hat we still call a redistribution of wealth, should be
the hero of the oppressed and the law-abiding poor; and it is natural
that, as social conditions altered (for better or for worse) with the
national prosperity under Elizabeth, and classes and masses reconsidered
their relative positions, Robin should fall from the popular pantheon,
and should degenerate, as we find him degenerated in the broadsides of
the Reformation hacks, into a swashbuckler unheroic enough to be
defeated in quarter-staff bouts and so undemocratic as to find for
himself a noble title and a wife of high degree.

There are, then, four Robin Hoods:--

(i) The popular outlaw of the greenwood, as revealed to us in the
older ballads.

(ii) The quasi-historical Robin, the outlaw ennobled (by a
contradiction in terms) as the Earl of Huntingdon, Robert Fitzooth,
etc., and the husband of Matilda.

(iii) One of a number of actual Robert Hoods, whose existence
(and insignificance) has been proved from historical documents.

(iv) Robin Hood, or Robin o' Wood, explained by German scholars as
the English representative of Woden, or a wood-god, or some other
mythical personage.

We will now investigate these in turn, attempting so far as may be
possible to keep them distinct.

I. THE BALLAD HERO ROBIN HOOD

The earliest known reference to Robin Hood the outlaw was first pointed
out by Bishop Percy, the editor of the _Reliques_, in _Piers Plowman_,
the poem written by Langland about 1377, where Sloth says (B. text,
passus v. 401):--

'But I can [know] rymes of Robyn hood, and Randolf erle of Chestre.'

Observing that this first mention of Robin is as the subject of ballads,
and that he is coupled with another popular hero, one of the
twelfth-century Earls of Chester, we pass to the next reference.

'Lytill Ihon and Robyne Hude
Waythmen ware commendyd gude;
In Yngilwode and Barnysdale
Thai oysyd all this tyme thare trawale.'

This passage, from Wyntoun's _Chronicle of Scotland_ (about 1420), is
referred to the year 1283, and means that Robin and his man Little John
were known as good hunters (cf. 'wight yeomen,' constantly in the
ballads), and they carried on their business in Inglewood and Barnsdale
at this time.

In 1439 a petition was presented to Parliament concerning a certain
Piers Venables, of whom it is stated that, having no other livelihood,
he 'gadered and assembled unto him many misdoers' and 'wente in