The Paradoxes of Robin Hood

Abstract

THE narrative tradition about Robin Hood, which throve in the folklore and the popular literature of England from the medieval period to the nineteenth century,' reflects the worldwide fascination with the figure of the outlaw,2 the man who exists beyond human society and has adventures which would be impossible for normal members of society in their normal social environments. In this paper I present an analysis of the 'mystique' of Robin Hood the outlaw and an examination of the Robin Hood ballads as myth that is, as an expression of basic social issues. I will attempt to demonstrate that Robin Hood is not so much a figure outside society as one who exists between culture and nature, and several other pairs of opposed categories as well. The liminal world of Robin Hood, a construct of narrative,3 provides a context in which social values and realities are mirrored and redefined. To examine the function of the narrative tradition about Robin Hood is to examine a specific instance of the function of liminality in myth.4 One of the most prominent characteristics of the Robin Hood figure, from the earliest extant Robin Hood narratives such as the fifteenth-century Gest of Robin Hood to the broadside ballads of the eighteenth century, is that he and his men are devoted hunters; it is both a means of survival in the forest and a pastime for them. Robin Hood describes their situation to the disguised king in the Gest thus: