The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #129653 Message #2913519
Posted By: Nerd
24-May-10 - 07:48 PM
Thread Name: Robin Hood in the Crusades?
Subject: RE: Robin Hood in the Crusades?
By the way, as to the music, it is indeed more Irish than English. One of the conceits of the film is to make Robin's band representative of (today's) UK, with an Englishman (Robin), an Irishman (Alan a Dale), a Scotsman (Little John), and a Welshman (Will Scarlet) hanging out together. Since the main singer/musician is supposed to be Irish (in fact he is played by the talented Newfoundlander Alan Doyle, of Great Big Sea fame), the music and song has an Irish lilt. Much of the music is anachronistic; for example, you can hear "the world's first steel-strung lute," "the world's first uilleann pipes," and indeed the world's first of many of the standard orchestral instruments, none of which existed in the 1100s.
Incidentally, although the friendliness of this multi-ethnic Celto-Saxon clique--and their ability to communicate in English--is anachronistic, their presence on the crusade is not. There were in fact people from all four countries with Richard's army. Giraldus Cambrensis's famous travel book about Wales in the twelfth century details Archbishop Baldwin's recruitment of Welsh soldiers for the Third Crusade. No less a person than the High Steward of Scotland, Alan Fitzwalter, also attended. (Although a Norman, Alan really did live in Scotland and held his lands there, so many of his attending vassals would have been Scottish. BTW, it was Alan's son, Walter, who took the name of the office for his surname and became the first Stewart.) Finally, there are ten Irish knights whose names are known who went with Richard's army, and they undoubtedly brought men with them. There are probably more nobles and knights from Ireland, whose names are not known. So, while this friendship almost certainly DIDN'T happen, it could have!