SC - Semi-OT Robin Hood Redux - was: Eat Well, Well-to-do?

[Philip & Susan Troy]

> -Poster: Jean Holtom <Snowfire at mail.snet.net>
> 
> >The most effective form of lie is one which is technically true ;  )... .
> >
> >Certainly it was true under the first Norman kings of England that most
> >of the forests of England were relegated to being the King's personal
> >hunting  preserve, so no one outside of royal hunting parties could
> >legally hunt in, say, for a common example, Sherwood Forest in
> >Yorkshire. (It is in Yorkshire, isn't it?)
> 
> errr... no it's in Nottinghamshire - although in some of the RH tales he's
> in 
> Barnsdale which I believe might be in Yorkshire.  At one point the
> boundary of 
> Nottinghamshire was about 10 - 15 miles south of the Yorkshire though (in
> 11th 
> century modern depictions on England).  Now it's a little more southerly.
> 
> 
> Elysant
> 
Robert, Earl Huntington, had a gravestone in Yorkshire, which names him
Robin Hood, but that could be a medieval hoax.

The earliest of the Robin Hood ballads connects him to Barnsdale which is on
the Great North Road.  North of the town, there is a hill on the road which
allows one to see the road for several miles.  Robin would watch for
travellers on the road and "invite" them to dine with him.  Since there were
no fixed rates for innkeepers at the time, he could legally deprive his
"guests" of their wealth.  The earliest ballads were usually about some poor
"guest" outwitting Robin.

In the later ballads, he cleans up nicely, moves down to Sherwood, and
becomes a tax protestor.

Bear  
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