The story of Robin Hood has been popularized in numerous
books and films over the years Legend has it that Robin
was deprived of his lands by the sheriff of Nottingham and
forced to take refuge in Sherwood Forest, 
where he became
an outlaw, banding with a group of Merry Men, falling in
love with a maid named Marian, and stealing from the rich to give to the poor For many years, people have questioned whether this Good Samaritan really did exist. The first literary reference to Robin Hood appeared in
1377, where he is portrayed as a common bandit, and there
are printed versions of ballads on the subject from the early
sixteenth century in which he is portrayed as a farmer or
tradesman In later accounts, it is said that Robin was a nobleman
from the late twelfth century, during the time when
Richard the Lionheart was fighting the Crusades However,
one of the original ballads has it that he lived during the
reign of Edward II While some of the early ballads do refer
to the sheriff of Nottingham and some of the Merry Men,
no mention is made of Maid Marian, who is thought to have
been added in later versions of the story.
The British Museum keeps an account of Robin’s life, which holds that he was born in 1160 in Lockersley, Yorkshire,
although this place doesn’t exist Another account, however, has it that he was from Wakefield in the fourteenth
century. A tourist attraction in Nottinghamshire is a tree
known as the Major Oak, which is said to have been where Robin Hood lived, although this claim has been disputed by some who allege that the tree isn’t old enough.
While some academics claim Robin Hood of Sherwood
Forest never existed, it is generally accepted that someone
referred to as Robin Hood did Where and when he lived,
and how much generosity he bestowed on the poor, remain
matters of conjecture, and most experts agree that much of
the modern-day legend is just that.
