20 May, 2017 - 22:57 Kerry Sullivan
Why is the Evidence for the Outlaw Robin Hood as Elusive as the Man Himself?
Probably because he didn't exist. Having familial ancestry from the Nottingham area during that time in history, I've had a vested interest in such stories all my life. King Richard, Prince (later King) John, the Sheriff of Nottingham (of which there were many), most certainly lived in those times, but I've come to the conclusion that Robin Hood and his Merry Men were stories built from a composite of maybe several different people and incidents, combined with a huge dose of wishful thinking among the serfs of the area.
Was King Richard a good king? Yes. Was Prince John a slime-ball? In some ways, yes. But John was also the same guy who gave us the great Magna Carta. Was the Sheriff of Nottingham a selfish greedy criminal? Considering there were several Sheriffs, probably a few of them were. Were there roving bands of outlaws plying their trade in the forests of Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Sherwood? Almost certainly, and it's nearly as certain that few if any gave away their ill-gotten gains.
In my opinion the whole thing is just a lot folktales handed down by word of mouth for untold generations, stories whose heroes never diminish.