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Robin Hood Days
"Robin Hood is here again: all his merry thieves
Hear a ghostly bugle-note shivering through the leaves,
Calling as he used to call, faint and far away,
In Sherwood, in Sherwood, about the break of day."
~ Sherwood, Alfred Noyes (1880-1958)
Summer is a time for festivals and fairs devoted to the legend of Robin Hood, the famous outlaw hero long associated with Sherwood Forest, the royal forest in Nottinghamshire, England. Interestingly, the earliest surviving Robin Hood ballads don't actually place his adventures there at all!
In the medieval ballads, Robin is much more closely associated with Barnsdale, an area of woodland and heath in South Yorkshire. A Gest of Robyn Hode, one of the earliest and most important collections of Robin Hood stories, repeatedly places him in Barnsdale. Other early traditions increasingly connected Robin with Nottingham and its sheriff, and over time Sherwood Forest became the principal setting of the legend.
Medieval Sherwood was a royal forest, which did not simply mean a heavily wooded area. A royal forest was territory governed by special forest laws intended to protect the king's hunting grounds, particularly deer and the habitat that supported them. Ordinary people could face severe penalties for poaching the king's game or illegally cutting and clearing woodland. Access to timber, grazing, and game was tightly controlled, and the restrictions and penalties associated with the forest laws contributed to Sherwood's later association with the famous outlaw.
Sherwood is also home to the Major Oak, an enormous ancient oak traditionally said to have sheltered Robin Hood and his Merry Men. The tree is estimated to be between 800 and 1,000 years old and has become one of the best-known landmarks associated with Robin Hood and Sherwood Forest.
Whether Robin Hood existed as a single historical person remains uncertain. His story developed over centuries through medieval ballads, folklore, theatre, literature, and eventually film, acquiring many of its familiar characters, incidents, and locations along the way. Although Barnsdale was the setting of many of the earliest stories, Sherwood Forest ultimately became the landscape most closely identified with Robin Hood. 💚 🖤 🧡 🤎 🏹 🎯 🌳🌲🌳🌲🌳
Amongst other claimants, Nottinghamshire is generally thought to have been the likely home of the outlaw who inspired the legend of Robin Hood, "who stole from the rich to give to the poor." Neighbouring counties Yorkshire and Leicestershire also claim historical links to Robin and his Merry Men.
Sherwood Forest, a royal forest in Nottinghamshire, is home to the famous Major Oak, which, according to local folklore, was Robin Hood's principal hideout and shelter where he and his Merry Men slept. The English oak tree (Quercus robur) is estimated to be between 800 and 1,000 years old and, since the Victorian era, its limbs have been partially supported by an elaborate system of scaffolding. It is one of nearly 997 ancient oaks within the Sherwood Forest country park and yield up to 150,000 acorns!
This tartan, by designer Carol A.L. Martin, illustrates the legendary forest in its rich autumn colours.
For more on the famous Major Oak tree, click the painting by Edmund George Warren, of Robin and his Merry Men underneath the giant oak, 1859.