With the sheer variety of Robin Hood incarnations, those who study the outlaw hero are bound to have some favorites-and to wince at a few clunkers.
(Photo: Richard Baker) A Robin Hood Review: Picks and Pans PROFESSOR & DEVOTEE: Thomas Hahn, a professor of English at the University who helped organize the original conference as well as this fall’s edition, is also a devotee of the Robin Hood legend with more than 2,000 items in a personal collection. Scholars have pointed to people named Robin, or Robert, Hood in historical records, but there is no single figure who seems to have inspired the Robin Hood stories. “It’s a desire to ground our affection for Robin Hood in the fact that he was a real person.” “People usually first ask, ‘Was he real?’,” Hahn says. “Perhaps what we like is a paradox, someone who defies authority yet is a good outlaw.” Yet there seems to be a deeply attractive core element,” says Helen Phillips, also a professor of English at Cardiff University and a plenary speaker at the October conference. “It’s strange because there is no classic original story, as with, say, the story of Troy. “Most of the other great myths-Oedipus, Beowulf, Arthur for example-have detailed, even fixed, stories and are hard to adapt without seeming to destroy the myth.” “It’s important that the story is itself so slender-just a guy, a forest, a bow and arrow, and some resistance actions: a story that can be radically varied to relate to changing circumstances without seeming to distort the myth,” says Stephen Knight, a distinguished research professor in English literature at Cardiff University in Wales. Whatever the form, Robin Hood’s appeal is a constant. The Eastman School and the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography and Film will contribute to the program, too. The conference, which will be held at the University-its inaugural site-this year takes on the theme “Robin Hood: Media Creature,” and participants will examine the many genres and forms that have taken up the figure of Robin Hood, from plays and poems, to films and comic books, to novels and toys. In October, Hahn and other scholars of the Robin Hood story will put that baggage under scrutiny at the seventh biennial conference of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies. “Robin Hood is a fixture in our mental baggage,” so ubiquitous that “most people can’t identify when they first heard of him,” says Thomas Hahn, a professor of English, a specialist in medieval literature, and a lifelong devotee of the Robin Hood legend. He’s already been portrayed by actors from Errol Flynn to Daffy Duck.
(Photo: George Eastman House Motion Picture Department Collections)įirst mentioned in medieval ballads, Robin Hood has been an iconic figure in English-and now world-culture for more than seven hundred years.Ī wily outlaw, a force for good in a corrupt society, and in many-though not all-versions, a displaced nobleman who robs the rich to give to the poor: This is the Robin Hood that has come down to us through the centuries, and who remains a vivid part of popular culture today, as a new movie now in the works-with Russell Crowe this time inhabiting the part of the folk hero-attests. The conference will explore the many ways that the Robin Hood story has been portrayed in literature, film, and popular culture and will feature an exhibition of memorabilia.
The famous artist Greg Ruhl’s elegant illustrations captivate the heart of the reader with images that make the story come alive in a child’s imagination.MEDIA MAN: A newly restored print of the 1922 movie Robin Hood, starring Douglas Fairbanks and Enid Bennett (page 35 and opposite), will have its debut during the Robin Hood conference, thanks to the work of the George Eastman House. Historical events from the days of Robin Hood are also included. This version, compiled from classic versions of the tale, including Joseph Cundall’s British version of 1842, retains the high adventure of the hero expressed in rich language delivered through the eyes of a schoolboy telling the story of Robin Hood to hisĬlassmates. Its appeal is its tale of the universal desire for fairness and justice, especially in times of tyranny. This version, compiled from classic versions of the tale, including Joseph Cundall’s British version of 1842, retains the high adventure of the hero expressed in rich language delivered through the eyes of The story of Robin Hood is one of England’s most famous legends. The story of Robin Hood is one of England’s most famous legends.