Robin Hood is an English folk hero and not based in fact. Robin
and his fellows were a popular subject in early printed texts,
with their low price and wide appeal, and it is in the early
days of printing that he finally comes into his own as a
literary figure. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
antiquarians were especially invested in finding the sources of
their national culture and heroes, and Robin proved to be of
special interest to the English. They not only reviewed these
early plays and poems for clues to the historical identity of
the figure, but also scoured historical and legal records to
find any information that may have led to a proof for his
identity. Despite the efforts of authors like P. Valentine
Harris (see case 5), no verifiable Robin Hood emerged from the
historical record. Today, most scholars accept Robin as a
literary invention, based in part on other figures like Gamelyn
and Fouke fitz Waryn, as well as real-life outlaws. Any search
for the ideal Robin Hood, a dispossessed no