Hugh Jackman performs Robin Hood as depraved – it’s a badly timed take at the hero of the deficient

Robin Hood performs must be banned, wrote an guide to King Henry VIII in 1536 – they have been, he argued, educating the general public defy the king’s officials. It was once mainly the medieval identical of saying video video games make children violent, a part of a longstanding motion to prohibit performances and stories of Robin Hood. This hero was once in reality a villain, those medieval campaigners complained.

A brand new movie out day after today, The Loss of life of Robin Hood, echoes this declare. Set within the a long way north of England within the 12 months 1247, the movie sees a wounded Robin Hood (Hugh Jackman), a “wicked and murderous bandit”, replicate on his lifetime of crime. “He was no hero,” claims the movie’s tagline.

IMDB

However in our time of cost-of-living crises and emerging authoritarianism, do we want a villainous Robin Hood? One Reddit remark summed it up well: “Not sure I love the idea of tearing down a folk hero who fought against wealth inequality and greed from upper classes in the current era we’re in. Feels pretty tone deaf.”

The optics aren’t nice. This hero-to-villain recasting comes within the wake of Jackman’s efficiency at Rupert Murdoch’s ninety fifth birthday previous this 12 months, attended by means of individuals of the Trump circle of relatives.

However do the movie’s claims about Robin Hood’s villainous origins even stack up? What’s the fact in the back of the legend?

The historical past of Robin Hood

We first see literary references to Robin Hood within the 1370s, when poet William Langland wrote that rhymes and romances of Robin Hood have been shared in taverns. Quickly after, round 1405, a literary statement at the Ten Commandments, framed as a dialog between a wealthy guy and a deficient guy, complained that folks would slightly cross to the pub to listen to a story of Robin Hood than attend church services and products.

The earliest identified Robin Hood narrative survives inside a crucial supply that rubbishes Robin’s in style enchantment: Scotichronicon, compiled within the 1440s by means of Scottish abbot Walter Bower. The chronicle was once a rejection of English claims over Scottish sovereignty. Bower emphasized each the piety of the Scottish church and the sessions of violence often breaking out around the border.

He estimated that the Robin Hood fantasy originated right through the 2d Barons’ Struggle (1264-67), through which the forces of Henry III and Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, battled for keep an eye on over England. Bower imagined Robin was once probably the most many disinherited squaddies who ravished the rustic following de Montfort’s defeat in 1265, hanging him amongst those that stole vegetation and looted church buildings to make their dwelling:

Presently there arose from a few of the disinherited and outlaws and raised his head that the majority well-known armed robber Robert Hood, at the side of Little John and their accomplices. The silly not unusual people eagerly have fun the deeds of those males with gawping enthusiasm in comedies and tragedies.

An early literary statement complained other people would slightly pay attention a Robin Hood story on the pub than attend church.
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, Wikimedia Commons

That is the very supply that impressed director Michael Sarnoski’s 2026 imaginative and prescient.

But Bower additionally admits that a few of Robin’s exploits are commendable. Within the very subsequent sentence, he paraphrases a circulating story the place Robin is attacked by means of a viscount, whilst diligently preserving a Mass in his wooded area hideout. Regardless of the chance, and the pleas of his males to escape, his religious energy guarantees he’s the victor.

This Robin is the only maximum visual within the later Center Ages: now not a violent bandit, however a celebrity of motion journey tales that upheld the sanctity of the church and emphasized group values.

Robin Hood as medieval superhero

The most typical means on a regular basis other people engaged with the Robin Hood custom was once via play-games – a mixture of costumed roleplays with authentic carrying competitions – that have been held in spring and summer time. Proof for those group performances date to the mid 1420s, the place avid gamers in Exeter have been paid 20 pence for enjoying a Robin Hood recreation for the mayor.

Males would get dressed as Robin Hood and Little John and lift finances for group initiatives. Those appearances have been necessarily the identical of superheroes at buying groceries department shops lately, however Robin’s presence in medieval communities was once now not almost about a laugh: it signalled issues locally wanted solving. Whether or not a church desiring maintenance, or a social hire desiring to be reconciled, if Robin Hood was once for your the town, he was once there to assist.

Robin’s presence in medieval communities intended issues locally wanted solving.
De Worde Gest

Those that refused to serve the group changed into Robin’s enemies. Within the literary custom, that is the Sheriff of Nottingham and the grasping bishops of the church. Robin was once now not strictly anti-authority, however anti-corrupt authority.

He was once staunchly unswerving to the king, however challenged corrupt civic officers. He seen Mass 3 times an afternoon, however stressed the grasping clerics of the church. This mirrored Robin’s fundraising position, encouraging all to do their section and chastising those that didn’t.

The well-known “rob the rich to give to the poor” mantra is a Sixteenth-century simplification of this altruistic spirit. Some distance from being a bloodthirsty felony, the unique Robin had a communal mindset – now not an individualistic one.

Violence as an outlaw’s remaining lodge

Jackman has stated that within the Fifteenth-century poem A Gest of Robyn Hode, the outlaw is depicted as a violent cutthroat – however “from these grim beginnings emerged a hero”.

But the Gest famously options the primary glimpses of a gentrified Robin, depicted because the gracious host of feasts. This isn’t a softening of a few previous, violent model of the outlaw, however a easy mirrored image of his position because the host of the feasts of his communal video games.

Whilst some stories include violent episodes, they weren’t hidden, however have been celebrated by means of communities. The oldest surviving Robin Hood play, circa 1475, options the beheading of a knight – a second supposed to elicit a cheer from the target audience on the defeat of an enemy.

The early Robin Hood stories featured violence, however they weren’t inherently violent tales: not more than Superman is violent as a result of he fights his enemy Lex Luthor. Studying violence into the medieval literary custom is going in opposition to the grain in their context as cautionary stories, which additionally include comedy, friendship and love.

Robin does now not hurt the deficient or the blameless – most effective those that are egocentric, or remoted from society. Violence is a final lodge for this outlaw. His number one weapon is guilt and disgrace. He’s any individual who calls for higher from his target audience and leads by means of instance.

It’s due to this fact beautiful telling that those that complained about Robin’s recognition have been frequently the forms of other people the outlaw would assault. Should you had a responsible sense of right and wrong, you had one thing to cover – monks and public officers complaining the outlaw was once being too laborious on them is slightly the inform.

The early Robin Hood stories featured violence, however like Superman, they weren’t inherently violent tales.
Wikimedia Commons

Robin’s actual felony origins

To what extent, then, does The Loss of life of Robin Hood’s portrait of Robin as a violent felony ring true?

The earliest lines of the Robin Hood custom is a nickname for criminals, dated to 1262. A Berkshire fugitive had his title modified by means of a London clerk, from William le Fevere to William Robinhood (“Robehod”). Data display a brief string of such aliases most likely imposed by means of clerks: to be a Robin Hood was once to be a violent felony.

There was once no persona but – most effective the title. By means of the tip of the thirteenth century, “Robin Hood” starts to seem as a surname for each folks and households, with none felony implications. Those have been tax-paying other people, law-abiding electorate, but they named themselves after Robin Hood. Possibly any individual didn’t like being known as a Robin Hood they usually determined to possess it, like reclaiming a slur?

By means of the mid-14th century, we start to see the green-clad outlaw of Sherwood Woodland emerge as a hero in opposition to the grain of the everyday outlaw tale, now not preventing for his personal freedom however for the rights of the group at huge. Robin Hood was once now not modelled at the criminals of the thirteenth century, however at the spirit of those that challenged a label they refused to put on.

So, flipping the script on a violent Robin Hood isn’t so new in any case.