LONDON - A British academic says he’s found proof that Britain’s legendary outlaw Robin Hood wasn’t as popular with the poor as folklore suggests.
Julian Luxford says a newly found note in the margins of an ancient history book contains rare criticism of the supposedly benevolent bandit.
According to legend, Hood roamed 13th-century Britain from a base in central England’s Sherwood Forest, plundering from the rich to give to the poor.
ButMr Luxford says a 23-word inscription in a history book, written in Latin by a medieval monk around 1460, casts the outlaw as a persistent thief.
‘Around this time, according to popular opinion, a certain outlaw named Robin Hood, with his accomplices, infested Sherwood and other law-abiding areas of England with continuous robberies,’ the note read when translated into English, Mr. Luxford said.
‘The new find contains a uniquely negative assessment of the outlaw, and provides rare evidence for monastic attitudes towards him,’ Mr. Luxford said in a statement about his find issued on Friday.
He said the note about Hood - uncovered in the margin of the ‘Polychronicon,’ a history book which dates from the late 1340s - may be the earliest written reference to the outlaw.
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Robin Hood’s no hero
LONDON - A British academic says he’s found proof that Britain’s legendary outlaw Robin Hood wasn’t as popular with the poor as folklore suggests.
Julian Luxford says a newly found note in the margins of an ancient history book contains rare criticism of the supposedly benevolent bandit.
According to legend, Hood roamed 13th-century Britain from a base in central England’s Sherwood Forest, plundering from the rich to give to the poor.
ButMr Luxford says a 23-word inscription in a history book, written in Latin by a medieval monk around 1460, casts the outlaw as a persistent thief.
‘Around this time, according to popular opinion, a certain outlaw named Robin Hood, with his accomplices, infested Sherwood and other law-abiding areas of England with continuous robberies,’ the note read when translated into English, Mr. Luxford said.
‘The new find contains a uniquely negative assessment of the outlaw, and provides rare evidence for monastic attitudes towards him,’ Mr. Luxford said in a statement about his find issued on Friday.
He said the note about Hood - uncovered in the margin of the ‘Polychronicon,’ a history book which dates from the late 1340s - may be the earliest written reference to the outlaw.
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