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Spring. Robin Hood born
Robert Locksley, son of the Earl of Huntingdon (Richard Locksley,
Saxon) and (mother's name, Norman).
He's an only child.
Some doubt as to RH's origin? Mother unfaithful? Father disguised? Will Stutly is master-at-arms and seneschal of Huntingdon Castle, and becomes Robin's mentor. 1170 Marian Fitzooth born to a large family. All her young days, Marian bullies her brothers Galliard, Marshall, and Sidney. 1173 Henry's sons rebel against
him. Henry defeats them one by one, keeps Eleanor locked up. 1175 Despite warnings, Young
Robert roams the woods. He's befriended by Puck, thinking he's
just a strange child. Puck begins grooming Robert for an ancient
role as protector of the forest.
Robert visits the land of feys, meeting Oberon, King of the Fairies. His life is endangered, then saved by Puck. His fantastic stories first amuse, then worry his parents. Young Robert also meets an annoying tomboy girl, Marian. 1179 RH is 10. Marian Fitzooth, age 9, announces, "We're going to be married, you and me, Robert Locksley." After weeks missing, Robert returns home unharmed. His return was heralded by the first robin of spring, so his mother nicknames him "Robin" as a charm against evil. A robin plucked the thorns from Jesus's crown, so gained its red breast. Thus a witch can change shape-change to any animal except a robin. |
Will Stutly trains Robin
Hood at 12 as knight with lance and sword and horse. Marian,
a childhood friend, is taken away and installed with nuns at
12. She's also engaged in marriage to young Guy of Gisborne by agreement of their parents. Marian hates Guy. Taxes increase as Henry II fights sons. Thin crops bring famine. The Locksley family suffers setbacks, living in genteel poverty, yet happy. Robin learns to economize and improvise. "That which you keep you lose, and that which you give away you have forever." Richard Locksley's debt
climbs. Soldiers and the Sheriff come to evict him from his castle.
Richard refuses to leave and is beaten, put out of the castle.
Another lord takes over. Locksley does not recover and dies in winter. Robin's mother soon dies
of a broken heart. Robin is orphaned at 13. He loses lands,
has only title. Will Stutly takes Robin to live in a hut in the forest. |
ROBIN HOOD AND THE OUTLAWS OF SHERWOOD Young Robin is chosen by Herne the Hunter and Oberon, King of
the Fairies, to learn the ways of the forest and the bow, to
become the Spirit of Sherwood. But Robin suffers one failing, a quick and hot temper. As a young man, he kills foresters
who mock him. Condemned to die, Robin escapes to the forest with Will Stutly, outlawed. Robin's first friends in the band are Hard-Hitting Brand and George O'Green. They become the core of the Merry Men. (See Kevin Carpenter's CATALOG p 194.) Eventually Robin enforces his will upon the outlaws and turns them to justice. He becomes leader of the band. Formulates an oath to the Virgin Mary. Institutes sword and archery practice, and sets up networks that bring him supplies and information from villages. Now Robin of Sherwood, who wears a hood as disguise in Nottingham. People begin to talk of Robin Wood or Hood. |
"Robin Hood Meets Little John" or "RH meets
Friar Tuck" "RH meets Allan A'Dale" "RH meets Maid Marian (Again)" "RH meets Much the Miller's Son" "RH meets Will Gamwell" Will Scarlett marries Mary. She bears him a son, Tam Gamwell. "LJ, the Sheriff's Man" Scarlett's wife, Mary, dies in childbirth, leaving him a small son,
Tam. |
RH is 20. Henry II dies.
Richard becomes King, departs for Crusade with Phillip II and
Frederick Barbarossa. Simon, a runaway serf, joins the band. Sir Rowland, Knight
Templar, is appointed Sheriff.
Spring
"Robin Hood's Treasure" Captured by Moslems, RH and Gilbert escape and meet Sinbad. (BEASTS OF SHERWOOD) |
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1191
July Little John prevents the assassination
of King Richard at Acre.
