Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English floklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for ‘robbing from the rich and giving to the poor’, assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his ‘Merry Men’. Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes. The origin of the legend is claimed by some to have stemmed from actual oulaws, or from ballads or tales of outlaws.
Robin Hood beacme a popular folk figure in the medieval period continuing through to modern literature, films and television. In the earliest sources, Robin Hood was a yeoman, but he was ofen later portrayed as a aristocrat wronfully dispossessed of his lands and made into an outlaw by an unsrupulous sheriff.