Tolkien, the Medieval Robin Hood, and the Matter of the Greenwood

Abstract

Tolkien, the Medieval Robin Hood, and the Matter of the Greenwood Perry Neil Harrison (bio) Save for perhaps King Arthur and his knights, no legendary figure has had a larger or longer-lasting influence on the British literary tradition than Robin Hood. Yet, despite the ubiquitous power England's legendary figures have held over the country's writings, J.R.R. Tolkien was infamously ambivalent about these national stories. In a letter to Milton Waldman, Tolkien laments, "I was from early days grieved by the poverty of my own beloved country: it had no stories of its own … nothing English, save impoverished chap-book stuff. Of course there was and is all the Arthurian world, but powerful as it is, it is imperfectly naturalized, associated with the soil of Britain but not with English" (Letters 144). Nonetheless, despite Tolkien's reticence to endorse England's legendary figures, recent publications indicate that the author's dissatisfaction with the legends of England did not prevent him from drawing upon these stories while forming his legendarium; in particular, the 2014 publication of his alliterative poem The Fall of Arthur and the subsequent 2017 publication of the collection The Inklings and King Arthur, edited by Sørina Higgins, have helped bring to light the role that Arthur and the "Matter of Britain" played in shaping the author's thought and fiction. Despite the tremendous strides that scholars of Tolkien's works have made in identifying and discussing the role that the Arthurian legend played in shaping Tolkien's literary corpus, they have dedicated very little attention to the ways that Robin Hood and the "Matter of the Greenwood" also influenced the author's works. This absence of scholarly attention is especially notable given the prevalence of several prominent of what might be called heroic outlaws in the legendarium. Numerous times throughout his stories of Middle-earth, Tolkien presents his readers with figures who have been pushed to the margins of civilization by corrupted or misused authority. Although figures such as Aragorn, Barahir, Faramir, and Éomer's éored of Riders of Rohan certainly fit this description, perhaps no character embodies the outlaw spirit as thoroughly as Túrin Turambar. In particular, Tolkien draws upon the earliest Robin Hood rhymes when depicting Túrin's first encounter with the outlaw band and the methods he eventually adopts as the leader of the outlaws. The parallels between Túrin's time [End Page 71] with the outlaw band and the Middle English outlaw rhymes demonstrate that Robin Hood and his Greenwood are distinct and important ingredients in Tolkien's mythopoeia. It should go without saying that Tolkien was familiar with Robin Hood; the figure was, after all, just as ubiquitous in popular culture during the first decades of the twentieth century as he is today. Although works featuring Robin Hood, such as Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, had been prevalent for much of the nineteenth century, it was the 1883 publication and subsequent popularity of Howard Pyle's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood that led to "an explosion of Robin Hood stories for children in the following fifty years" (Knight, Mythic Biography 136–37). The character's popularity did not escape the notice of the fledgling American film industry. The 1922 theatrical release of the Douglas Fairbanks version of Robin Hood (officially titled Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood) was "a huge success with the public—a record 101,000 people saw it in the first week in the New York Capital" (Knight, Complete Study 226–27).1 Yet, for all the success that the Fairbanks film saw, it is Errol Flynn's 1938 The Adventures of Robin Hood that placed Robin Hood most thoroughly in the landscape of popular culture. In addition to achieving financial and critical success, Flynn's take on the outlaw also garnered a nomination for Best Picture at the 11th Academy Awards, and the film remained popular enough to warrant a successful re-release in 1948 (Knight, Complete Study 231). Robin Hood, by all measures, was a force on the written page, on the big screen, and on the cultural landscape. However, the popular versions of Robin Hood put onto the page...