Robin Hood FAQ: All That's Left to Know About England's Greatest Outlaw and His Band of Merry Men

by Dave Thompson

Overview

(FAQ). Income inequality. Wealth disparity. Roving bands of rogue knights. (OK, maybe not that last one.) Now more than ever, we need an egalitarian outlaw who isn't afraid to stand firm against the hypocrisies and excesses of presumptuous economic elites. Perhaps looking back is our best way forward. For centuries, Robin Hood and his band of Merry Men have inspired the oppressed, uplifted the downtrodden and, of course, forged a trail of their own across Western art and culture. From medieval myth to modern blockbuster, Dave Thompson's Robin Hood FAQ offers the complete story of Robin Hood, tracing the tale across each of the many media in which it has been told, from legends, ballads, books, comics, and magazines to songs, movies, TV series, and so on. Thompson digs deep into both fact and fiction to separate the modern myth from its earliest counterpart and trace the patterns that the confluence followed. And who better to make sense of the vast and varied life of Nottingham's favorite son than Dave Thompson, an English ex-pat with a bibliography a mile long, a wit so droll it defies critical apprehension, and a marked predilection for Lincoln green? Plenty of ink has already been spilled on the Prince of Thieves, but extant volumes tend to be literary, out of print, or, in scholastic instances, prohibitively expensive (aye, the irony). Written in Applause Theatre and Cinema Books' acclaimed FAQ format, Robin Hood FAQ bursts at the seams with 400 pages of facts, fiction, history, and trivia. Photo-filled and reader-friendly, Thompson's latest tome is at once fun, informative, and, at just $19.99, priced for the 99%.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781495048227
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/01/2017
Series:	FAQ
Pages:	360
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: In Merrye Englande in Ye Days of Olde xi

1 Riding Through the Glen: A Veritable Flock of Robins 1

2 The Rise of Robin Hood: From Tiny Yeomen, Great Earls Are Grown 12

3 Earls and Elsewhere: Further Fables, Theories, and Thoughts 23

4 The Death of Robin Hood: (Reports of Which Would Appear to Be Greatly Exaggerated) 30

5 A Swift Historical Diversion: An Earlier Robin Awakens 38

6 What Did Robin Have Against the French?

7 Robin Hood and the Holiest War: A Brief History of the Crusades 53

8 Robin Hood and the Band of Brothers (Part One): Introducing The Merry Men-the Big Three 65

9 Robin Flood and the Band of Brothers (Part Two): Merrier and Merrier Still 76

10 A Maid Galled Marian: The Fairest Flower of the Forest 89

11 Shooting at the Sheriff: Nottingham, Gisborne, and a Few Other Fiends 98

12 Robin Hood and Religion: A Real Love/Hate Relationship 112

13 Into the Woods We Go: Robin Hood and the Mystery of the Forest 122

14 Another Historical Interlude: Later Robins from Ludd to Courtenay 151

15 The Ballads of Bold Robin Hood: With a Hey Nonny-no, to the Greenwood We Shall Go 160

16 A Robin Hood Broadside: Later Laments and Sensational Sonnets 183

17 From Ballads to Books: The Legend Continues 192

18 Robin Hood, the Opera: Did Somebody Mention Songs? 199

19 From Sherwood to Shenandoah: Robin Flood in America 212

20 The Swash is Buckled: Fairbanks and Flynn-the Merriest of Men 223

21 Hammer and Sword: The Endless Cinema Show 235

22 Robin Gets Raunchy: The Original Men In Tights 249

23 Robin in Your Living Room: From Lincoln Green to Richard Greene 263

Epilogue 281

Appendix 1 Robin in Song 285

Appendix 2 Robin on Screen 305

Index 331