Robin Hood BBC Rewatch

therobinhoodblog:

Picture Sources: 1, 2 and 3


The Sherwood Forest
In the legend Robin Hood lives in Sherwood Forest, a forest in Nottinghamshire. The word “sherwood” means simply “the green wood”.
In the literature you can say it’s an idealized place of liberty where Robin Hood lives his utopic life.

Historically the term “forest”  didn’t ment simply “wood”. It was a term to define an area of jurisdiciton. William the Conqueror brought the term from Normandy to England in 1066 AD. It’s connected with a law, which saved large parts of the country for the king:
Sherwood Forest was a royal forest. Nobody was allowed to lumber or to hunt in this forests. So, the forest in the legend stands for both -  freedom and confinement. That’s also the area of conflict in which the legend of Robin Hood is set.

Today Sherwood Forest is still a Royal Forest. It’s ca. 423.2 hectares - much less than in the Middle Ages, when England was densely wooded.
A last debris of the time of Robin Hood is the Major Oak.

The first photo shows the entrance of the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre.
The second photo shows one of the attractions in Sherwood Forest today - a statue of Robin Hood.
The third photo shows a painting of the Sherwood Forest from Andrew McCullen.


Sherwood Forest Trust