Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography. By Stephen Knight. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2003. Pp. xxi + 247. $25.00.


Having already written a book on Robin Hood, subtitled A Complete Study of the English Outlaw (1994), Stephen Knight might seem to have no reason for a sequel. What could it be? Robin Hood: An Even More Complete Study? In fact, however, the appearance of Knight's first book coincided with, or perhaps precipitated, a sudden flowering of serious scholarly interest in the topic. The first international conference devoted solely to Robin Hood was held in 1997, organized by Thomas Hahn in Rochester, New York. Its array of speakers represented not only the obvious areas of medieval history and literature but also modern popular culture, film history, and children's fiction; there were authors of films and pantomimes, some of which were shown or performed, and the conference also featured Kevin Carpenter's remarkable display of international publications and artifacts, first seen in Oldenburg in 1995, which reveals the sheer range of images associated with the outlaw. Next came the formation of the International Society for Robin Hood Studies, which has held three other conferences since the one in Rochester; its listserv (robinhood-l@ats.rochester.edu) exchanges information about outlaw sightings in Web sites, television programs, political speeches, and popular culture and valiantly tries to fend off the attacks of the Sheriff of Nuttyspam. As well as updating the reader on the numerous research developments since 1994, Knight's new book also offers an agreeable read. More relaxed than its predecessor, since it no longer needs to aim for completeness, it is generally balanced in its treatment of the historical and archetypal readings between which scholarship has often been torn.

Lois Potter
University of Delaware