Robin Hood and his merry men 'outed'

Gay goings-on in Sherwood Forest

http://www.dispatch.co.za/2001/10/23/features/HOOD.HTM

Robin Hood is a folk hero, but people can't agree on who he really was -- if he actually existed. The latest theory is that he was a gay, disgraced civil servant.

ACCORDING to a recent survey in England, Robin Hood is better known than Jesus. The world's best-loved outlaw who robbed the rich to give to the poor has enjoyed the status of a folk hero in England and beyond for more than 500 years.

Throughout this time, however, the identity of Robin Hood has remained a mystery. Scholars have argued for years whether the man in the green tights was a forest official, a woodland gnome, a poacher or gay -- every theory has its own champion, usually a professor of some kind. Amid the debate, it's not even certain if a man called Robin Hood ever really existed.

Historians Richard Almond and Tony Pollard have presented a fresh study which claims the man who went riding through the glen to champion the rights of the dispossessed was really a disgraced civil servant.

"Our suggestion is that he was a forest official who had done something wrong and who had fled into the greenwood. It is based on the use of hunting and falconry terms in rhymes," said the experts who found much falconry terminology in Robin Hood ballads from the 15th century.

The two men from Darlington College and Teeside University in northern England are blazing a new trail in the hunt to discover the real Robin Hood. Until now the bold outlaw has generally been considered to have been a simple farmer, although others vehemently support the theory that he was of aristocratic stock. "We say he was in the middle," said Almond.

The bane of all Robin Hood enthusiasts is Stephen Knight, professor for English literature at the University of Cardiff in Wales. In his considered opinion, Robin Hood was a tormented homosexual. Shunned by heterosexual society, he retreated into the woods with his band of "merry men".

"The ballads could not say outright that he was gay because of the prevailing moral climate, but they do contain a great deal of erotic imagery. The green wood itself is a symbol of virility and the references to arrows, quivers and swords make it clear, too," explained Knight.

Maid Marion, traditionally Robin Hood's sweetheart, doesn't crop up at all in the ballads. Knight believes she was invented in the 16th century in order to give the folk hero an alibi. Robin's true love it seems was his faithful follower Little John -- that giant of a man who impressed the bandit with his staff skills during an encounter in the forest.

Knight is not the only one to hold opinions like these either. Barry Dobson, a professor of medieval history at Cambridge University, points out that homosexuality was widely tolerated in the 12th century.

"But in the 13th, the church became much less tolerant and such people were driven underground."

The British gay organisation, Outrage, believes the outing of Robin Hood is long overdue.

"It's about time school history lessons acknowledged the contribution of famous homosexuals," it said in a statement.

Other versions of the story have little in common with the numerous Hollywood film portrayals of Robin Hood as a valiant man of the people.

They imply that Hood was a legend dating back to pagan times and related to fertility gods who hid in Sherwood Forest, which used to be a much larger area of royal woodland preserve near Nottingham. Does this mean Robin Hood was a kind of woodland gnome?

No, say other voices -- he was a devout hermit.

Whole books have been written about Robin the heretic, the political rebel or simply Robin the robber. There are even adherents of the theory that Robin Hood wasn't English at all but rather Scottish or that he was actually freedom fighter William Wallace (Braveheart) who hated the English and took up swords against them.

One thing is clear. Like the sheriff of Nottingham, another figure who has given rise to a great deal of colourful speculation, the essence of Robin Hood is still proving elusive. -- Sapa-DPA

'Robin Hood was gay,' says English prof
MICHAEL CRABB - The Arts Report (email)

CARDIFF, Wales - A professor of English literature at the University of Cardiff believes that Robin Hood was gay. The official Robin Hood Society is not amused by the claim. Robin Hood is a semi-mythological British folk hero. He was supposedly a man of noble blood who became an outlaw when his lands were wrongfully confiscated. In the reign of the nasty 12th-century ruler, King John, Robin Hood is alleged to have hidden away with his merry men in England's Sherwood Forest whence he sallied to rob the rich and give to the poor. In the many dramatized versions of his story, Hood is portrayed as being madly in love with the fair Maid Marian. However, according to professor Stephen Knight, Maid Marian never existed. Hood instead preferred the forest life with his band of men.

Knight says the earliest mention of Robin Hood is in 14th-century ballads. He says Maid Marian doesn't make an appearance until 200 years later. His theory is that people writing about Robin Hood wanted to make him more respectable.

The Robin Hood Society, whose members are dedicated to keeping their hero's memory alive and clean, say the claim that he was a homosexual does damage to a great role model for children.

Stephen Knights claim is based on studies of the 14th century ballads of Robin Hood, the earliest known accounts which detail his relationships with his merry men. "Robin Hood and his men are all very male and live exclusively without women," he said. He claims that the ballads also show that Maid Marian, usually portrayed as Robin Hood's true love, never existed.