Creating Robin Hood

Ever since arriving in London, I've been availing myself of various local archives and libraries in an attempt to hone my earlier theory about Robin Hood's Jewish origins. My view has evolved to be that Robin Hood was created to be a symbol of hope in a dark time.

In light of this evolution, and to make the best use of my (wholly unexpected) time in the UK, I've decided to write a book about my theory. To give you a better idea of what to expect from the book, I've listed nine of the drafted topics below.

You can support the original research, editing, and production by pre-ordering the book on a "pay what you like" scale.

• All orders will receive a choice of digital download in their preferred format.
• Any order of more than $30 / £30 / €30 (depending on the country) will receive a physical copy of the book upon publication.
• If you are feeling generous, anyone who pays more than $150 / £150 / €150 will receive two signed physical copies and a thank you at the beginning of the book.
• If you'd like to be a sponsor, please contact me at ezra@colorphilia.com.

Pre-order Links

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Here's the theory:

Working Thesis

The turn of the 13th century in England was a horrible time, and it wasn't only so for Jews. King Richard I and his younger brother King John enacted a series of money-hungry decrees, from unilaterally declaring that a larger part of the country was considered forest (ie. the realm of the king), to charging excessive fees for inheritances. 

In doing so, they annoyed everyone from the poorest residents, to the barons, to the Pope. The forestation laws, for example, made numerous people into de facto outlaws, whose lives became forfeit, and were permitted to be killed by anyone. The backlash led to the Magna Carta and the lesser remembered Charter of the Forest.

"Here we are now, entertain us."

There was a culture of roving storytellers, troubadours and bards who travelled throughout Europe (specifically England, France, and Italy) during the 12th and 13th centuries, before the invention of the printing press, who would aim to provide entertainment for a humble fee. [1]

But there was a slight problem.

What sort of entertainment do disallusioned audiences need during a time of existential strife and conflict? Contemporaneous fantastical, moral-driven animal tales (effectively retellings of Aesop), such as Marie de France's Ysopet and Berechiah ha-Nakdan's Mishlei Shulaim (Fox Tales), likely provided little comfort to the oppressed masses, regardless of religion. [2]

Creative Borrowing

I would like to theorize that one literate and enterprising entertainer reread the works of Josephus, and found inspiration in the rebellion of the Hasmoneans, and namely in the selfless heroism of Judah Maccabee. The creative bard shifted the location from the Judean desert to the English forest, and borrowed from different names and archetypes, without being too literal in his adaptation. 

For example, it would be anachronistic and morally wrong for Judah and Mariamne, his royal descendant who forced to marry Herod, to become paramours, but he was simply borrowing the archetypes of the heroic rebel (Robin Hood) and the unhappy royal (Maid Marian). [3]

While this may sound like fantastical conjecture, it is not wholly unmoored from reality. There are thousands of lines of contemporaneous ballads about Judah Maccabee in French. Subsequently, throughout the centuries, Judah's and Mariamne's stories would be told and retold many times. [4]

A Hero of Hope

Similar to Superman or the Golem of Prague, Robin Hood was a different type of hero. He was created to provide hope. There was a gang of outlaws who lived in the forest who stood up against the tyranny of the royals, the nobles and the Church, and protected the downtrodden.

It doesn't matter whether Robin Hood existed in reality and whose exploits were made into myth, or if Robin Hood was borne out of myth. He provided the idea that things could change and that good people exist.

Always the Devil

In the centuries after Robin Hood's emergence, regardless of whether or not he existed or was Jewish, the Church and the nobility utilized the same language as they would talking about the mythical Jew; in other words, Robin Hood was the devil and the antichrist.

The Book

While the book as a whole will be exploring different aspects of my theory of Robin Hood's Jewish origins, each standalone chapter will feature a different related question, essay, survey of existing scholarship, or area of research. Everything will be properly footnoted and sourced.

In addition to more clearly explaining my theory against the backdrop of the landscape of the 13th century, and how it compares to the scholars who have preceded me, I'm also going to be writing about the various interdisplinary rabbit-holes that this research has led me down.

• The Jewish-coded Robin Hood
  A selection of a dozen different examples of how Robin Hood was consciously or subconsciously associated with the Anglo-Jewish community and culture both in the 12th and 13th centuries and in later retellings.
• The Devil and the Details
  How Robin became associated with the devil, a proposed linguistic analysis about the origin of his name, and how his name became reused in various contexts.
• The Itinerant and the Illiterate
  The role of the storyteller in a non-literate society.
• On Creating a Hero of Hope
  A survey of protective heroes told throughout history.
• The Colors of Robin Hood
  An analysis of red and green within the myth of Robin Hood and how those colors presented throughout the retellings of the stories.
• On Becoming an Outlaw
  An exploration into the concept of the 13th century outlaw, and how it may differ from highwaymen and other thieves and robbers.
• Did Lincoln Green ever exist?
  A data-driven, interdisiplinary study of England and the international wool, fabric, and dye trades from 1150-1550, along with a survey of why scholars thought it did.
• Medieval Borrowed Inspiration
  A study of how the works of Ovid, Dioscorides, and Josephus all had an outsized effect on the creativity and worldview of Europe between the 12th and 17th centuries.
• Thinking like an Illiterate King
  Exploring understandable mistakes people made in history, and how sometimes we should be less clever, and more literal in analyses.

Pre-order Links

North America • UK • EU • Rest of World

1. They were similar to the itinerant Andalusian poets I noticed in the 10th and 11th centuries. Many of these stories would become immortalized in the works of writers like Boccaccio and Chaucer. 
2. People don't want to hear morals while being oppressed.
3. While Maid Marian / Mariamne wasn't featured in the earlier written Robin Hood texts, it's just a very random coincidence that I was researching the possible Hasmonean origins of the Robin Hood, and that jumped out. It may either point to an earlier oral tradition, or a tacit understanding until the middle of the 17th century that the unknown bard's Robin Hood character was based on Josephus' Judah Maccabee. Even his death has eerie similarities.
4. The Church allowed Josephus' work to be translated and published very early, as he had mentioned the existence of Jesus.