Sources & reading | Greenwood Folklore.im

Our three labels

History: what records, historians and heritage bodies say, based on evidence. Literature: what a named ballad, play or book says, and when. Tradition: customs and local beliefs about people and places, recorded by a named source. Reading notes marked as our own comment are interpretation, not fact.

How we checked

Each labelled sentence on this site was checked against the text of the source it links to, by matching the exact wording in that source. Retellings are our own words; they follow the events in the named text and do not add new events. Quotations are short and come from public-domain texts.

Primary texts (public domain, free online)

Historians, heritage bodies and reference works

When sources disagree

We show both sides rather than picking one silently.

The date on the Kirklees gravestone

History Robin Hood’s Grave at Kirklees is a listed monument of the 1700s. Its inscription, in what Historic England calls ‘Chaucerian language’, ends ‘Obiit 24 Kal Dekembris 1247’. Historic England: Robin Hood’s Grave, Kirklees Park, list entry 1184066 ↗

History Ibeji quotes the full date as ‘25 Kalends Decembris 1247’ and points out it is impossible, since there was no ‘25 Kalends’ in the Roman calendar. (The stone itself, as Historic England reads it, says 24.) Dr Mike Ibeji, ‘Robin Hood and his Historical Context’ (2011, archived web article) ↗ Historic England: Robin Hood’s Grave, Kirklees Park, list entry 1184066 ↗

The Major Oak’s age, size and state

History Nottinghamshire County Council describes the oak as ‘at least 1000 years old’, with a trunk 10 metres round. Nottinghamshire County Council: History of Sherwood Forest, Robin Hood and Major Oak ↗

History In June 2026 the RSPB reported that the Major Oak, ‘thought to be up to 1,200 years old’, failed to come into leaf that spring and is believed by experts to have died. RSPB: The Major Oak, a new chapter for a legend of Sherwood Forest (18 June 2026) ↗

History The RSPB gives its trunk as around 11 metres round, with a 28-metre crown. It was voted Tree of the Year in 2014. RSPB: The Major Oak, a new chapter for a legend of Sherwood Forest (18 June 2026) ↗

When we checked it in October 2026, the county council’s page still described the oak as a living tree. The RSPB report of June 2026 is the more recent, so we follow it, and we give both estimates of age and girth.

Was the friar called Tuck?

Literature Britannica says the oldest texts do not call the fighting friar ‘Tuck’; he is the friar of Fountains Abbey. Britannica (Scholars): Robin Hood ↗

Literature But the Percy Folio copy of the friar ballad (about 1650) is headed ‘Robine Hood and Ffryer Tucke’. Francis James Child (ed.), The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, vol. 3 (1888), Project Gutenberg ↗

Both are true as stated: the medieval texts do not use the name, and a 17th-century copy does.

Sherwood in the Gest

Literature The name Sherwood never appears in the Gest itself. Frank Sidgwick (ed.), Ballads of Robin Hood and other Outlaws (1912), Project Gutenberg ↗

Literature The Gest is in eight ‘fyttes’ (parts). Sidgwick shows the first, second and fourth are set in Barnsdale, while the third, fifth and sixth, which deal with the Sheriff of Nottingham, centre mainly on Sherwood. Frank Sidgwick (ed.), Ballads of Robin Hood and other Outlaws (1912), Project Gutenberg ↗

When did Robin live, if at all?

History John Major’s history of Britain, published in 1521, places Robin in the reign of Richard I and calls him ‘the prince and the most gentle thief’ of all thieves. Frank Sidgwick (ed.), Ballads of Robin Hood and other Outlaws (1912), Project Gutenberg ↗

History Ibeji calls Major’s dating ‘purely arbitrary’: two writers of Major’s own time dated Robin to 1283–85 or to 1266. Dr Mike Ibeji, ‘Robin Hood and his Historical Context’ (2011, archived web article) ↗

History Ibeji sketches one possible timeline (active in the 1190s, an outlaw by 1225, dead by 1247, a legend by 1261), then adds: ‘Quite frankly, I wouldn’t stake my reputation on it.’ Dr Mike Ibeji, ‘Robin Hood and his Historical Context’ (2011, archived web article) ↗

History Britannica says none of the attempts to identify Robin Hood with a particular real person has gained much support. Britannica (Scholars): Robin Hood ↗

History Sidgwick’s own verdict was that ‘Robin Hood the yeoman outlaw never existed in the flesh’. That is one editor’s opinion, not a settled fact. Frank Sidgwick (ed.), Ballads of Robin Hood and other Outlaws (1912), Project Gutenberg ↗

A machine-read record

The 1429 ‘Frere Tuk’ entry is quoted from an online transcription that its publisher marks as machine-read and not yet checked. The 1417 entry is a checked transcription. We say so wherever the 1429 entry appears.

Pictures

All paintings, drawings and photographs are public domain or CC0, from Wikimedia Commons. See picture credits. An old painting shows how an artist imagined a story; it is not a portrait or a reconstruction.

Corrections

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