What's new at IRHB

From International Robin Hood Bibliography
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Short introduction

We hope that this wiki will in due course come to live up to its somewhat grand name. It is called 'International' because in addition to the vast amount of material that exists in English, we intend to add information about materials in other languages such as translations of ballads, secondary literature, children's fiction, literature on foreign analogues of Robin Hood etc. Arguably 'Bibliography' is a misnomer as the site already includes a wealth of all sorts of information one would not nor­mally expect to find in a biblio­gra­phy, but the biblio­gra­phical aspect is in all cases taken quite seriously, and there is already a wiki named the Robin Hood Wiki, so another name had to be found for the site.

Latest news

  • 2024-03-12: All tithe awards for the following English counties have now been searched for Robin Hood-related place names: Bed­ford­shire, Berk­shire, Cambridge­shire, Che­shire, Cum­ber­land, Der­by­shire, Hunting­don­shire, Lan­ca­shire, Lin­coln­shire, Middle­sex, Notting­ham­shire, Rut­land, West­morl­and, and York­shire. Some fieldnames have yet to be entered, along with some 300 place names from other sources.
  • 2022-06-16: the link to the Contact page in the Contact section below has not worked for a couple of weeks. It has now been fixed.
  • 2021-01-10: two weeks of behind-the-scenes updates to IRHB have been completed. We apologize for any convenience this has caused in the form of instability, lack of responsiveness, and brief offline periods.
  • 2020-12-30: IRHB's contact form has not been working for a couple of weeks. This has now been fixed
  • 2020-11-04: The 900th English Robin Hood-related place-name was entered
  • 2020-06-09: a warm welcome to Jon Snurka. Jon will help add and update pages at IRHB. For now at least, his chief focus will be on Children's books and Films
  • 2018-04-27: a systematic search for Robin Hood-related place-names in the thousands of 6" O.S. maps of England online at the map subsite of the National Library of Scotland was completed. This was begun about two years earlier. About one hundred of the 'new' place-names found have yet to be added to the site

Work in progress

The menu items in the top right area of the site – or just below the site logo when the page is viewed on a small device – provide a rough guide to the topics and genres covered on IRHB. Given the vastness of the Robin Hood tradition — and this is no exaggeration — the site will always remain a work in progress. This is important to keep in mind when reading specific entries, for although we sometimes gather materials from several sources and write a more or less well-rounded in-depth page on some topic, more often than not we work our way through the sources and add the various nuggets they contain where we believe they belong in the structure we have created. So any entry may at a given time lack important pieces of information because nobody has got round to adding them yet. Over time this problem should become less pronounced. At present there is at least some information on each topic or area of interest. As time permits, we gradually add information under all headings, but as there is such a wealth of data we have felt it necessary to focus, for the time being, on a few areas in order to retain the feeling – illusion? – that we are making measurable progress. Current high priority areas are place-names, allusions (especially from the 16th and 17th centuries), historical records, and children's books.

