The legend of Robin Hood has been recorded in all forms of media, including old texts, literature, criticism, movies, music, plays, and more. This section attempts to catalogue many of these for you to use.

MULTIMEDIA FILES

This is by no means a complete collection of images related to Robin Hood. Various Robin Hood sites have many different images, so I recommend you try looking at them as well. These are just a few random images I've found that other sites aren't likely to have. These images are, for the most part, scattered throughout my site.

• "Adventures of Robin Hood" poster
• "Robin and the Tinker"
• Robin's escape
• Errol Flynn in a movie poster
• A Robin Hood food label (?)
• A page out of a book
• A famous painting of Robin
• A Robin Hood movie poster
• Statue of Robin Hood
  
  
• Small clip of Clannad's theme for RH
• .WAV file of "Men in Tights"
• .MP3 file of "Men in Tights" - mono only, sorry
• RealAudio file of "Men in Tights" - mono only, sorry
• Lyrics of "Men in Tights"

TEXTS

Robin Hood originated in the form of folk tales, but was later recorded onto paper. The oldest written reference to Robin Hood is an indirect one, The Vision of Piers Plowman (1378), while the first direct reference is in a Yorkshire place-name, The Stone of Robin Hood (1322). The first written work to describe Robin in thorough detail was A Lytell Geste of Robin Hood (about 1495). Robin was also in Ivanhoe (1819), a work written by Sir Walter Scott. A cameo was also made in The Once and Future King (1958) by T.H. White, when his men led the boys, Wart and Kay, to the witch, Queen Morgan the Fay. Hundreds or possibly thousands of other works have also been written about Robin Hood.

Some of these works have been reviewed by contributors to this site. Dr. Frederick Walker has pioneered the way, sending me a couple reviews of Robin Hood books which you might find interesting. He reviewed The Quest for Robin Hood by Jim Lees and Robin Hood (2nd ed.) by J.C. Holt.

Dr. Walker came up with the great idea to post book reviews. Have you read any Robin Hood books and would like to post a review of them here? Send it to me!

Writes Don Smith:

"Anyway, I saw in your book section you had not listed the Stephen Lawhead book 'Hood' and I thought I would give you a heads up on it.

"It is set just 30 years after the Battle of Hastings in Wales. And in the book he explains, "Take Robin Hood out of Sherwood?"

"His theory was that stories of Robin Hood were told be traveling troubadoors. So names like "Robin Hood of Sherwood Forest" could be "Robin Hood of Cornwall" or "Robin Hood of Oxford". He also explained that a primevil forest that Robin would need to hide in also only existed in Wales at the time. His theory was the Sherwood Forest was actually a plantation by 1200, so clearly people knew their way around the story.

"What Lawhead does in "Hood" that I think is amazing is explains the "haunted" aspect of the forest. He goes into detail to explain how Robin and his men go about turning the forest into a center for ghosts.

"Mostly, Robin or (Rhi Bran as he is known) will dress as a giant raven to scare people. The Welsh locals call him "Hud" (hood) which means Wizard."

I received a very informative e-mail from Stephen Winick, who had this to say. Please read it!

I'm starting to post some written ballads, stories, etc. for your perusal. However, sites like the Robin Hood Project at the University of Rochester do a much more thorough job of reproducing Robin Hood tales, so check there if that's what you're looking for. One you might like, that I have here, is "Robin Hood Rescuing the Three Squires". Another, found for me by Tyler Vance, is titled "Robin Hood and the Tanner". Mr. Vance says, "I found this song on a recording called 'A Medieval Banquet' by St. George's Canzona directed by John Sothcott. It is a traditional English folk song." The good people running the Robin Hood Project have reproduced the original "Robin Hood and the Tanner" at their site. Thanks for sending it, Mr. Vance!

MOVIES

Errol Flynn became well-known as Robin Hood in the movie "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (1938). Douglas Fairbanks plays Robin in the 1922 movie "Robin Hood". Director Richard Thorpe made "Ivanhoe" in 1952, a remake of the 1913 version. Mel Brooks has made a satire of poor Robin in "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" (lyrics to the theme song available), spoofing Kevin Costner's "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" (1991). Heck, even Disney has released an animated version of my favorite historical character, with "Robin Hood". Robin is played by a fox in this one. Semi-fitting. Countless other versions have been made about Robin Hood. Follow the films link at the other sites page to view them.

TELEVISION

By many viewers' requests, I have been told to post some information about an old TV show, "Robin of Sherwood". This TV show was made and shown in every place other than where I lived, I believe, so I never got to see it. *sigh* I am told it was an *excellent* show, so I suppose I'll start looking for episodes of it on videotape. The show starred Michael Praed as Robin and Jason Connery, Sean Connery's son, as Robert. There happens to be a large page dedicated to this TV show, at Logomancy's "Robin of Sherwood" page. Check it out -- I'm told the show is worth watching! I have also heard of an old 1950's show called "The Adventures of Robin Hood", starring Richard Greene as Robin. Unfortunately, little information about this show can be found (look at the pics through the link at the bottom of that page, though; link is on the other sites page).

You may have heard about this already, but TNT has a Hercules/Xena clone called "The New Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Matthew Poretta (remember, Will Scarlet from "Men in Tights"?). My impressions of this show are mixed. On one hand, it's good that Robin Hood is getting some exposure to the young generation, and on the other hand, it's not really all that ground-breaking a show. You know, the usual. But the cast seems to have a lot of fun and it's all for entertainment. I suppose the good-looking Robin and the big-breasted Marion are givens in modern day interpretations of Robin Hood. Hehe.

GAMES

Sierra On-Line released a game long ago called "The Conquests of the Longbow" for IBM, based on Robin Hood, while Nintendo capitalized on the success of Costner's movie by releasing "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" for the Nintendo. I don't even think these games are available anymore, so if you want to get them, you'll have to find them at a garage sale or pawn shop or something.

SONGS

The most well-known song written recently about Robin Hood was for the "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" movie soundtrack. This song was performed by Bryan Adams and is called "(Everything I do) I Do It For You". Hundreds of ballads and songs are based on the Sherwood tales and I may post a few in the future.

RESEARCH

Bob Wheeler informs me that the Cleveland Public Library (I'm guessing there's only one) has the largest collection of Robin Hood books in the world, besides Nottingham, England. Odd, eh? Cleveland?!

If you're interested in finding some more information about Robin Hood, try looking into the Library of Congress. Its search utility, LOCIS, is only open from 6:30 AM to 9:30 PM on weekdays, 8 AM to 5 PM on Saturdays, and 8 AM to 4:30 PM on Sundays, but serves as the BEST place to find any information on literature. In order to find a complete list of books written about Robin Hood, go to http://lcweb.loc.gov/z3950/mums.php and fill out the Z39.50 form. I got 128 book titles, so I figured directing you towards this utility will provide a more up-to-date reference than if I were to copy all the book titles down.

Pictures:
1) "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves",
2) Disney's "Robin Hood"
3) Poster of "Adventures of Robin Hood", with Errol Flynn
4) "Robin of Sherwood",