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Robin Hood
Historians have for years been bringing out new books in which they claim to have found "the real Robin Hood," but his identity remains clouded. This is the only contemporary book to fully explore the mythology of Robin Hood rather than concentrating on the human identity of the famous outlaw. It ties Robin to the ancient archetype of the Green Man, the lore and legends of the Faery race, to the possible Eastern influence of the English Mummers’ plays, and suggests the real identities of several of the Merry Men.
336 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1993
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About the author
John Matthews
427 books199 followersJohn Matthews is an historian, folklorist and author. He has been a full time writer since 1980 and has produced over ninety books on the Arthurian Legends and Grail Studies, as well as short stories and a volume of poetry. He has devoted much of the past thirty years to the study of Arthurian Traditions and myth in general. His best known and most widely read works are ‘Pirates’ (Carlton/Atheneum), No 1 children’s book on the New York Times Review best-seller list for 22 weeks in 2006, ‘The Grail, Quest for Eternal Life’ (Thames & Hudson, 1981) ‘The Encyclopaedia of Celtic Wisdom’ (Element, 1994) and ‘The Winter Solstice’ (Quest Books, 1999) which won the Benjamin Franklin Award for that year. His book ‘Celtic Warrior Chiefs’ was a New York Public Library recommended title for young people.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
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December 4, 20161/2 star!
It's true I don't put much store in the mythical origins theory, however it can add something extra to well crafted (written or filmed) fiction eg. The Wode novels or Robin of Sherwood. But what I may accept in fiction I find very difficult to stomach in non-fiction because it reads very much like fiction, and bad fiction at that - hence it sits on both shelves.
This book received 1/2 star only because it contains the hard to get Sloane Life as an appendix. But even that as a selling point will fade with the soon-to-be-published TEAMS edition.
It's true I don't put much store in the mythical origins theory, however it can add something extra to well crafted (written or filmed) fiction eg. The Wode novels or Robin of Sherwood. But what I may accept in fiction I find very difficult to stomach in non-fiction because it reads very much like fiction, and bad fiction at that - hence it sits on both shelves.
This book received 1/2 star only because it contains the hard to get Sloane Life as an appendix. But even that as a selling point will fade with the soon-to-be-published TEAMS edition.
March 19, 2022
A very messy and unconvincing book which is riddled with errors, so much so that it leaves you wondering whether you can take any of it seriously. It seems to rely on throwing comparative mythology at you in a disorientating and scattershot way, as though trying to overwhelm the reader into accepting his position through exhaustion rather than presenting a cogent and convincing argument.
There's a lot of what feels like quite desperate reaching; Matthews jumps to very confident conclusions based on very little presented evidence, and many of his claims and statements are not backed up by sources. The book itself is also deceptively thick as a physical copy: of the 336 pages, less than 160 are Matthews' chapters, the rest is taken up by a series of appendices which list Robin Hood place names and reprint a large selection of old ballads. This would be fine if Matthews' arguments had been succinct and convincing, but when the chapters are meandering, shallow, and unconvincing, it makes the whole book feel like an exercise in padding and filler.
The book's strongest chapters are those on the May Day Games and Morris Dancing; however, the profusion of errors and leaps of faith throughout the book made me reluctant to take what he says here too seriously, because what if there's a bunch of errors and falsehoods that I've just not noticed?
This is the worst Robin Hood non-fiction book I have yet read, and I would advise against reading it. Stephen Basdeo's Robin Hood: The Life and Legend of an Outlaw is the Robin Hood book I would recommend most at present; it is an easy to read overview of how the legend has changed and been adapted over the centuries. Robin Hood by J.C. Holt is an exhaustive (and exhausting) look at the origins of the outlaw presented in the old ballads.
There's a lot of what feels like quite desperate reaching; Matthews jumps to very confident conclusions based on very little presented evidence, and many of his claims and statements are not backed up by sources. The book itself is also deceptively thick as a physical copy: of the 336 pages, less than 160 are Matthews' chapters, the rest is taken up by a series of appendices which list Robin Hood place names and reprint a large selection of old ballads. This would be fine if Matthews' arguments had been succinct and convincing, but when the chapters are meandering, shallow, and unconvincing, it makes the whole book feel like an exercise in padding and filler.
The book's strongest chapters are those on the May Day Games and Morris Dancing; however, the profusion of errors and leaps of faith throughout the book made me reluctant to take what he says here too seriously, because what if there's a bunch of errors and falsehoods that I've just not noticed?
This is the worst Robin Hood non-fiction book I have yet read, and I would advise against reading it. Stephen Basdeo's Robin Hood: The Life and Legend of an Outlaw is the Robin Hood book I would recommend most at present; it is an easy to read overview of how the legend has changed and been adapted over the centuries. Robin Hood by J.C. Holt is an exhaustive (and exhausting) look at the origins of the outlaw presented in the old ballads.
July 26, 2017
This book has a lot of interesting information about May day celebrations and the King and Queen of May, and other traditions but was also quite confusing - I'm still not quite sure what a Green Man is even though the main argument of the book is that Robin Hood is a manifestation of one. About half the book is reprints of all the main ballads about Robin Hood through the ages (however, there were no dates or sources given for any of them which would have been useful to provide some context).
May 13, 2019
Really interesting parts on how Robin Hood ties into the green man and ancient pagan custom, but occasionally veers off into new age crazy. Ignore the ceremonies outlined at the end and save yourself fifteen minutes of your life.
Really good on ancient folklore and how it gathers up every legend it can and bundles it into one tradition.
Really good on ancient folklore and how it gathers up every legend it can and bundles it into one tradition.
September 6, 2023
More about archetypes, the Green Man etc than the Robin Hood legends of romantic era. I'm not interested in mumming or ancient ballads. Not for me.
June 14, 2020
This is an enjoyable read with a lot of great information in it. The author's biggest problem is a lack of organization. The whole thing feels scattered, as though the author didn't bother to outline the ideas he wanted to convey before putting pen to paper. Sometimes Matthews repeats himself. Other times he throws out a term and doesn't both defining/explaining it until over a hundred pages later. The dream/meditation bits at the end of each chapter and the ritual scripts fall a little short if they are in fact an attempt to make this more of a spiritual text.
Chesca Potter's afterword about the Green Woman feels hastily written, but has ideas that could be developed into a whole other book, or at least a couple of more chapters of this book.
The ideas are all here. It's up to the reader to dig them out.
Chesca Potter's afterword about the Green Woman feels hastily written, but has ideas that could be developed into a whole other book, or at least a couple of more chapters of this book.
The ideas are all here. It's up to the reader to dig them out.
February 8, 2017
3.5* - Review to follow on my blog: https://wheretheresinktherespaper.wor...
March 1, 2012
This book touches on the possible connections between Robin Hood and the Green Man and Herne the Hunter.
This book had a lot of basic information and was presented in a fashion that made it easy to read. From the perspective of someone who has already done quite a bit of research on Robin Hood, this book reveals little if anything new; which is the reason I personally did not give this book a higher rating. But the information is good and relevent to Robin Hood.
This book had a lot of basic information and was presented in a fashion that made it easy to read. From the perspective of someone who has already done quite a bit of research on Robin Hood, this book reveals little if anything new; which is the reason I personally did not give this book a higher rating. But the information is good and relevent to Robin Hood.
February 7, 2017
A brilliant must read for folklore & pagan enthusiasts.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews