The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #129653 Message #2912604
Posted By: Rob Naylor
23-May-10 - 01:56 PM
Thread Name: Robin Hood in the Crusades?
Subject: RE: Robin Hood in the Crusades?
Being picky picky picky again, while "Robert" is often given as his full name (Robin being a common diminutive for Robert in medieval england), Loxley in Yorkshire has the oldest connections with the tales and ballads, so Ray's spelling was accurate there, at least.
Other common misconceptions include him being clothed in "Lincoln Green". In fact, the earliest ballads say it was "Lincolne Greyne", "greyne" or "graine" being a red dye colour!
Again, if the man was any more than a balladeer's myth, the earliest tales describe him as a "yeoman" rather than a noble, knight or squire...ie a free man, but relatively low down the social order of the time, so unlikely to have been a crusading knight.
Any history from which the subsequent myths is derived though is so vague as to make any links between the tales, from whatever age, and a historical figure, tenuous in the extreme.