Robin Hood not so good? Ancient Brits questioned outlaw

[jeff of pa]

LONDON (AP) -- An academic says he's found evidence that Britain's legendary outlaw Robin Hood wasn't as popular as folklore suggests.

Julian Luxford says a note discovered in the margins of an ancient history book contains rare criticism of the supposedly benevolent bandit.

According to legend, Robin Hood roamed 13th-century Britain from a base in central England's Sherwood Forest, plundering from the rich to give to the poor.

But Luxford, an art history lecturer at Scotland's University of St. Andrews, says a 23-word inscription in the margins of a history book, written in Latin by a medieval monk around 1460, casts the outlaw as a persistent thief.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...HOOD?SITE=PAPOE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

 

[sniffer]

it's no wonder the monk didn't like him, back then the church held the power and the king was just a figure head. so the church held the majority of money, which it took from the poor. back then they used fear to control the people.
so, Robin Hood, took from the rich, (churches) and gave it to the poor. It only stands to reason that a monk would call him a thief.
when he lived is immaterial
besides if you embelish a story, it makes for a great read
I would be interested to see if any experts had a chance to see this message written in the margin of this text or was it this one person who saw it and exaggerated what it said

 

[Kentucky Kache]

it's no wonder the monk didn't like him, back then the church held the power and the king was just a figure head. so the church held the majority of money, which it took from the poor. back then they used fear to control the people.
so, Robin Hood, took from the rich, (churches) and gave it to the poor. It only stands to reason that a monk would call him a thief.
when he lived is immaterial

You beat me to that one.

 

[celticfury]

my understanding of the develoment of the legend is that the oldest tales and ballads basically depict him as being a kind of "rob from everybody, keep it for myself" kind of character later, with growing anti-clerical/anti-feudal sentiment, came the "rob from the rich, give to the poor" layer of the legend. we need to remember that the legendary "robin hood" is an accretion of the deeds and lives of any number of english outlaws: so that if the original robin hood was a particularly daring and effective thief, there may very well have been a later, daring and effective road agent who particularly targeted the greedy (and loaded) upper classes