According to this story on the Register, historian Stephen Lawhead has put forward a theory that Robin Hood was actually a Welshman.
After I read the article, I realized that it could resolve the biggest problem that Bob mentioned in GURPS Robin Hood - the noble/commoner dichotomy. The Welsh Robin is described as being the son of a nobleman, robbed of his birthright by the Normans in the 11th century. The earlier Robin Hood legends make no mention of the noble Robin. So, the commoner Robin might have been in Nottingham, while the noble "Robin" would have been in Wales a couple of centuries later. Oral tradition conflating the two stories may have lead to the mess we have today...
(Edit to fix typo)
-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
After I read the article, I realized that it could resolve the biggest problem that Bob mentioned in GURPS Robin Hood - the noble/commoner dichotomy. The Welsh Robin is described as being the son of a nobleman, robbed of his birthright by the Normans in the 11th century. The earlier Robin Hood legends make no mention of the noble Robin. So, the commoner Robin might have been in Nottingham, while the noble "Robin" would have been in Wales a couple of centuries later. Oral tradition conflating the two stories may have lead to the mess we have today...
(Edit to fix typo)
-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012