cartmill's discussion of the forest as a holy place, he compares images of images of old Germanic forests in folktales, where "those who enter them encounter enchantments, transformations and luck" with the Celtic idea of the wilderness (56). Memory of Celtic reverence for wild places, expressed in the transformation of an initiate who exudes "ecstatic praise of the clean sweetness of wild nature" (56), also attaches to the idea of the natural world, and in particular the forest, as a place of spiritual renewal.

These influences contribute to the broader concept of the forest as a place of possibility for transfiguration. However, the forest mutates when the reputation of actual outlaws is introduced; since the context of the Robin Hood ballads is a constructed homosocial world, the idea

of terror is played out in aggressive male action, but against the idyllic backdrop. These influences carry over into the individual ballads and the Gest through repeated reworked themes to contribute to the broader thematic framework of the imaginative greenwood.In all the ballads, the forest operates as a place apart, its potency inscribed in its separation from the town. Though Robin's greenwood evokes the fearful reputation of the forest of outlawry, his forest, attached to the opening lines of the ballads retains its idyllic quality. The aggressive actions starkly contrast the initial praise in Robin Hood and the Monk and Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne.

In these ballads, the long and effusive praise of the greenwood offsets yet at the same time emphasizes the ensuing violence.Of all the ballads, the Gest contains the least violence; still, in its narrative it also retains traces of terror embedded in its thematic content. Consequently, the greenwood, introduced as an idyllic place, also harbors the potential to be a terrifying place of exile. Robin, himself central to the greenwood, often harbors the same dual qualities.

From his locus, he terrorizes the sheriff; at the same time he protects the idyllic state of the greenwood from interference from the outside. The greenwood as a place of separation also bears the mark of the older mythological forest.Through certain recurring subsidiary themes, the idea of separation in the transforming forest imprints the greenwood and the ballads with terror. One such theme, beheading, forefronted in gruesome detail in Guy of Gisborne, is repeated in The Monk. In these ballads, beheading takes place outside Robin's greenwood, where its enactment serves to protect Robin

and stabilize the idyllic mood of his locus. In Guy of Gisborne, after he has encountered the threatening knight, Robin beheads Sir Guy.

In The Monk, Little John beheads the Monk, so "Shalle you never cum at our king, / Ffor to telle hym tale" (RRH 119, stanza 51) .Following suit, Moch beheads "... the litull page, / Ffor ferd lest he wold tell" (stanza 52).

In these enactments of the beheading theme in the forest can be seen the physical expression of psychic terror associated with the mythological forest. After Robin's disturbing dream, where "two wight yeomen" whom "Me thought they did mee beate and binde" (RRH 141, stanzas 2-3), - he moves out into a second greenwood, resembling the natural forest. In this forest with tree roots underfoot to trip Robin (RRH 144, stanza 38), he is doubly endangered.When Robin meets Sir Guy, "cladd in his capull hyde / Topp, and tayle, and mayne" (RRH 141, stanza 7). " Sir Guy interjects the terrifying characteristics of the old mythical forest into the greenwood.

However, later when Robin beheads Sir Guy and removes and dons the horse costume, he destroys Sir Guy's power and assumes the power inherent in the costume. Robin, by divesting himself of his "gowne of greene" (RRH 144, stanza 44) and covering the offending corpse, transfers his identity to the dead knight and stills the threat to the idyllic greenwood.In Sir Guy's costume and Robin's green gown and the enactment of methodical death by stabbing, beheading, and face-scoring (RRH 118-119, stanzas 40-43), can be seen elements of a much earlier pagan tradition. And as Robin's locus, the greenwood retains the

possibility as the site for initiation and transformation.

Preserved within both the analogue and Guy of Gisborne is the older mythological forest embedded within the natural forest. The change of the forest from exilic to idyllic is foreshadowed in the Gest.Unlike the short ballads which all begin in the greenwood, the Gest appeals to the audience: "Lythe and listin, gentilmen, / That be of frebore blode; / I shall you tel of a gode yeman, / His name is Robyn Hode" (RRH 79, stanza 1). The lines, he "stode in Bernesdale, / And lenyd hym to a tre" (RRH 79, stanza 3) , suffices to locate Robin in the forest in opposition to the town. From the forest, Robin sends his men to waylay rich guests whom he will entertain: "Be he erle, or ani baron, / Abbot, or ani knight" (RRH 79, stanza 19). Those who boast powerful titles are expected to pay for the meals Robin serves.

