Who did Robin Hood fight for and against?

Question

I am doing a report on Robin Hood and need to know who he fought for and against specifically. In your opinion, was he a hero or villan?

Answer 1

Robin Hood was a legendary outlaw hero of a series of English ballads, some of which date from at least as early as the 14th century. Robin Hood was a rebel, and many of the most striking episodes in the tales about him show him and his companions robbing and killing representatives of authority and giving the gains to the poor. Their most frequent enemy was the Sheriff of Nottingham, a local agent of the central government (though internal evidence from the early ballads makes it clear that the action took place chiefly in south Yorkshire, not in Nottinghamshire). Other enemies included wealthy ecclesiastical landowners. Robin treated women, the poor, and people of humble status with courtesy. A good deal of the impetus for his revolt against authority stemmed from popular resentment over those laws of the forest that restricted hunting rights. The early ballads, especially, reveal the cruelty that was an inescapable part of medieval life.

Numerous attempts have been made to prove that there was a historical Robin Hood, though references to the legend by medieval writers make it clear that the ballads themselves were the only evidence for his existence available to them. A popular modern belief that he was of the time of Richard I probably stems from a "pedigree" fabricated by an 18th-century antiquary, William Stukeley. None of the various claims identifying Robin Hood with a particular historical figure has gained much support, and the outlaw's existence may never have been anything but legendary.

The authentic Robin Hood ballads were the poetic expression of popular aspirations in the north of England during a turbulent era of baronial rebellions and agrarian discontent, which culminated in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. The theme of the free but persecuted outlaw enjoying the forbidden hunting of the forest and outwitting or killing the forces of law and order naturally appealed to the common people.

Although many of the best-known Robin Hood ballads are postmedieval, there is a core that can be confidently attributed to the medieval period. These are Robin Hood and the Monk, Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, Robin Hood and the Potter, and the Lytyll Geste of Robin Hode. During the 16th century and later, the essential character of the legend was distorted by a suggestion that Robin was a fallen nobleman, and playwrights, eagerly adopting this new element, increased the romantic appeal of the stories but deprived them of their social bite. Postmedieval ballads (which gave Robin a companion, Maid Marian) also lost most of their vitality and poetic value, doubtless as a result of losing the original social impulse that brought them into existence.

Answer 2

Robin Hood Fought For

Answer 3

The Robin Hood of modern folk-mythology is a creature built up, generation by generation, to meet the needs and desires of his audience. The earliest Robin Hood was a yeoman, not a wronged nobleman, who haunted Barnsdale Forest, not Sherwood; he didn't become a Saxon or mere Englishman fighting the Norman oppressor until Sir Walter Scott dressed him up for his walk-on in Ivanhoe. The original outlaw behind Batman and Zorro and The Scarlet Pimpernel was a ragged ruffian who might have worn Lincoln Green, whose shadow stretching across the centuries tells us much about our changing understanding of order and honor and justice.

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Answer 4

Robin Hood is the archetypal English folk hero; a courteous, pious and swashbuckling outlaw of the medieval era who, in modern versions of the legend, is famous for robbing the rich to feed the poor and fighting against injustice and tyranny. Robin was not a real person who lived, he was a fictional character and still is one. He operates with his "seven score" (140 strong) group of fellow outlawed yeomen – called his "Merry Men".[1] Robin Hood and his band are usually associated with Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire. He has been the subject of numerous movies, books, comics and plays.

In many stories Robin's nemesis is the Sheriff of Nottingham. In the oldest legends, this is merely because a sheriff is an outlaw's natural enemy,[2] but in later versions, the despotic sheriff gravely abuses his position, appropriating land, levying intolerable taxation, and unfairly persecuting the poor. In some tales the antagonist is Prince John, based on John of England, seen as the unjust usurper of his pious brother Richard. In the oldest versions surviving, Robin Hood is a yeoman, but in some versions he is said to have been a nobleman, the earl of Loxley (Locksley), who was unjustly deprived of his lands.[3] Sometimes he has served in the crusades, returning to England to find his lands pillaged by the dastardly sheriff. In some tales he is the champion of the people, fighting against corrupt officials and the oppressive order that protects them, while in others he is an arrogant and headstrong rebel, who delights in bloodshed, cruelly slaughtering and beheading his victims.

In point of fact, Robin Hood stories are different in every period of their history. Robin himself is continually reshaped and redrawn, made to exemplify whatever values are deemed important by the storyteller at the time. The figure is less a personage and more of an amalgam of the various ideas his "life" has been structured to support.
He is good and not bad, he help other people in need

Answer 5

When the Normans took over England their rule was cruel and oppressive to the native Saxons. Robin Hood may have been a real person who tried to make the lives of the poor better by stealing from the rich Norman masters.

Answer 6

First you should realize that Robin Hood was most likely not even a real person.

Ideally he fought for the poor and for King Ricard, the Lion-hearted who was away in the Middle East on a Crusade; he fought against Prince John, Later King John, who was taking control of England while his older brother Richard was away. He also fought against Prince John's men, chiefly the sheriff of Nottingham.

Answer 7

HERO; robbed from the rich to give to the poor. They don't make men like that anymore....

Answer 8

In legend, he "took from the rich and gave to the poor". In reality, he was just another gang leader in search of power in another era.

Answer 9

He took from the rich to give to the poor