Robin Hood

It all started eight centuries ago in the medieval village of Loxley.  

About 50 miles away from Nottingham city and castle the only separation was the city wall, the castle moat and the mysterious and dangerous Sherwood Forest.   Well known for feral outlawed highwaymen that roamed, waiting for carriages full of gold to pass through. 

But one outlaw wasn’t a thief, he was a hero to the peasants under rule of the unjust Prince John, the Sheriff of Nottingham and his partner Guy of Gisborne. 

If any hope remains it would have laid in the hands of one person, the noble man Sir Robin of Loxley. 

But soon that was to change.  He was to become Sherwoods most wanted man who lived under the name of Robin Hood.  He stole from the rich and gave to the poor.  

He was the best archer and swordsman and so used that to his advantage, constantly sabotaging the castle and convoys of illegally taken taxes.  He would then leave bags of coins on the doorsteps of the poor.

As time went by his friends grew and the poor came to love him and many joined him, to make his band Merry Men.  Little John, Fryer Tuck, Will Scarlet, Alan Adale and Much the millers son.

Every single one and many more stood by him as they gave out coins, fought next to him as they swung out of trees to ambush the prince and corrupt noblemans and saved his life when he was being hung in the city square. All of this was to have freedom and justice.  

Many years later King Richard The Lion Heart returned home from the crusades and put an end to his brothers cruel and unjust regime.  And the story of the legend Robin Hood has lived on forever.

The end 

The screen crackles and up pops the words “Starring Errol Flynn as Robin Hood”.

The film then stops, the dvd is ejected and the tv turns off.  

Silence.

Suddenly that’s broken as the sound of an arrow slicing through the air hits its target.  A 4 year old jumps out his chair and pretends to grab an arrow from an imaginary quiver and then fires it from his air bow making a whizz and crash noise as he lets go and aims for a mug on the kitchen surface.  Then shouts out with great happiness “Bulls Eye”.    

He’d seen the film ‘The Adventures Of Robin Hood’ hundreds of times. It was his favourite film,  he could quote it and every scene before it happened.

But most of all Robin Hood was this lads hero and role model.  He wished he was him, well actually, he thought he was him. He dressed like him, wearing a green tunic, green trousers and hat with a pheasant tail feather in it.  This boy ate, slept and breathed Robin. He lived him.

And when his birthday came round that year he got the best present ever,  no not a Xbox 360, no not Nintendo Switch but an Ash medieval English longbow, a leather quiver and a set of arrows.   

This Boy lernt to use this bow and spent hours practicing firing off arrows at a targett missing lots of times and losing many of them in the grass but finally he began hitting the target, white, black, blue, yellow ring and …….. a bullseye occasionally.

This young four year old lad was me eleven years ago.  I went through a stage for quite a while when I literally I believed I was Robin and asked everyone I knew to call me that.  Many years later, even after I’d grown out of my green trousers, some people still called me Robin.  

As a figure Robin Hood is a great role model for a young lad, he’s a good guy, a hero, with super cool talents, almost like powers, and has good morals and without knowing it they rub off on you just like they did to me.     

He was kind, had a sense of justice, fought against the bad and stood up for what was right.  This is where my desire to make a difference comes from.  I am not going to ambush any convoys, storm any castles or steal any gold, but I am going to fight to help others.  I’m simply going to be honest, I’m gonna explain my struggles as they are, tell people how I’m overcoming them and hopefully encourage others to overcome theirs too. 

That’s my goal and it started eight centuries ago in a dark dangerous wood called Sherwood Forest which was home to a band of outlaws with a leader named Robin Hood. He fought for justice and rightfulness and he was my hero.