The Death of Robin Hood

In the last chapter of the book, Robin grows old and grey while living in the Green Wood. Little John and Robin remain close bosom friends until their final days. In his old age, Robin stands strong with white hair and can still shoot an arrow as straight as ever. Then one he fails ill and becomes weak. He tells Little John to take him to his cousin, who the Prioress of Kirklees, and who is skilled at bloodletting

Little John does as he asks and the Prioress receives him. Unbeknownst to them, the Prioress despises Robin and seeks to do him harm. Seeing Little John and Robin's men out of the room, she cuts him and lets him bleed without bandaging him. Little John finally bursts into the room and finds Robin dying.  In his final moments, he asks Little John to help him shoot one last arrow out of the window, telling Little John to bury him where the arrow langs. He also commands Little John and the Merry Men to seek no revenge against his cousin, and they grudgingly honor his wishes

Thus ends the story book. It feels so abrupt and unsatisfying to modern readers. One wonders what became of Marian, for example. There is no mention of her beyond the chapter devoted to her. One should expect this from a children's book. They lived happily ever after, we were told, and the children would accept that, and we will as well. We don't need to hear about any complications they encountered, as if were hearing the "real" story. Their story was perfect as it was.

This brings up the deep contrast between the children's book and the 1938 movie version.  The children's book was very satisfying in being a nice readable collection of the many stories about Robin Hood that were compiled over the centuries, as the legend grew and expanded. The book version, written over. a century ago, holds up very well today. The 1938 movie version was made at a time when many of the audience would have learned about Robin Hood from reading such children's books, and they would expect to see familiar characters and stories reflected on the screen.  I believe the movie probably succeeded at this very well, even though I was not alive at the time.. There is an element of almost all of the book chapters in the movie, to the point where I wondered if the story script of the movie was a direct adaptation of it in a some form. 

But in a Hollywood movie we need to have a strong heroine and a romance, and the skillful adaptation of the various semi-connected stories of the Robin Hood legend into a coherent romance told over the course of an hour and half, in a way that was recognizable to audiences of that time, is one of the reasons the movie is a great classic. Audiences of the time, having grown up on the storybooks, would have walked out thinking, "yes, that was Robin Hood! That was Marian!"

We live in a different era--the Postmodern Era. Most people's exposure to the Robin Hood stories probably does not come from children's storybooks but from existing media. The 1938 version would be considered outdated but most people who are not classic film buffs. Instead they probably know more recent movies.

But in Postmodernity, such movies are likely based on existing movies---cinematic adaptations of cinematic adaptations. The attempts at creativity of our age reflect that, which one reason movies today are so bad---they are not based on real life anymore but on previous existing movies. 

As such, the Robin Hood story has become a property that film makers can use in whatever way they want, without any requirement to connect to the old legends and stories beyond the names of the characters. See this recent "Robyn Hood" adaptation for example.

I only know about this last one because when it came out last year, it was discussed on a Youtube movie channel I follow as being an example of the horrible trend in moviemaking of switching the characters race/gender etc. in the name of representation and expecting something meaningful to emerge .  It was considered barely watchable and was cancelled after one short season because the ratings were so low. But during its run it gave much laughter and joy to those mocking it as an example of how bad things have gotten.

What will future ages think of this? Fifty years from now, provided people still watch movies, folks will be watching the classic 1938 version and cheering for the success of the lovers and the downfall of the villains. The only folks who will watching modern versions will be anthropologists trying to determine how things went so horribly wrong in our era.  Robin Hood will survive. Personally I hope the storybook makes a comeback. It gave me so much joy and now I have come to the end, I am a bit sad.

What remains? My mind is now awakened to a desire to learn about the development of the legend based on actual historical individuals from the 12th century. I barely had a chance to explore this, and perhaps I will do that at some point, when the ocassion arises to revisit the Green Wood.