Author Description

The legend lives on. Deep in the sreenwoods, in forest glades dappled with the warm sunshine of romance, dwell Robin Hood and his band of merry men. Tyrants and unscrupulous abbots quake in terror — for these heroes are always at the ready to sally forth and right the wrongs of the world, robbing the rich and giving to the poor. Camouflaged in leaf-green, sharpshooters with their longbows, they are daring guerrillas, honest outlaws, bold and brave. Propelled by circumstance and that dogged English love of freedom, they wreak vengeance on the cruel, the swindling rich and the grasping clergy, in protection of the common folk. The legendary figure of Robin Hood is the archetypal hero, a medieval superman, whose gallantry, vigour and courage have made him universally popular in fiction, film and song. The tales stem from some forty ballads and poems, the core of which have their origins as far back as the fourteenth century. But their historical basis has been lost in the mists of time, and confused by the accretions of imaginative storytellers over the centuries. Links have also been made with characters and spirits of folklore and the supernatural. It is useless to seek further for historical evidence; far better to settle back with this enthralling account of the life and adventures of the outlaws, based upon the ballads — but with all the excitement and romance of a first-class novel. First published in 1912, this is a facsimile of one of the finest editions of Robin Hood, for it contains sixteen superb full-colour plates by the celebrated artist, Walter Crane. This prolific designer and painter was pre-eminent as an illustrator of children's books in the last quarter of the nineteenth century and in the first decades of the twentieth; the style of his work was a formative influence on the generations of book artists that followed him. The evocative images of Robin Hood and his companions that illustrate the pages of this book have rarely been equalled for panache and colour. They provide the ideal complement to the charm and adventure of the tales themselves.