Q 01/05

What colour is Robin Hood traditionally dressed in?

A) Forest brown

B) Sherwood grey

C) Nottingham red

D) Lincoln green

Answer · why

D) Lincoln green

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

Q 02/05

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

A) Guy of Gisborne

B) The Abbot of St Mary's

C) The Sheriff of Nottingham

D) The Bishop of Hereford

Answer · why

C) The Sheriff of Nottingham

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

Q 03/05

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

A) A dispossessed earl

B) A peasant

C) A knight

D) A yeoman

Answer · why

D) A yeoman

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

Q 04/05

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

A) The Canterbury Tales

B) Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

C) Piers Plowman

D) Confessio Amantis

Answer · why

C) Piers Plowman

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

Q 05/05

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

A) A Gest of Robyn Hode

B) The Monk

C) The Potter

D) Guy of Gisborne

Answer · why

B) The Monk

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