Acknowledgements

Henrik Thiil Nielsen, IRHB's webmaster and chief contributor, wishes to thank the following for help, information, photos, unpublished papers, encouragement, stimulating discussions, a Robin Hood teapot, a Robin Hood hat, etc.: Stefan Ahn; Mogens Andreasen, BA; Karl Bencke; Tom Bint, webmaster of the now defunct 'Deanweb', for permission to use photo; Jill Boyes and her aunt; Andy Burnham, founder of The Megalithic Portal, for permission to use materials; Professor Graham D. Caie; Chris; Mogens Christensen, MA; Tim Clough, Honorary Editor, Rutland Local History & Record Society; Robert Crewdson; Dr David Crook; Andrew Dawson; Paul Dunnill; Malte Christian Thiil Ehlers, MA; Professor Søren Balling Engelsen; Arild Frøyseth†; Karen Glente, MA; Inge Guldal, MPsych; Linda Hardy, Marketing & Events Officer at The Sherwood Forest Trust; Peter Harrod; Richard Hawlor; David Hepworth, PhD; The Historic Counties Trust for permission to quote their county descriptions in toto; Anders Hjorth-Jørgensen, librarian and comics expert; Søren Bartholin Holm, MA; Professor Sir James Holt†; Andi Ingleby, manager of collection metadata production, British Library; Julie Ann Johnson, BA, B Ed; Annette Jung, MA; David Kitching for permission to use photo; Gerner Dan Lauridsen, MA; Aditnow forum user 'Lipsi' (Kelvin) for permission to use photos; Aditnow forum administrator Simon Lowe; Robert Lynley who does historical sleuthing better and more doggedly than any other Robin Hood researcher; Tina Milaa, MA; Bob Mullen; Søs Museth for books and comic books and things; Markus Kai Nielsen (no relation) for the IRHB logo; Tove Nielsen† for many talks and discussions; Vagn Thiil Nielsen† for his support, his many hours of photocopying and teaching me the uses of encyclopedias and dictionaries; Ingeborg Nixon†, PhD; Nottingham Hidden History Team through their liaison officer Mr Jimmy Notts for permission to use illustrations from their blog; Thomas Ohlgren, professor emeritus; 'Onewish1' (Allison), user of the National Gardening Association website; Ross Parish, author of books on English holy wells and a blog on the same topic, for photos and information; Jan Eigil Pedersen; Tim Prevett, MA, producer, consultant and lecturer on slow TV, for use of photos; Bente Prydts; Rich for photos and information; David Rogers; Eric E. Rush; Jan Ole Schelde†; Ian Short, professor emeritus; Hans-Christian Simonsen, MA; Paul Skelton for permission to use relevant materials from Kent's Public House Archive Site; surveyor Nicholas Smith, his wife, and his mother Kate Smith for photo and information; Jon Snurka for becoming a co-editor and contributor at IRHB; Vibeke Sommer, MA; Geoff Spencer; Frank Leo Stavik; Mimi Stawski; Anne T for permission to use photos and in­for­mation; Thorpe Thewles Local History Group; Stuart Timms; Colin Wooldridge for use of photo.

Participants wanted

Unlike many other wikis, this one cannot be edited or added to by casual visitors who also cannot sign up via the site. The reason for this restrictive policy is that we wish to avoid vandalism and confine active membership to people with knowledge of the Robin Hood tradition. Contributors are more than welcome. There is really only one requirement: a serious interest in anything Hood. The learning curve is not steep if you are used to editing Wikipedia or other Mediawiki sites. If you do not wish to spend time and energy learning Wikipedia-style annotations, you are very welcome to write your contributions as plain text and let us handle the formatting. Your name will of course appear in the byline, and others are not supposed to make major changes to your contributions without your permission. Any pages you write are of course your own intellectual property, though IRHB retains the right to preserve and make available to the public any submitted content. You thus cannot remove pages you have written, but you can publish their content in other media. Please contact the site's administrator if you would like to contribute to IRHB. See next for contact information.

Contact

Please contact Henrik Thiil Nielsen with comments and corrections with regard to both content and technical aspects of the site (bug reports, layout and usability problems — we are aware that a few pages are not yet mobile-friendly). Let us know if you wish to contribute to IRHB. You can reach us via the Contact page.

Section by section

IRHB has grown into quite a large site. If you are a new visitor, the information for each section listed in the boxes below can help you find information on the areas you are most interested in. If you are a regular, it will help you stay up-to-date with changes and additions to the site. It will also give you a good idea which sections of the site are more mature and which are still at an early stage of development. Perhaps you can help create more content for the latter?


Allusions

Allusions in works of prose fiction, poetry, non-specialist local history and topography, letters, itineraries, bio­gra­phies etc.

This section currently includes a total of 344 pages, including two landing pages for each century, one with links, the other with allusion texts.

Section landing-page: Allusions.

Allusions per century

IRHB favourites

Recently added

Analogues

Other outlaw traditions, sources and analogues of Robin Hood ballads

This section currently includes a total of 30 pages.

Section landing-page: Analogues.

Pages

IRHB favourites

Recently added

Artifacts

Mass-produced artifacts such as postcards and cigarette cards, unique artifacts such as statues

This section currently includes a total of 9 pages.

Section landing-page: Artifacts.

Pages

IRHB favourites

Recently added

Ballads

The Robin Hood ballads – lists of editions, studies and criticism, allusions to specific ballads

This section currently includes a total of 47 pages.

Section landing-page: Ballads.

Pages

IRHB favourites

Recently updated

Bibliography

Bibliographies, from bibliographical monographs to short lists in books and articles. Analytical bibliography also covered

This section currently includes 1 page.

Section landing-page: Bibliography.

