The Adventures of Robin Hood

“These forests were the property of the king, and the penalties for killing the king’s deer were cruel and barbarous.”

This passage foreshadows the underlying inequality within different social classes throughout the narrative. While the King is allowed to feast on any deer in any forest at any time, other social classes are denied the same right and, in the case of the peasantry, must suffer in their poverty. This suffering is a factor in The Creation of Outlaw Society and influences Robin’s efforts toward social justice.

“As it happened, young William Fitzooth had a Saxon mother and a Saxon grandmother, and was already beginning to feel that he was neither Norman nor Saxon, but British—and that the way to find contentment and security for the country was by justice and not by cruelty.”

Robin’s father’s mindset in this passage implies that Robin’s views on justice are inherited—passed down from a man who believed in a unified identity that did away with divisive ties. The passage also hints, however, at the persisting discord between the Saxons and Normans even after so many years since the conquest, linking to The Erasure of Conquered Heritage.

“Well, young Robin, born in the good green-wood, and no stately hall or painted bower; may you be true to the soil of England and bring help to the down-trodden all your days.”

Here, Robin’s grandfather unwittingly espouses a kind of prophecy that will morally guide Robin’s actions throughout his life. It also gestures toward the notion that Robin belongs not in the grand halls of Norman conquerors but rather within the forests of England as a member of the Outlaw Society.