Robin Hood: Selected Resources

An Exhibition August 26 - December 16, 2005

From his earliest mention in late medieval writings, Robin Hood has enjoyed almost mythic status. His career has been chronicled in May Day games, dramatic works, ballads, songs, and more recently in operas and films. Stories of Robin Hood have been translated into a wide variety of languages, including Romance, Germanic, and Scandinavian languages. Scholars do not always agree whether there was a historical Robin Hood who inspired the legendary tales, but some of the most familiar aspects of his life-Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, Robin's aristocratic background, his association with Richard the Lion Heart and Prince John, and even his redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor-appear to be later additions to the early tales. The books in these display cases attest to the continued popularity of Robin Hood and to the variety of editions, chapbooks, and writings about his career. The noted Brandywine illustrators, N. C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle, have contributed to the Robin Hood corpus through the written word and celebrated illustrations. Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Errol Flynn, Mel Brooks, and Kevin Costner have all lent their dramatic talents to developing the heroic and comic possibilities of the "prince of thieves." A sampling of renowned scholars of the Robin Hood legend and of earlier literature also appears in these cases.

Selected Editions of Robin Hood

Adventures of Robin Hood with 16 plates in colour. 100 Illustrations and Text based on the First National Pictures' Technicolor Production "The Advenures of Robin Hood." London: Ward, Lock & Co., circa 1922.

Bantock, Nick.
Robin Hood. A Pop-Up Rhyme. New York, Viking Penguin, 1993.

Famous Exploits of Robin Hood. Penrith: Printed by Jose. H. Allison, circa 1800.

Fenn, G. Manville.
Young Robin Hood. Philadelphia: Henry Altemus Co., 1900.

Gilbert, Henry.
Robin Hood and the men of the Greenwood: with 16 illustrations in colour by Walter Crane. Edinhugh and London: T.D. and E.C. Jack, 1912.

Green, Roger Lancelyn.
The Adventures of Robin Hood. New York: Penguin Books, 1972.

Hoffman, Daniel G.
A Little Geste and other poems. New York: Oxford University Press, 1960.

Life & Ballads of Robin Hood. London: Milner and Company, circa 1870.

McKinley, Robin.
The Outlaws of Sherwood. New York: Greenwillow Books, 1988.

Norris, Charles G.
A Gest of Robin Hood. The Twentiy-ninth Grove Play of the Bohemian Club of San Francisco. San Francisco: Bohemian Club, 1929.

Noyes, Alfred.
Sherwood or Robin Hood and the Three Kings. A Play in Five Acts. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1911.

Pyle, Howard.
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1883.

Rhead, Louis.
Bold Robin Hood and His Outlaw Band.
Penned and Pictured by Louis Rhead. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1912.

Robin Hood and his Merry Outlaws. Retold From the Old Ballads by J. Walker McSpadden and Charles Wilson with illustrations by N. C. Wyeth. London: Associated Newspapers, Ltd., 1921.

Robin Hood. Printed in Japan, 1982.

Robin Hood : Prince of Thieves. [videorecording] Burbank, CA: Warner Home Video, c2003.

Robin Hood [videorecording] [Douglas Fairbanks Pictures Corporation] ; story by Elton Thomas ; directed by Allan Dwan. [New York] Kino International Corp.,[1922] c2004.

Robin Hood (Motion picture: 1973). Burbank, Calif.: Walt Disney Home Video : Distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment, [2000].

Robin Hood: Men in Tights [videorecording]; screenplay by Mel Brooks & Evan Chandler & J. David Shapiro ; produced and directed by Mel Brooks. Beverly Hills, Calif.: Fox Video, c1997.

Song of Robin Hood; selected & edited by Anne Malcolmson ; music arranged by Grace Castagnetta ; designed & illustrated by Virginia Lee Burton. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1947.

Walt Disney Productions presents Robin Hood and the Great Coach Robbery. New York: Random House, 1974.

For Further Research

Carpenter, Kevin.
Robin Hood. The Many Faces of that Celebrated English Outlaw. Oldenburg, Germany: Bis, 1995.

Hahn, Thomas, editor.
Robin Hood in Popular Culture: Violence, Transgression, and Justice. Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, 2000.

Knight, Stephen.
Robin Hood. A Complete Study of the English Outlaw. Cambridge MA: Blackwell, 1994.

Phillips, Helen, editor.
Robin Hood. Medieval and Post-Medieval. Dublin, Ireland ; Portland, OR : Four Courts Press, 2005.

Pollard, A.J.
Imagining Robin Hood. New York: Routledge, 2004.

Potter, Lois, editor.
Playing Robin Hood. The Legend as Performance in Five Centuries. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1998.

Uéno, Yoshiko.
Robin Hood Legend. Tokyo: Kenkyusha Ltd., 1988.