Robin Hood is the archetypal English folk hero; a courteous, pious and swashbuckling outlaw of the medi?val era who, in modern versions of the legend, is famous for robbing the rich to feed the poor and fighting against injustice and tyranny. He operates with his "seven score" (140 strong) group of fellow outlawed yeomen – named the Merry Men, in the obsolete sense of "companion or follower of an… outlaw". He and his band are usually associated with Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire.

In many stories Robin's nemesis is the despotic Sheriff of Nottingham. The sheriff gravely abuses his position, appropriating land, levying intolerable taxation, and unfairly persecuting the poor. In some tales the antagonist is Prince John, based on John of England, seen as the unjust usurper of his pious brother Richard. In some versions Robin Hood is said to have been a nobleman, the earl of Loxley, who was deprived of his lands by greedy churchmen. Sometimes he has served in the crusades, returning to England to find his lands pillaged by the dastardly sheriff. In some tales he is the champion of the people, fighting against corrupt officials and the oppressive order that protects them. In others he is an arrogant and headstrong rebel, who delights in bloodshed, cruelly slaughtering and beheading his victims.

In fact, the Robin Hood stories have been different in every period of their history. Robin himself is continually reshaped and redrawn, made to fit whatever values are pushed on to him. This fact makes any notion of a "real" or "true" Robin Hood largely redundant. Even if a historical Robin Hood could be identified, he could account for only the bare minimum of the rich legend surrounding his name. The figure is less a personage and more a palimpsest of the various ideas his "life" has been made to support.

Starting in 2007, the University of Nottingham will be offering a Masters degree on the subject of Robin Hood

罗宾汉是一位典型的英格兰民间英雄。他生活在中世纪，彬彬有礼，是一位虔诚而有侠义之气的在逃犯人。然而在现代故事的多种版本里，他却是以伸张正义、打抱不平、救济穷人而著称。他所带领的“七分团”全是由被政府判罪了的农民组成。在许多传说中他和他的团队常常和诺丁汉郡的舍伍德打交道。

在许多故事中罗宾汉的对手便是专横的诺丁汉郡长。这个贪婪的郡长滥用职权、强占土地、征收重税、迫害穷人，而在另一些故事里，罗宾汉的对手又变成了篡夺自己兄弟王位的约翰王子。在其它的版本中，罗宾汉被描述成一位贵族-洛克斯里伯爵，被贪婪的教会掠夺了土地。甚至有故事说他是十字军中的一员。还有一些传说，说他是人民的卫士，与腐败的官僚阶级以及偏袒这些官僚的制度做勇敢的斗争。还有一些故事中，他却是个傲慢无礼、血腥残忍的强盗，残酷杀害俘虏。

其实关于罗宾汉的传说在每个时期都有所不同。罗宾汉这个任务被不断的重新塑造使其更加适合于各个时期人民的心理需求。这一事实告诉我们寻找“真实”或“真正”的罗宾汉是没有什么意义的。即使是找到了历史上真有这样的一个罗宾汉，那么他能做的也只是所有传奇中微不足道的一小部分。罗宾汉这一形象已经不局限在一个人的身上了，更多的是经过重新塑造带有读者各种个人理想色彩的人物。

基于多年来人们对罗宾汉的兴趣不减，并且从研究罗宾汉身上可以找到英国历史的发展轨迹，从2007年开始，诺丁汉大学将对罗宾汉这一人物的研究开设了博士学位。


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