Chronicles

Chronicle entries on Robin Hood c. 1420–c. 1600

This section currently includes 17 pages.

Section landing-page: Chronicles.

Pages

IRHB favourites

Recently added

Comics

Comic books, magazines, and strips; cartoons

This section currently includes 8 pages.

Section landing-page: Comics.

Pages

IRHB favourites

Recently added

Criticism

Literary criticism, literary history, folklore studies, cultural studies, semiotics etc.

This section currently includes 1 page.

Section landing-page: Criticism.

Drama

Drama, medieval to modern, including operas, operettas, musicals, pantomimes etc.

This section currently includes 27 pages.

Section landing-page: Drama.

Pages

IRHB favourites

Recently added

Early Prose

Early prose works, between chronicle and children's book

This section currently includes 3 page.

Section landing-page: Early prose.

Recently added

Festivals

May games, summer games, Whitsun ales, church ales etc.

This section currently includes 53 pages.

Section landing-page: Festivals (on festivals in England).

Pages

IRHB favourites

Recently added

Films

Feature films, TV series, cartoons, films with Robin Hood titles etc.

This section currently includes 11 pages.

Section landing-page: Films.

Pages

IRHB favourites

Recently added

Historiography

Records relating to historical persons, criminal or law-abiding, named Robin Hood, Little John etc. Records referring to places named after Robin Hood. Origin and audience of early tales, archery, crime etc.

This section currently includes 746 pages, including two landing pages for each century, one with links, the other with allusion texts, as well as landing pages for various groupings of records.

Section landing-page: Historiography.

Topic pages

Records per century

General record groupings and topics

Special record groupings and topics

  • John Petit of Cornwall · links · texts (11 pages)
  • Little John the mariner · links · texts (11 pages)
  • Proceedings of the Old Bailey · links · texts (192 pages)
  • Robert le Hod of West Tisted · links · texts (11 pages)
  • Robhoods of Walsham le Willows · links · texts (104 pages)
  • Robin Hoods in Wakefield Manor Court Rolls · links · texts (103 pages).
  • Roger de Doncaster in Sandal · links · texts (11 pages).

IRHB favourites

Recently added

Juvenile

Children's books, picture books, short stories, poetry etc.

This section currently includes 84 pages, including landing pages for each letter of the alphabet (currently only 17).

Section landing-page: Juvenile.

Topic pages

IRHB favourites

Recently added

Linguistics

List of works and paper discussing linguistic aspects of early Robin Hood tales. IRHB notes on linguistic topics.

This section currently includes 3 pages.

Section landing-page: Linguistics, includes list of IRHB notes on linguistic topics (2 pages).

IRHB favourites

Recently added

Music

Music – operetta to post-punk.

Section landing-page: Music (1 sub-page)

Pages

Recently added

Mythology

Monographs and articles arguing that the Robin Hood figure originated in fertility rites etc. Monographs and articles discussing and criticizing such hypotheses.

This section currently includes 1 page.

Section landing-page: Mythology.

Originators

Full bibliographical data of printed (and some MS) sources cited on IRHB, arranged alphabetically under originators' sur­names. Item entries include short title forms for citation on other pages.

This section currently includes 6951 pages.

Section landing-page: Originators, with a landing page for each letter of the alphabet, including letters in non-English alphabets as well as Anonymous (29 pages).

Recently added

Place-Names

Places named after Robin Hood and subsidiary characters of the tradition; localities mentioned in Robin Hood literature, mainly before 1800.

This section currently includes 1332 pages.

Section landing-page: Place-names.

Topic and sub-section landing-pages

IRHB favourites

Recently added

Plant Names

Folk names of plants; trade names of cultivated varieties.

This section currently includes 19 pages.

Section landing-page: Plant names.

IRHB favourites

Recently added

Poetry

Poetry, excluding poetry written for children.

This section currently includes 9 pages.

Section landing-page: Poetry.

IRHB favourites

Recently added

Proverbs

Proverbs relating to Robin Hood.

This section currently includes 17 pages.

Section landing-page: Proverbs.

List pages

IRHB favourites

Recently updated

Software

Software, excluding websites and web-based games.

This section currently includes 3 pages.

Section landing-page: Software.

List pages

IRHB favourites

Recently added

Websites

Websites dealing exclusively with Robin Hood or having substantial Robin Hood-related content.

Section landing-page: Websites.

This section currently includes 1 page.


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