12. The Hard-to-Trace Origins of a Great Fictional Hero
In real life, of course, there was no character who performed all the noble deeds of derring-do ascribed to the fictional Robin Hood. However, there were plenty of outlaws, nearly all commoners, who gained a measure of popularity with the lower classes because they had thumbed their noses at the upper-class oppressors. “Robinhood” or “Rabunhod” or “Robehod” were common nicknames for criminals and appear in numerous twelfth-century court records. However, those Robin Hoods were not the kinds of criminals who acted based on any highbrow motives.
Instead, they became criminals for the mundane reasons that led most people into crime back then, and that still put people on the path of criminality in the present. Even if we set aside that Robin Hood was probably just a generic period nickname for criminals, to identify the original Robin Hood is no easy task. In England, Robin was and remains a diminutive of the name Robert, and Robert was a very common first name back then. Likewise, Hood was a common surname in medieval England.