August
The
Fall of Acre. King Richard betrays and beheads 3000 Saracens who
surrended in good faith. Robin Hood objects, is imprisoned,
escapes, and leaves Holy Land in disgust. "Robin Hood and the Pirates" "Blacking the Falcon"
Fall
Robin and Little John debark at Venice and cross the Alps. Robin and Little John cross France. "Little John and the Childrens' Bell"
Christmas
Robin arrives home. Marian leaves the priory. Robin and Marian are married in the church in Edwinstowe. Locating
a cave near magic lines and a giant lime tree, they settle into the
Greenwood. Marian makes the hideout a home and community. |
Third Crusade ends. On
way home, King Richard is captured by Duke Leopold of Austria and held
for ransom. "Robin Hood and the Dragon Arrow" Robin's fame spreads. His band grows rapidly. "Flyting,
Fighting" Red Tom, carpenter, joins, with
wife and daughter Polly. Except his wife walks out. Ben Barrel and family join. Bold Jane Downey joins, so nicknamed by Robin because she's so shy. Little John's cousin Arthur A'Bland joins. A former Royal Forester, he brings his family. Newcombe of Barnsdale joins. Black Bart joins. Brian the Tiler joins. Shonet the Sower joins. David of Doncaster joins. David and Shonet marry. Many people flock to the Greenwood. Robin Hood
turns most away, giving them money for relocation, to start a farm or learn a trade. With many magical
threats, traveling, Robin meets Cedwyn the Welsh Witch on the day she
slaughters three knights. She joins the band. "Grinding the Ghost" |
Winter and spring very hard. The Merry Men disband temporarily. Winter Mystery. Snowbound in a castle, Robin and Marian probe murders committed by a screaming skull. Spring
"Plucking the Mandrake" Mystery. Visiting a witch to aid conception, Robin and Marian find a hanged man kills, an idiot becomes sane, and a Jack spreads terror. "Floating Bread and Quicksilver" Mystery. Two brothers disappear fishing. Robin and Marian float a loaf of quicksilver and listen to the cries of drowned sailors.
Fall
Gilbert of the White Hand joins the band. He and Cedwyn the Welsh Witch fall in love. |
RH is 25. Spring With King Richard's ransom paid, he returns to England. Robin and his Sherwood band are almost destroyed through the evil of Sir Guy, the demands of King Richard, and magic beasts. RH meets Hern. RH meets King Richard. Shonet dies. Brian dies. Allan A'Dale dies. LJ is captured. Includes:Scarlett's "The 12 False Labors of Hercules" Allan A'Dale's "Jesus and the Warlord" "Robin Hood and the Saracens' Tiger" "The Eighth Voyage of Sinbad"
May The band moves to London to find Little John. Robin sends the band ahead to London and goes searching for King Richard. In London, Marian adopts skirts and buys a house.Robin and Marian ride for the New Forest to find Richard.
ROYAL HUNT Appointed Royal Forester for the New Forest, Robin and Marian save King Richard's life from witches bound to sacrifice him on Midsummer's Day.
"Fathoming Fortune"
R&M return to London. |
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June through September
Captured, Little John was taken to London and enslaved by a grasping
necromancer. Robin and his people move to the city to get him back.
While Robin fights the city tooth and nail, his Merry Men readily adapt
to the new life and prosper. They brave a tournament, a ball, a
plague, a pogrom and more. Robin damned near fulfills his
prophecy to "burn the city to the ground", but they reclaim Little John. Will Stutly
dies. Old Bess dies. Many children die of diphtheria. Jemima
the Prostitute joins. Hiram joins, with family. Ruth joins. David's new wife Helen joins. Includes:
Midsummer
Richard leaves for France. Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, appointed Justiciar, rules well. August
"Tilting the Tournament"
September
The Merry Men leave London and return to Sherwood. |
Fall
ROBIN HOOD AND THE DEMONS
Back in Sherwood, Robin Hood seeks his revenge on Sir Guy. Guy of
Gisbourne and the Sheriff of Nottingham counter with Arabian assassins
and an all-out magical attack. A Celtic warlord rises from the dead to
enslave the local villagers -- and a wounded, possessed Robin joins
them. Can his reduced band, Puck's fairy-folk, and a nail from the True
Cross lay the old gods to rest? Black Bart dies. Hiram dies. Ruth dies.
Hiram's family leaves. RH kills Guy. Taragal is disfigured by fire. LJ
kills Sheriff Rowland. Red Tom marries widowed Elaine. With
winter coming and no resources, RH disbands the Merry Men, who go their
separate ways. |
GILBERT WHITE HAND AND THE WITCH OF WALES On their own, Gilbert and Cedwyn have adventures in Wales.
1196-97 ROBIN
HOOD AND THE DRAGONSHIPS
The
Merry Men are disbanded. Yet each former member uses the "What
would Robin do?" philosophy in their present lives to prosper.