When Robin plays host to nobility or wealthy clerics, he confronts them with his code of alternative justice. Introduced at the beginning of the ballad, the theme expands later to include his enmity with the sheriff. Through thematic overlapping and conflation in the Gest, Robin's code of alternative justice easily condenses into broad interpretations of a moral code. Later reworkings of the themes encapsulate the complexities of the early ballads and the Gest into the idea of Robin Hood the outlaw who steals from the rich to give to the poor; the overarching idyllic mood of the greenwood becomes a place of retreat.Because all exiles happily revert to the outside world, the perception remains from such treatments

of the greenwood that the forest is a place of temporary and satisfactory exile from which to return. Consequently, the forest of outlawry transmogrifies into an idyllic retreat.

However, for Robin Hood, rather than a temporary excursion to the periphery, his return to the forest is his return from exile. When Robin returns to the "mery" greenwood from prison in Nottingham, he is "as light as lef on lynde"-(Robin Hood and the Monk, RRH 121, stanza 76).In the Gest, his joyful return echoes in "the notes small / of byrdes mery syngynge" (RRH 111, stanza 445). " In effect, the greenwood celebrates Robin's return from exile to the locus of his power, the greenwood. Conclusive Remarks The interpretation of the ballads in this research demonstrates that Robin Hood's system of justice has no neat parallels with later twentieth-century notions of fairness.

Robin Hood's alternative code of justice took form in the middle ages.In his discussion of the meaning of the forest in the middle ages, Robert Harrison Pogue illustrates the point that when foresters appointed by the king enforced the restrictive forest law, they imposed an arbitrary code which protected the king's privilege to hunt in the forest (69-75). Charles Young, in his study of the administration of the forest law, delineates the role of foresters and sheriffs who worked hand in glove with the clergy, often arresting and punishing without warrant (74-113). In the Gest, the fullest expression of Robin's alternative justice emerges from the treatment of the themes.In this ballad, Robin Hood implements his own forest code in opposition to the sheriff. From within the forest, the outlaw confronts organizations, not to overthrow

the establishment of secular law or the church, but to correct unjust arbiters of authority in the town.

When Robin leaves the forest on temporary furloughs to the town, his power undergoes an inversion. Often, on his voluntary excursions away from the forest and into the town, either he is captured and imprisoned, or he finds his weapon defective. In effect, he experiences exile once removed from his locus of power.The loss of Robin Hood's vitality in both popular treatment and historical research on the legend corresponds to the separation experienced by exiles.

Throughout the development of the cycle, from the early ballads to the twentieth century, the outlaw attracts the attention of those who experience exile in the political or social climate of a particular time and place. However, at the same time that the legend of Robin Hood invites new treatment, the newly rewritten legend acts as a wedge to divide the perennial hero from the locus of his power, the forest.Until Stephen Knight's Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw (1994), scant attention had been paid to the Robin Hood ballads by literary critics, for, as Knight points out, these "narratives and their presentation of human character do not fit the requirements of modern literary criticism, failing to mesh with the concepts that drive that discipline" (45). Knight emphasizes the diversity of appeal contained within the cycle by tracking the legend from its possible origins to the twentieth century and exploring the phenomenon of the continuing popularity of the outlaw.

And, by linking historical, social, cultural, and literary research, Knight further expands the synthesizing work begun by Dobson and Taylor and

at the same time opens up windows for further critical discussion. This study rethought the meaning of the forest by tracing the theme of exile through the ballads into the later development of the legend. Impelled by the work of previous scholars, this study was animated by the desire to reclaim Robin Hood and the forest of the imagination.And in tracing this most important theme of exile through the ballads and the development of the legend, paper showed that the potency of the forest of the imagination underlies the impulse that sustains interest in the legend, for it is from the forest of the imagination that Robin Hood beckons all scholars, continuators, and audiences.

Returning to the forest in the ballads, the study opened up paths through which Robin Hood may return to his revitalizing locus of power, the forest.