HOOD, Robin, English outlaw : said to have been b. 1160 and d. 1247. According to the popular account, with his followers, he in habited Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamshire, and also the woodlands of Barnsdale in the adjoining West Riding. They supported them selves by levying toll on the wealthy, and more especially on ecclesiastics, and by hunting the deer. The principal members of his band were his lieutenant, Little John, his chaplain, Friar Tuck, William Scadlock, George-a-Greene, Much the miller's son, and Maid Marian. His skill with the long-bow and quarter-staff was celebrated in tradition. What basis of fact there is for the story of Robin Hood is doubtful. Grimm maintained that he was one with the Teutonic god Woden. Other theories suppose him to have been a rebel yeoman in Lancaster's rebellion under Edward II; a Saxon chief who defied the Normans; and a fugitive follower of Sir Simon de Montfort after the battle of Evesham. He figures prominently in Scott's
novel 'Ivanhoe,' and in 'The Foresters,' a drama by Tennyson. The earliest known men tion of him is in 'The Vision of Piers Plow man,' version B. (about 1377), in which Sloth says he knows “ryrnes of Robin Hood.)) 'The Gest of Robin Hood' (assigned to 1400), almost epic in length, consisting of 456 four-line stanzas, is the oldest extant ballad this theme. Others of the more important ballads are 'Robin Hood and the Monk,' • Hood and Guy of Gisborne) and 'Robin Hood's Death.' The remaining ballads are, in general, of inferior merit. It seems probable that there were what may be called a Sherwood cycle and a Barns dale Cycle, respectively. proverbs and exist in connection with Robin Hood. Consult Child, 'English and Scottish Ballads' (1883) ; Fricke, 'Die Robin Hood Ballade & (1883) and Ritson, 'Robin Hood) (new ed.,