Methodology

A reference site about a legend needs rules for not inventing history. These are this site's — stated plainly so you can hold the site to them.

The core commitments

1. Robin Hood is legendary. The site treats him as a legendary figure, not a documented person. No page asserts that he lived.
2. Uncertain claims are flagged. Every date that is an estimate is marked "c." Every claim that rests on inference says so. Chroniclers' dates are separated from modern datings.
3. No invented consensus. Where scholars disagree — and on the "real Robin" they fundamentally do — the disagreement is presented, not smoothed over. "No scholarly consensus" is stated where it is true.
4. No invented ballads or history. Every quotation is verbatim from a named, public-domain text with a Child number and stanza. Nothing is paraphrased as quotation. No episode, character, or date is invented for narrative convenience.
5. Candidates are theories. Every proposed historical original (Robert Hod of 1225, the Wakefield Hood, Crook's York candidate, Godberd) is presented with its evidence and its problems, labeled as theory throughout.

Rules of evidence

• Date of writing vs. date described. A chronicler writing in 1420 about 1283 is evidence for 1420, not 1283. Every chronicle entry on this site separates the two.
• Negative claims are provisional. "No medieval ballad mentions Prince John" means: none found in the surviving texts. Lost texts may have existed. The site says what the evidence shows, not what it proves.
• Translations are marked. Middle English and Latin quotations are given in the original; translations in parentheses are this site's and are labeled as such. They are aids, not authorities.
• Spelling is not modernized. Ballad quotations keep their original spelling and punctuation, so readers see the texts as the tradition gives them.
• General history is background, not proof. Forest law, the sheriff's office, the longbow's military history — these explain the ballads' world. They do not prove the ballads true.

What the site does not do

• It does not pick a "real" Robin.
• It does not give Robin a birth date, birthplace, or family beyond what the texts state (which is: none).
• It does not treat the films, novels, or plays as evidence for the medieval legend — they are covered as adaptations, clearly separated.
• It does not use AI-generated imagery to depict historical events or real people. All artwork on this site is labeled AI-generated dramatization art — not a historical depiction.

Corrections

If you find an error — a misquoted stanza, a wrong date, a claim that overreaches its evidence — the honest response is a correction, not a defense. This page will record substantive corrections with their dates.

No corrections recorded yet.

Limitations

• These rules are editorial policy, not scholarly method; academic work on the legend follows its own (stricter) conventions.
• The site's authors are not medievalists; the scholarship cited (Holt, Dobson & Taylor, Crook, Knight) is the authority, and readers are directed to it.