Meanwhile, Vikings raid the coast of England, razing villages and
monasteries, while their aging leader, Thorvald Treefoot, seeks to
protect the "old ways" and his hotheaded son. Since no one can stop
them, Robin and Marian reunite the band. They track the raiders,
but can't catch their dragonships on horseback. Battling skull-demons
and tar-men with spell and sword, they oust a wizard so the disguised
Robin Hood can lure the Vikings to shore. He turns a village into a
giant trap while Puck's fairies grapple Norse sea-demons. And in the
end, Robin's first arrow slays Treefoot's son. The lietmotif is duty one can't avoid. |
ROBIN HOOD AND THE FLOWERS
OF THE FOREST
Marian accidently crosses into the realm of Faerie and
cannot return. Robin Hood seeks the help of friends and enemies
alike (while maintaining an Unquiet Grave ritual?), sacrifices
everything he holds dear to find her. He even seeks his prioress
cousin, who seduces him. OR RH sees M disappear, and sets up
an unquiet grave vigil where she vanished. He won't leave the
spot for fear of missing her. So his MM build him a hut and firewood
and bring him food. Meanwhile, each has his/her own adventures
and problems, and comes to RH for advice, and gets it, or a little
story, or trick, and succeeds. Marian meets an elven king, marries
and becomes queen, suffers and endures wars, grows old. In her
last days, ancient and dying, she walks amidst the flowers to
see them and she slips back to Sherwood: young again, missing
exactly one year. The lietmotif is flowers: their uses, their
beauty, their meanings. Each chapter is told from the viewpoint
of a different Merry Man. RH is 30. |
The Fourth Crusade begins,
but Crusaders can't pay transport in Venice, so fight on its
behalf. Crusaders sack Christian Constantinople and
install Latin ruler. Innocent III appoints
Stephen Langton Archbishop of Canterbury. King John refuses to
let him take office. Pope Innocent lays England
under interdict. |
RH is 40. MAID MARIAN AND KING
JOHN
Marian, as Matilda, organizes a woman's army to oppose John's
persecution of the church and nunneries. Katie, married with
children, falls back on her old ways of outlawry, stunning her
husband. St Francis founds Franciscans.
Friar Tuck joins. The Children's Crusade inspired by faith proves a disaster. |
King John signs the Magna
Carta. ROBIN HOOD AND THE RIGHTS
OF MAN
Magna Carta, Clause 40: "To none will we sell, to none deny
or delay, right or justice." Burgeoning civil war with John's
foreign mercenaries. Robin wades through civil war to drag John
to Runnymede and the Magna Charta. England becomes peaceful,
sort of. King John dies. Henry
III (nine years old) becomes king. Genghis Khan (dies 1227)
conquers Persia. RH is 50. ROBIN HOOD'S QUEST
Visiting Rome to see the Pope, Marian is kidnapped by Huns and dragged across Europe to be given to Genghis Khan.
Over three years, aided by saints and Prester John, Robin treks
across Byzantium, Asia Minor, India, and Mongolia to get her
back. (Shades of Marco Polo's adventures in 1280s.) RH sees rockets. RH grows
grim and angry, committing atrocities "in the name of love". Great Gale devastates England's forests. War between England and
France (ends 1227). King John dies. |
King Henry III begins
reign 1227. RH meets King (s/b Edward,
but he's not till 1272), goes to court at his behest, but soon
returns to the Greenwood.
ROBIN HOOD AND THE LONG ROAD
Marian's death takes RH's heart. Many of his foresters are too
old for the adventuring life, and Robin hasn't the energy to
train new people. Gilbert leaves to fight iniquity in Scotland,
becoming a hero. RH's shoulder wound plagues him. Robin Hood
travels to Kirklees. Along the long road he reviews his life
and meets old friends and enemies who have died: Allan A'Dale,
Black Bart, Guy of Gisborne. He breaks all gessa. His cousin,
Ursula(?) the Prioress of Kirklees, conspires with an old enemy, Red Roger or Roger of Doncaster,
for lands. RH kills Red Roger, dies in John's arms. When Friar Tuck dies, Little John enters the fairy realm and is never seen again. |
ROBIN HOOD AND THE GIANTS
Fantasy. In Cornwall, Robin Hood stumbles across King Arthur's tomb, and instigates a battle between the last of the Cornish giants and a sea serpent in the mists. Ireland? Africa? Iceland? Scotland? Germany? France? RH and Valiant Knight elements? Ivanhoe elements? RH meets Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough, and William of Cloudesly? Other Merry Men: Gamble Gold from "The Bold Pedlar" Nan o' the Mill Peterkin the Juggler Watkin Hob 'o the Hoar Oak Dickon of Hartshead? Kit the Smith Will-the-Bowman Hogan? Digger? RH meets the Ghost of Beowulf? Grendel? RH meets Morgan le Fay? |
