Twenty years later, the Panic of 1893 triggered another economic depression, out of which emerged Railroad Bill, an African-American Robin Hood whose specialty was robbing trains in southern Alabama.Ĭontrasting the social bandit with white-collar criminals, Woody Guthrie concluded, “some will rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen.” Jesse James rose to near celebrity stature in 1870s, active as a bank, train and stagecoach robber during a time of economic depression in the U.S., especially following the Panic of 1873. Shortly thereafter Jesse robs the banker and recovers his money. Some 400 years later, a similar story is told about the American outlaw Jesse James (1847–1882) from Missouri, who is supposed to have given $800 (or $1,500 in some versions) to a poor widow, so that she can pay an unscrupulous banker trying to foreclose on her farm. Robyn shortly thereafter recovers the money by robbing the abbot. Take for instance, the tale A Gest of Robyn Hode, dating to around 1450, in which Robyn Hode aids a poor knight by loaning him 400 pounds so that the knight can pay an unscrupulous abbot. Perhaps, what is most fascinating about Robin’s social banditry is how the folk tale has spread to certain outlaws in the United States, who (like the Robin Hood of the Middle Ages) are regarded as defenders of the folk.
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Wikimedia Commons, Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel In Balkan folklore, the hajduk is a Robin Hood-type hero fighing against the oppressors and unjust laws. Moreover, Hobsbawm identified this as a worldwide phenomenon, including Balkan haiduks, Brazilian congaceiros, Indian dacoits, and Italian banditi.
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“Though a practice in social banditry,” he writes, “cannot clearly always be separated from other kinds of banditry, this does not affect the fundamental analysis of the social bandit as a special type of peasant protest and rebellion.” In other words, social bandits are not criminals, Hobsbawm maintains, but rather they are defenders of the honest folk against the evil forces of tyranny and corruption, especially during times of economic uncertainty. 1450) Robin robbing the rich and giving to the poor, according to John Major’s History of Greater Britain (1521) and Robin as a noble earl, according to Richard Grafton’s Chronicle at Large (1569).Īs these stories developed and spread, Robin became the quintessential “social bandit,” a term popularized in the late 20th century by the British historian Eric Hobsbawm. 1420) Robin living in Sherwood Forest, according to the ballad “ Robin Hood and the Monk” (ca. I kan noght parfitly my Paternoster as the preest it syngeth,īut I kan rymes of Robyn Hood and Randolf Erl of Chestre,Īc neither of Oure Lord ne of Oure Lady the leest that evere was maked.Īccording to a timeline assembled by Stephen Winick at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress, stories about Robin Hood continued to circulate for the next several centuries, gradually taking on many of the details that are familiar today: Robin as a “good” outlaw, according to Andrew of Wyntoun’s Orygynale Chronicle (ca. It is not until the late 14th century-in the narrative poem Piers Ploughman by William Langland-that references to rhymes about Robin Hood appear. We do not know if there ever was an actual Robin Hood in medieval England, or if the name simply attached itself to various outlaws in the 13th century. Assisted by Michael Sheridan, an intern serving at the Smithsonian’s Center for Folklore and Cultural Heritage, it soon become clear that in times of economic downturns, in times of tyranny and oppression, and in times of political upheaval, the hero Robin Hood makes his timely call. The 2018 film version uses new digital technologies in many of the action sequences, but employs much of the same traditional folklore in casting Robin as the quintessential social bandit righting injustice by robbing from the rich and giving to the poor.Īs the new blockbuster film settles into nationwide circulation, I went in search of the deep roots of the hero Robin Hood in archival records and folklore references.
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Directed by Otto Bathurst, Robin Hoodstars Taron Egerton in the title role, with Jamie Foxx as Little John, Ben Mendelsohn as the Sheriff of Nottingham and Eve Hewson as Marian.
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The most recent illustration of this principle arrives in movie theaters on the day before Thanksgiving. When it comes to the redistribution of wealth in ballad and legend, heroes never rob from the poor to further enhance the fortunes of the rich. Directed by Otto Bathurst, Robin Hood stars Taron Egerton in the title role, with Jamie Foxx as Little John, Ben Mendelsohn as the Sheriff of Nottingham and Eve Hewson as Marian.įolklore comes from the folk, which is why “robbing the rich to give to the poor” is a motif that has endured for centuries in the imagination of the people.