The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley – retelling of the classic English tale of Robin Hood.
Re-telling a classic tale is pretty much all Robin McKinley did for a while. Which is fine, go with what you know. Robin Hood is a myth. McKinley herself notes that his story reflects what his audience wants or needs to hear to reinforce their world view or a political position. The story has evolved based on the era in which it is being re-told. Marian didn’t even exist for the first couple of centuries that the Robin Hood myth was being re-told.
Most myths have a central character. A personage who is not necessarily based on a real person but embodies virtues and flaws that make their adventures instructive. The basis for Outlaws is the idea that the Robin Hood myth could have been actively constructed at its origin point. The character of Robin Hood is actually constructed and reinforced by Much and Marian, Robin’s two best friends. Robin accidentally kills a forester’s son. Robin is a Saxon and the forester is a Norman thus, Robin is fucked and must run for his life. Robin is going to flee Sherwood and Nottingham for good but Much, and Marian – his two best friends – convince him to stay. They want to use his case as a rallying point for the local, oppressed Saxons and they want to build him into the figure head of a resistance to the Normal overlords. Robin is resistant but as an outlaw he doesn’t have a whole lot of options for survival.
Much and Marian let it be known that those seeking to escape unjust Norma practices and judgments can find a home with Robin Hood in Sherwood forest. The merry band assembles and McKinley makes sure that we understand that living off the land in a forest with no real buildings to shelter in is not an easy life. Robin is wracked by doubts and uneasy at his position as leader of this group. Much and Marin, and later Little John and Will Scarlet, keep the band running as smoothly as possible. Matters are brought to a head when the last Saxon landowner is the Nottingham environs is going to be evicted. Robin’s people decide to intervene and pay off his defaulted mortgage to keep a Saxon landowner in power and to tweak the nose of the Sheriff of Nottingham.
It is tweaked indeed and the Sheriff hires Guy of Gisborne to hunt Robin and his people down in Sherwood. The climactic battle is realistic without being overly cruel. McKinley is quote good at making sure that the reader knows that just because someone is a beloved character it doesn’t make them sword or arrow proof. At the same time she doesn’t kill off you favorite character just for kicks.
The eventual and inevitable confrontation with Richard the Lionheart is one of the best ever. As if the king would come back and just forgive a group of people who have been blatantly breaking the law for several months to a couple of years. McKinley’s proposed solution is pretty darn neat as well being quite historical. It’s a little too feminist at points but she pulls it out at the very end.
I read this a couple of weeks before that gawdawful Russel Crowe movie came out this year. If you also watched and hated that piece of crap, McKinley’s book will wash the taste of out of your mouth and leave a crisp and light aftertaste of slightly too good to be true but overall deeply satisfying English mythology.
-fh