A New Robin Hood

I just finished listening to the Audible version of Stephen Lawhead's latest book, "Hood", a re-telling of the Robin Hood story. If anyone else had tried what Lawhead did, I'm not sure I would have been interested in a total trans-location of the old, familiar tale seen in so many different versions over the years. If you are anywhere close to my age, then you too, when you hear the name Robin Hood, might just have the same image pop into your head that usually pops into mine, that of the animated, anthropomorphized fox in the Disney version. Along the way, I have also seen Kevin Costner, Carey Elwes, and Daffy Duck portray the noble thief. I've seen stills and short clips of Erroll Flynn as Robin, but never seen the whole movie. The one thing all these versions of the tale have in common is the setting and trappings of Medieval England and the backdrop of the Crusades. Good King Richard is away fighting on foreign soil and John is scheming to take over his throne, aided by the Sheriff of Nottingham and involving all the other familiar names you've heard before.

If you have read Lawhead's Arthur books, then you are familiar with his technique. In that case he took an old familiar story that everyone thought they new and reset it out of its familiar setting and relocated it among the Briton tribes fighting for their survival amidst the Saxon invasion and the withdrawal of the Roman legions in about the 7th or 8th century, with most of the action taking place in what we now call Wales. After much research, Lawhead concluded that based on the scant historical evidence that does exist, there was a real person that the Arthur legends are based on and he was probably a British battle chief who lived at about this time, and won some real, historically significant and recorded battles, namely the Battle of Badon Hill.

In Hood, the author does something very similar. He looked into the Robin Hood stories and concluded that they had an origin prior to their most famous incarnation. There was a whole collection of stories that were circulated all over the Island by wandering minstrels and storytellers that told little bits and pieces of the story we know now in different versions, with an incredible variety of names and locations. These stories were not stitched together into one complete tale until many years later.

This current version of Robin Hood is set in what is now called Wales. The Cymry tribes, consider themselves Britons, as opposed to the English, and especially the Franks (actually they are Normans, but the locals consider anyone from across the Channel a Frank). The time is shortly after the Norman conquest. William II is trying to fill The Conqueror's shoes, and the Franks are dividing up the island among themselves. The Britons are chafing under the yoke of the Franks, and are being overworked and overtaxed to fuel the building of new towns and castles.

One of the other factors the Author cites as to his choice of settings is the fact that most of the forests in England were well-managed business properties, whereas the forests in Wales were still primeval and undeveloped, still a fearsome wilderness, not a well-kept garden preserve like most of the English forests. It would have been possible to hide for years without being seen in the trackless forests of Wales, but not in the dwindling Sherwood Forest.

Enough detail. Suffice it to say, that in my opinion, Mr. Lawhead does, in fact pull it off. The setting makes a lot of sense, and the scenario of the Britons struggling to survive amidst the incursion of this new, alien culture and military power fits the legend well. Without giving anything away, the author paints vivid pictures of the Celtic culture and mindset and its contrast with the Normans who were changing everything. I look forward to more in this series.
Listening to it in audio form was especially instructive, given the plethora of tongue-twisting Celtic names and places, but I still plan on getting it in print.