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From International Robin Hood Bibliography
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By Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2013-08-06. Revised by Henrik Thiil Nielsen, 2019-06-05.

Vivian charles nd 116-17.jpg

Short introduction

It is hoped this wiki will in due course come to live up to its somewhat grand title. I have called it "International" because in addition to the vast amount of material that exists in English, I 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 I had to find another name for 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 work in progress. This is important to keep in mind when reading specific entries, for although I sometimes gather materials from several sources and write a more or less well-rounded in-depth page on some topic, more often than not I work my way through the sources and add the various nuggets they contain where I believe they belong in the structure I have created. So any entry may at a given time lack important pieces of information because I have not yet got round to adding them. 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 I gradually add information under all headings, but as there is such a wealth of data I have felt it necessary to focus, for the time being, on a couple of areas in order to retain the feeling – illusion? – that I am making measurable progress. Current high priority areas are allusions (especially from the 16th and 17th centuries), historical records, and especially place-names. With regard to the latter a milestone was reached on 19 Feb. 2018 when I entered the 600th English place-name. On 25 Oct. 2018 the 700th place-name was entered.

Current focus

On 27 April 2018 I finished a systematic search for Robin Hood-related place-names on the thousands of 6" O.S. maps of England online at the map subsite of the National Library of Scotland which I had begun about two years earlier. More than 150 of the 'new' place-names I have found have not yet been added to the site. In addition to work on these I am currently busy adding records to the Historiography section.

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the following for help, information, photos, unpublished papers, encouragement, stimulating discussions, a Robin Hood teapot, a Robin Hood hat, etc.: Mogens Andreasen, BA; Karl Bencke; Gudrun Billeskov; Tom Bint, webmaster of Deanweb, for permission to use photo; Jill Boyes and her aunt; Professor Graham D. Caie; Mogens Christensen, MA; Tim Clough, Honorary Editor, Rutland Local History & Record Society; Andrew Dawson; Paul Dunnill; Claus Ehlers; Malte Christian Thiil Ehlers, MA; Dorrit Einersen, MA; Professor Søren Balling Engelsen; Arild Frøyseth†; Karen Glente, MA; Inge Guldal, MPsych; 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; 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 aficionado; Tina Milaa, MA; Bob Mullen; Søs Museth for books and comic books and things; Markus Kai Nielsen 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; David Rogers; Philip Sampson; Ian Short, professor emeritus; Hans-Christian Simonsen, MA; surveyor Nicholas Smith and his mother for for photo and information; Vibeke Sommer, MA; Geoff Spencer; Frank Leo Stavik; Mimi Stawski; Thorpe Thewles Local History Group; 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 I 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 me 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 me if you would like to contribute to IRHB. See next for contact information.

Contact

Please contact me with comments and corrections with regard to both content and technical aspects of the site (bug reports, layout and usability problems — I am aware that many pages are not yet mobile-friendly). Let me know if you wish to contribute to IRHB. You can reach me 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

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

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.

Criticism

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

This section currently includes 1 page.

Section landing-page: Criticism.

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

  • Criminals named Little John · links · texts Records (26 pages)
  • Criminals named Robin Hood · links · texts (10 pages)
  • Criminals surnamed Robinhood · links · texts (1 pages)
  • Persons named Little John · links · texts (96 pages)
  • Persons named Richard at the Lee · links · texts (40 pages)
  • Persons named Robert Loxley · links · texts (21 pages)
  • Persons named Robin Hood · links · texts (149 pages)
  • Persons surnamed Littlejohn · links · texts (4 pages)
  • Persons surnamed Robinhood · links · texts (105 pages)
  • Persons with names of minor characters · links · texts (13 pages).

Special record groupings and topics

  • 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).

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 6949 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

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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