Robin Hood: Hero or Outlaw

[Wilkinson4]

Simple poll. AS the OT section is on its last legs...

Outlaw


mIKE

[Nil Else]

Is this a trick question?

[Louis]

Both. Depends on what end of the deal you're on.

[gdw]

"A new book has claimed that Robin Hood was not as selfless as he is often depicted, suggesting he stole from the rich and lent money to the poor as an early kind of loan shark."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/7385198/New-book-claims-Robin-Hood-stole-from-the-rich-and-lent-to-the-poor.html

[93legendti]

Criminal.
Outlaw.
Stealing money and giving it to someone else is not charity.
You want to donate to charity? Donate your own money and/or time.

[jblande]

Criminal.
Outlaw.
Stealing money and giving it to someone else is not charity.
You want to donate to charity? Donate your own money and/or time.


actually, have a look at the history of robin hood as wikipedia tells it


here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood)


that is, of course, unless you are making a veiled attempt to talk about democratic taxation policies and the preferred pejorative term for them among conservatives such as 93legendti. i imagine i have just caused this thread to be closed.

[Blue Jays]

His storied actions strike me as criminal.

[93legendti]

actually, have a look at the history of robin hood as wikipedia tells it


here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood)


that is, of course, unless you are making a veiled attempt to talk about democratic taxation policies and the preferred pejorative term for them among conservatives such as 93legendti. i imagine i have just caused this thread to be closed.
Thank you for the wiki link.
From that link:

Early references
The oldest references to Robin Hood are not historical records, or even ballads recounting his exploits, but hints and allusions found in various works. From 1228 onwards the names 'Robinhood', 'Robehod' or 'Hobbehod' occur in the rolls of several English Justices. The majority of these references date from the late 13th century. Between 1261 and 1300 there are at least eight references to 'Rabunhod' in various regions across England, from Berkshire in the south to York in the north.[23]

The term seems to be applied as a form of shorthand to any fugitive or outlaw. Even at this early stage, the name Robin Hood is used as that of an archetypal criminal. This usage continues throughout the medieval period.

In a petition presented to Parliament in 1439, the name is again used to describe an itinerant felon. The petition cites one Piers Venables of Aston, Derbyshire, "who having no liflode, ne sufficeante of goodes, gadered and assembled unto him many misdoers, beynge of his clothynge, and, in manere of insurrection, wente into the wodes in that countrie, like as it hadde be Robyn Hude and his meyne."[24] The name was still used to describe sedition and treachery in 1605, when Guy Fawkes and his associates were branded "Robin Hoods" by Robert Cecil.

Outlaw
Criminal
Felon

all work nicely.

[jblande]

His storied actions strike me as criminal.


It is interesting that there was no single Robin Hood, but rather various tales and traditions that tell the story very differently.

Take, for instance, one of the most popular versions (like most of the other ones of dubious provenance):Robin hood became active during the rule of John of England, who unlawfully usurped the throne of his brother Richard I of England. This is just an interesting point, because the question how to deal with a throne unlawfully acquired is not self-explanatory and preoccupied the most prominent Early Modern theorists of policial sovereignty such as Jean Bodin and Thomas Hobbes. Whether one is an outlaw by disobeying an unlawfully constituted authority may have an obvious answer to some of you, but I for one am not sure...

I was not trying to take a stand on the issue of Robin Hood today or in the Disney version. I'm just pointing the particular way in which Robin Hood is employed in contemporary discussion. If we want to have a discussion about that, let's have a discussion about that (I guess elsewhere). But if our concern is with Robin Hood as a fiction or as an historical person, those seem to me complex issues.

[johnnymossville]

If I look at the folklore and take it at face value my sympathy is with Robin Hood's actions, but logic tells me that two wrongs don't make a right. He was a criminal. A nice study in moral values and judgment maybe?

I wonder how big a legend Robin Hood really was, and if it had any effect on the thinking of people like Adam Smith, Edmund Burke, and ultimately our founding fathers? just a thought.

[jblande]

well Burke was a member of the Robin Hood Society

[Ahneida Ride]

I guess they did not practice fractional non reserve banking at that time.

So I suspect Robin Hood was actually involved in real money ..

[Pete Serotta]

gold and silver (no paper)

I guess they did not practice fractional non reserve banking at that time.

So I suspect Robin Hood was actually involved in real money ..