Film is another retelling of our most famous outlaw’s story

Two deaths related to Robin Hood have put the fictional medieval outlaw in the news recently, writes Alex Brown, associate professor of Medieval History at Durham University.

- Alex Brown

The release of The Death of Robin Hood featuring Hugh Jackman as the titular hero has coincided with the sad news of the death of the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest, the tree that legend has it was one the outlaw’s hideouts.

But why is Robin Hood a household name the world over when the names of other medieval outlaws remain largely unknown?

Robin Hood's earliest literary death is a rather rushed affair at the end of the 15th-century story, A Gest of Robyn Hode, when the prioress of Kirklees kills him in a botched attempt at bloodletting. This ending has in part inspired director Michael Sarnoski’s grittier take on the hero in The Death of Robin Hood.

Although early stories of Robin Hood do not connect the outlaw with the Major Oak of Sherwood specifically, they do portray the outlaw and his men repeatedly meeting under a “trystle”, or meeting tree. It is not difficult to imagine how such legends would coalesce around a distinctive Sherwood tree like the Major Oak.

Robin's fellow medieval outlaws remain largely unknown today. How many know the exploits of Fulk FitzWarin, Hereward the Wake, Eustace the Monk, Gamelyn, Adam Bell, Clim of the Clough or William Cloudesley?