Raggytash wrote:

>>>A more recent song which is possibly quite accurate had the line
"the dirty robbin' bastard that he was" possible a good deal more accurate than him fishing out of Scarborough!
Sorry I cannot recall more of the song perhaps a separate thread might bring it to light. I heard it in folk club in manchester in the 70's<<<

Hi, Raggytash:

Hmmm... the idea of "accuracy" in folklore seems a bit out of place to me. I'm not among the historicist contingent that believe in a "real" Robin Hood. Sure, there were real outlaws in the medieval woods of England, but no single one of them "was" Robin Hood (although many bore that name). Looking at the earliest extant ballads, it is apparent that Robin was a symbol of resistance against greedy clerics, corrupt officials, and unfair land-use policies. He represented a sylvan utopia in contrast to agricultural servitude, town life, and court excesses. He was only a "dirty robbin' bastard" from the perspective of the wealthy and powerful abbots, bishops, sheriffs and merchants that he robbed. The "folk" did not see him in that way, since the Gest tells us that:

For he was a good outlawe,
And dyde pore men moch god

Indeed, Robin was pious and chivalrous, and would not rob a travelling party that included women:

Robyn loved Oure dere Lady:
For dout of dydly synne,
Wolde he never do compani harme
That any woman was in.

And he forbade his men to rob or harm common people (or even the lesser gentry so long as they behaved themselves):

But loke ye do no husbonde harme,
That tilleth with his ploughe.

"No more ye shall no gode yeman
That walketh by grene wode shawe,
Ne no knyght ne no squyer
That wol be a gode felawe.

Cheers, Hester