A Little Book of Robin Hood (Michael Dacre)

We know the name Robin Hood was captured for history (see here) in the early 1200s.  But, the original surviving tales about Robin Hood (in the form of ballads) come to us much later- the first surviving one, Robin Hood and the Monk, was written around 1450.   Others followed in subsequent decades; a good overview of them is here.  As you'd expect, over time more ballads were recorded, each with their own twist to the story.  With each alteration, the originals were increasingly obscured.

In A Little Book of Robin Hood, Michael Dacre takes us back to these first five surviving ballads (and one play), and rewrites them in modern English.  Really modern English.  Too modern, for my tastes- but more on that in a moment.  He also includes an introduction, which discusses (briefly) the topic of who Robin may have been, if he existed at all. 

Dacre's work brings us back to the foundation of all current Robin Hood yarns.  In that regard, it's valuable.  You see how, in these first ballads, Robin is associated more with Barnesdale (in Yorkshire) than Sherwood, and he's associated with King Edward (early 1300s) rather than King Richard the Lionhearted (late 1100s).  Location and time aside, many elements are familiar- his skill with the bow, his band of merry men, his companions (little John/etc)- all were present even 550 years ago.  It's fun to go back and look at the origin of the modern tales.  Additionally, the introduction is a pretty good overview for those unfamiliar with Robin's potential real-life identities.

Unfortunately, I felt Dacre took the modernization of the language a bit too far.  Extremely modern street slang shows up here, which I felt a bit overdone.  Additionally, he takes it out of the original rhyming verse and creates straight prose, where in many cases modernization of the rhyme, and preservation of the structure, was easily done.

This is a quick read- a fast 160 pages- but all things considered, I'm not sure this was worth my time.  There have to be better re-tellings of the originals.  Speaking of them, some of the original ballads can be read here.

Rating: C