ROBIN HOOD Biography - Fictional, Iconical & Mythological characters

 
 

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ROBIN HOOD

Name: Robin Hood                                                                     
                                                                                     
Robin Hood is a figure in archetypal English folk tales, whose story originates       
from medieval times. In popular culture he is painted as a man known for robbing     
the rich to provide for the poor and fighting against injustice and tyranny. His     
band consists of "seven score" group of fellow outlawed yeomen called his "Merry     
Men". He has been the subject of numerous movies, television series, books,           
comics and plays.                                                                     
                                                                                     
In popular culture Robin Hood and his band's tales are usually associated with       
the area Sherwood Forest and Nottinghamshire, though most historians point           
towards him being a Yorkshireman. Historically his birthplace is                     
said to be Loxley in South Yorkshire, while his grave is claimed to be at             
Kirklees Priory in West Yorkshire.                                                   
                                                                                     
In the oldest legends the outlaw's enemy is the sheriff due simply to his             
profession, but in later versions the sheriff is despotic and gravely abuses         
his position, appropriating land, levying excessive taxation, and persecuting         
the poor. In some tales the antagonist is Prince John, based on the historical       
John of England, who is seen as the unjust usurper of his pious brother Richard       
the Lionheart. In the oldest versions surviving, Robin Hood is a yeoman, but in       
some later versions he is described as a nobleman and Lord of the Manor of           
Loxley (or Locksley), usually designated Robin of Loxley, who was unjustly           
deprived of his lands.                                                               
                                                                                     
In other stories, he has served in the crusades, returning to England to find         
his lands pillaged by the dastardly sheriff. In some tales he is the champion of     
the people, fighting against corrupt officials and the oppressive order that         
protects them, while in others he is an arrogant and headstrong rebel, who           
delights in bloodshed, cruelly slaughtering and beheading his victims.               
                                                                                     
Despite the fact that most historians and experts link Hood to real life places       
that still exist today, a subsection argue that his tales (although not the very     
earliest) have some similarities to other outlaws such as Hereward the Wake,         
Eustace the Monk and Fulk FitzWarin. The latter of whom was a Norman noble           
who was disinherited and became an outlaw and an enemy of John of England.