David Crook's Robin Hood: Legend and Reality is the result of a truly life-long project to track the complex and centuries-old history of the study—and search for—the legendary figure of Robin Hood. Crook synthesizes the existing historical studies of Robin and demonstrates how modern work on archival sources provides twenty-first-century scholars with greater access and insight to the past than was available to previous scholars. That he does what others, especially those in the nineteenth century, could not is precisely because of how organized and accessible many of the records now are.
In the introduction, Crook provides an overview of the volume's structure and content, setting up the relationship between the two subsequent sections, which proceed chronologically through the history of Robin Hood scholarship and then turn to detailed studies of localized events and records. Crook unfolds the argument slowly, and he teases the reader at intervals with suggestions of a historical outlaw figure that could possibly be the genesis of the legend, holding back the details until the penultimate and final chapters. Ultimately, he reinforces claims for the figure's links to Yorkshire more so than those to Nottinghamshire, although he does so with caution, noting why such a position can only be tentative because of gaps in the documentary evidence.
The volume has two main parts: “The Legend and its Interpreters” (chapters 1–5) and “Outlaw and Evildoer of our Land: The Original Robin Hood” (chapters 6–9). A series of maps and figures cover information such as the distribution of “Hood” surnames in regions such as Bedfordshire and Northumberland; important manuscripts (such as the Lincoln Cathedral MS 132, with its early marginalia on Robin); key historians (the Rev. Joseph Hunter, for example); and places with connections to the legend, such as St. Mary's Church in Nottingham and Pontefract Castle in Yorkshire. The bibliography is impressive. Throughout, Crook plumbs the depths of archival sources—among them chancery and exchequer rolls, records from justices in eyres, of assize, of oyer and terminer, and patent rolls—to uncover various place and personal names, criminal accounts, and outlaw activities that provide context for the evolution of Robin's story.
In chapter 1, Crook outlines the earliest medieval accounts of Robin Hood, including Robin Hood and the Monk, Robin Hood and the Potter, A Lytell Gest of Robin Hood, and Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne. These texts, Crook notes, are all “now generally agreed to have originated before the early sixteenth century” (7) and establish one of the legend's key elements: Robin's piety, especially his devotion to the Virgin. Crook provides details on texts in manuscript or printed copies, their provenance, and significant features, and he includes a brief note about key critical studies dating each text. In chapters 2 to 4, he traces the legend's evolution, highlighting key debates and critics from the fifteenth century to the present. Various allusions to Robin Hood in texts and social practices such as the May Games, Crooke notes, evidence the figure's pervasiveness in late medieval culture, while references in clerical texts and other documents highlight his importance as a symbolic figure connected to “violence and social disorder” (48). Across these chapters, he details “the battle lines of the debate about the origins of the Robin Hood legend” (98), specifically the trends in scholarship to prove Robin's origins as “a real historical personage” (115) versus those that consider him solely as part of a literary tradition, albeit one arising from historical contexts. He also considers another key debate, that of audience: Does Robin belong to the plebian ranks or to the gentry? Late in chapter 4, Crooke sidesteps briefly into a discussion of Robin Hood names in historical sources, although this section bridges nicely to chapter 5, which focuses on Robin Hood sites, primarily those across Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.
In chapter 6, Crook returns to nomenclature, examining first names and surnames associated with the legend. He again delves into the archives, building upon—and, in some cases, highlighting the shortcomings of—previous studies, arguing that the plethora and popularity of “Robinhood” and “Robehood” variants “strengthens the case for placing the original outlaw, if one existed, in the thirteenth century” (184). Turning to debates concerning Robin's criminality, Crook then explores, in chapter 7, whether his figure can be linked to actual forest crimes or if his association with the greenwood was only retrospectively granted given that accounts of this nature surface quite late (in the fifteenth century). Arguments for Robin's possible identity as a highwayman are also entertained, and Crook notes parallels between Robin and Dick Turpin, the infamous eighteenth-century highwayman. The next chapter links criminality and place, exploring unrest specifically in Yorkshire from 1215 to 1225. Crook outlines the various criminal activities in the county, how these activities and those who perpetrated them were handled and punished, before detailing the exceptional case of Robert Wetherby, whom he identifies as “perhaps the original Robin Hood” (210). The unusual royal orders concerning Wetherby, he argues, especially the order to execute rather than bring the outlaw in for trial, mark the end of a period of “extensive criminal activity” in the county that offer convincing “context” for the legend's origins (227). In the final chapter, Crook examines further documentary evidence, this time in relation to Robin's legendary antagonist, the sheriff of Nottingham. Here, he dedicates considerable space to a potential historical candidate, originally identified by Jeffrey Stafford, one Eustace of Lowdham, who held the post of sheriff in both Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, and who was, more importantly, in the latter post in 1225 and was involved in the orders concerning the execution of Wetherby.
Ultimately, however, Crook reminds readers that “unquestionable identification of the outlaw” (255) remains elusive, even if the evidence under examination offers compelling possibilities. He concludes by highlighting, again, the work of previous scholars that provided the foundation for his study. Overall, Robin Hood: Legend and Reality will prove a useful resource for those new to the field and for those well versed in the critical historical materials. Literary and interdisciplinary scholars will likewise find the volume an excellent resource.
