60 Fun Facts About Robin Hood

What colour is Robin Hood traditionally dressed in?

The dyed woollen cloth came from the city of Lincoln, a real medieval textile centre.

Who is Robin Hood's chief opponent in the legend?

The enmity with the Sheriff is one of the earliest features of the story, present in the oldest surviving ballad.

In the oldest ballads, what is Robin Hood's social class?

Attempts to make him a nobleman began in the 16th century; Anthony Munday's plays made him the Earl of Huntingdon.

Which 14th-century poem contains the first clear reference to 'rhymes of Robin Hood'?

William Langland's poem is thought to date from the 1370s, a century before the surviving ballads.

Written after 1450, what is the earliest surviving ballad about the outlaw?

Written after 1450, it already has the Nottingham setting and the feud with the Sheriff, but no Maid Marian or Friar Tuck.

Which of these characters does NOT appear in the earliest Robin Hood ballads?

Marian and a jolly friar apparently entered the legend through the May Day games; the minstrel did not turn up until a 17th-century broadside.

In the early compilation A Gest of Robyn Hode, which king does Robin meet?

The idea of Robin as a loyalist to Richard the Lionheart during John's misrule only took hold in the 16th century.

Which 1590s playwright turned Robin Hood into Robert, Earl of Huntingdon, in the reign of Richard I?

His two plays even featured Friar Tuck played, in the fiction, by the poet John Skelton.

Where does the first explicit statement that Robin robbed the rich to give to the poor appear?

No surviving early ballad actually shows him giving to the poor, though the Gest has him lend money to a needy knight.

Which weapon do Robin's men use in the early ballads, marking them as yeomen?

Robin does not take up a quarterstaff until the 17th-century ballad of his fight with Little John.

Which minstrel joined the Merry Men in a 17th-century broadside ballad?

He is one of the few late additions to stick; Disney made him a rooster narrator in 1973.

Joseph Ritson's hugely influential 1795 anthology of the outlaw's verse had what title?

Ritson admired Thomas Paine and the French Revolution and cast Robin as a hero against tyranny; Walter Scott used his book for Ivanhoe.

Which 1819 novel by Walter Scott did much to shape the modern Robin Hood legend?

Scott's Robin of Locksley helped cement the Saxon-versus-Norman framing later used by the 1938 Hollywood film.

Which American illustrator's 1883 Merry Adventures of Robin Hood shaped children's versions?

Pyle's Robin is a yeoman, not an aristocrat, and never takes on Prince John.

What are the earliest legal records of a person called Robin Hood, from the 1226 York Assizes?

Robert Hod's goods, worth 32 shillings and 6 pence, were seized; he is the only early 'Robin Hood' known to have been an outlaw.

From 1261, what did 'Robehod' or 'Robinhood' start appearing as in English legal rolls?

At least eight 'Rabunhod' references turn up between 1261 and 1300, from Berkshire to York.

Which famous tree in Sherwood Forest is claimed as the Merry Men's hideout?

It stands near the village of Edwinstowe, whose church is also linked to the legend.

Which Tudor king dressed up as Robin Hood in 1510 to surprise Catherine of Aragon in her chamber?

He brought eleven courtiers and a Maid Marian; Robin Hood games were a staple of May Day by then.

Besides Sherwood, which northern English region has a strong claim to be Robin Hood's original home?

The Gest is written in a northern, probably Yorkshire, dialect and several ballads are set in Barnsdale.

Which Hollywood star plays Robin in the 1938 Technicolor classic The Adventures of Robin Hood?

James Cagney was originally cast but walked out on his Warner Bros. contract.

Which actor was originally cast as Robin in the 1938 film before quitting Warner Bros.?

His walkout handed Errol Flynn the role that defined the character on screen.

Who plays Marian opposite Flynn in the 1938 film?

Basil Rathbone plays Guy of Gisbourne and Claude Rains Prince John.

How many Oscars did The Adventures of Robin Hood win in 1939?

Art direction, editing and Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score; it was Warner's third full three-strip Technicolor film.

Which California location stood in for Sherwood Forest in the 1938 film?

The archery tournament was shot at the old Busch Gardens in Pasadena.

In Disney's 1973 animated Robin Hood, what animal is Robin?

The idea grew out of Walt Disney's interest in the Reynard the Fox tales; Marian is a fox too.

In the Disney version, Prince John is a scrawny, maneless lion voiced by whom?

Terry-Thomas voices his snake sidekick Sir Hiss and Phil Harris is the bear Little John.

Which country singer voices the rooster minstrel who narrates Disney's Robin Hood?

He also wrote and sang 'Oo-De-Lally' and 'Whistle Stop'.

Disney's Robin Hood recycled animation from which earlier films in the 'Phony King of England' dance?

The animators reused the sequences to hit their deadline; the film cost $5 million and made $33 million.

Who plays the villainous Sheriff, George, in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)?

He won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor and, by his own account, had Ruby Wax secretly punch up his lines.

Who plays Azeem, the Moor who owes Robin a life debt, in Prince of Thieves?

Azeem kills the witch Mortianna in the finale to repay the debt.

Which Bryan Adams ballad from Prince of Thieves was nominated for an Oscar and won a Grammy?

It spent a record run at number one in the UK and topped charts worldwide.

Who makes an uncredited cameo as King Richard at the end of Prince of Thieves?

John Cleese was proposed; Connery worked one day and took a $250,000 donation to a Scottish hospital instead of his $1 million fee.

Which Hadrian's Wall landmark appeared in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves?

It is where Robin first confronts the Sheriff's men, despite being nowhere near Nottingham.

Which walled French city doubled as Nottingham and its castle in Prince of Thieves?

The outlaws' camp was Burnham Beeches in Buckinghamshire and the Little John fight was at Aysgarth Falls in Yorkshire.

Prince of Thieves was 1991's second-highest grosser. Roughly what did it take at the box office?

Director Kevin Reynolds walked out weeks before release over studio recuts meant to stop Rickman stealing the film.

Kevin Costner's Robin Hood was criticised for what?

Costner wanted an accent and director Reynolds did not, leaving the delivery uneven between scenes.

Who directed and appeared in the 1993 spoof Robin Hood: Men in Tights?

Being Jewish, Brooks changed his own cameo from Friar Tuck to Rabbi Tuckman.

Which comedian made his film debut as Ahchoo in Men in Tights?

Ahchoo, son of Asneeze, ends the film as the new sheriff of Rottingham.

Which Star Trek captain plays King Richard in Men in Tights?

His Scottish-accented cameo parodies Sean Connery's turn in Prince of Thieves.

In Men in Tights, what brand of chastity belt does Marian of Bagelle wear?

Even with the key, the lock will not open on the wedding night.

Who plays Robin Longstride in Ridley Scott's 2010 Robin Hood?

The film is an origin story set in 1199, ending as Robin becomes an outlaw; Cate Blanchett replaced Sienna Miller as Marian.

Where did the 2010 Robin Hood have its world premiere?

It opened Cannes on 12 May 2010, the same day as its UK release, and grossed $322 million.

Who played Robin in the BBC's 2006-2009 series Robin Hood?

Richard Armitage was Guy of Gisborne; the show was filmed in eastern Europe and cancelled after his and other departures.

In which country was the BBC's 2006 Robin Hood series filmed?

Filming began there in spring 2006; the series ran for three 13-episode runs.

The 1950s ITV series The Adventures of Robin Hood was created partly to give work to whom?

Ring Lardner Jr., Waldo Salt and Adrian Scott wrote under pseudonyms; Richard Greene starred in 143 episodes.

In Robin and Marian (1976), which actress played Marian in her first film in eight years?

It was the first film in which she played a character her actual age; Robert Shaw was the Sheriff and Richard Harris King Richard.

Which actor played Robin in the poorly received 2018 film that failed to recoup its budget?

Jamie Foxx played Little John and picked up a Razzie nomination for it.

Which entries in Francis James Child's ballad collection are the Robin Hood ballads?

He grouped 38 Robin Hood ballads among his 305, and they are still cited by those numbers.

The first recorded 'Robin Hood game', a May Day play, took place in 1426 in which English city?

Such games flourished in the later 15th and 16th centuries, and Robin's romance with Maid Marian apparently stems from them.

Which historian first fixed the Robin Hood story to the 1190s, in a Latin history of 1521?

That was the period when King Richard was away fighting in the Third Crusade; Major also stressed Robin's aversion to bloodshed.

Which Scottish chronicle, revised by Walter Bower c.1440, calls Robin Hood 'the famous murderer'?

Bower's interpolation places Robin among the 'disinherited' after Simon de Montfort's defeat, and complains the populace loved celebrating him.

Who published Reliques of Ancient English Poetry in 1765, with the ballad of Guy of Gisborne?

The bishop of Dromore drew on the 17th-century Percy Folio manuscript; the Gisborne ballad is regarded as a genuine late medieval one.

A previously unknown 1670s collection of 21 Robin Hood ballads surfaced at auction in 1993. Its name?

Named after its first and last ballads, it ended up in the British Library and was published in 1998.

Which 1984 ITV series introduced Nasir, the first Saracen among the Merry Men?

The trend continued with Azeem in Prince of Thieves and Djaq in the BBC's 2006 series.

In the BBC sitcom Maid Marian and her Merry Men, Danny John-Jules played which Rastafarian rapper?

The character parodied the Moorish Merry Man popularised by Robin of Sherwood.

In 1584 Reginald Scot linked Robin Hood to which goblin, tied to Robin Goodfellow?

The mythological theory of Robin's origins was largely abandoned by 20th-century scholars.

According to the ballads, how did the dying Robin choose the site of his grave at Kirklees?

The Gest says the prioress, a relative, betrayed the ailing Robin; the surviving inscribed grave probably dates from the late 18th century.

A tradition from at least the late 16th century names Robin's birthplace as Loxley, in which city?

The original ballads set events in the medieval forest of Barnsdale, a wooded area of no more than 30 square miles.

In what year does the first Robin Hood place-name in the Nottinghamshire forest appear?

The earliest Robin Hood place-names originated in West Yorkshire, which is taken as evidence of where the legend began.

A Territorial battalion formed in Nottingham in 1859 bore Robin Hood's name until which year?

The 1881 Childers Reforms had folded it into The Sherwood Foresters, the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment.