Abstract
The Robin Hood myth is remembered via its hero’s actions: stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Despite socialist tendencies implied by the Robin Hood ethos, the myth and most of its retellings favour the reactionary over the revolutionary. This is especially obvious in Disney’s Robin Hood (1973). This article reads the movie as conservative political-economic fable. Semantics of stability and instability, expressed by the collection, theft and return of taxes establish a conservative vision of a prospering society—a vision that connects the Robin Hood myth to sentimental Disney populism.
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Notes
- 1.
Levi-Strauss in The Structural Study of Myth notices that there is an ahistorical aspect to myth, “an everlasting pattern” (Lévi-Strauss 1955, 430), which relates to the meaning of the myth (434).
- 2.
This ahistorical pattern only appeared in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century and is connected to the protagonist’s social status. Knight asserts in The Politics of Myth, “Robin Hood never stole from the rich to give to the poor until he was transformed from a yeoman into a lord” (Knight 2015). Though the late fifteenth/early sixteenth century Gest of Robyn Hode (the first arrangement of Robin Hood ballads into a longer Robin Hood poem) mentions at its end that he “dyde pore men moch god” (Knight/Ohlgren 2000, 148), Robin’s charitable efforts are never narrated in the Gest. Robin Hood ballads and retellings that relate to the ballads as hypotexts are tales of trickery, disguise, fights (against enemies or to make new friends) and tests of moral character. Stealing from the rich with the distinct purpose to give to the poor is seldom more central to his escapades than paying the ransom for King Richard or helping the honourable.
- 3.
For a discussion of child appropriateness and the Disney Robin Hood version (Reitherman 1973), see Harty 2012.
- 4.
For more on Rand and capitalism see Collins 2003.
- 5.
Allusions to elements that have become fixed points in retellings can be found throughout the movie. The quarterstaff fight between Robin and Little John, described in the seventeenth century ballad Robin Hood and Little John, over who gets to cross a stream first (cf. Knight/Ohlgren 2000, 476–485), is mentioned in the song Oo-De-Lally. The friends arrive at a crossing over stream. Both cordially bow to each other, each, in a reversal of the well-known scene, offering the other the opportunity to cross the stream first (cf. Reitherman 1973, 03:47–03:53). The archery competition, a mainstay of Robin Hood adaptations, which is already present in the Gest in the late fifteenth/early sixteenth century (Knight/Ohlgren 2000, 125–127) is also included. The animated film further hints at the ballad Robin Hood Rescues Three Young Men from the eighteenth century. Here Robin approaches the Sheriff disguised as a beggar to thwart executions (cf. ibid., 514–518).
- 6.
The fight for resources in Robin Hood retellings is generally more complex. Firstly, the exclusivity of the king’s deer in the king’s forest is a topic for dispute. Many versions of the tale even posit that the crime of shooting a king’s deer is the reason for Robin Hood or one of his men becoming an outlaw (cf. Knight/Ohlgren 2000, 508–510, Mopurgo 2012, 26–27). Adaptations that present Robin Hood as a nobleman (e.g. Robin of Locksley or Robert, Earl of Huntington) turned noble outlaw, a common theme from the late sixteenth century onwards, also centre on the fight over land, property or title. This aspect features prominently in most popular Robin Hood cinematizations, among them Robin Hood (Dwan 1922) with Douglas Fairbanks, The Adventures of Robin Hood (Curtiz 1938) with Errol Flynn, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Reynolds 1991) with Kevin Costner and Robin Hood (Bathurst 2018) with Taron Egerton.
- 7.
The capitalised CHILD in Edelman’s text refers to the symbolic child.
- 8.
The Sheriff of Nottingham also mirrors the Robin Hood character. Although the Sheriff insists on the lawfulness of his actions, declaring that, “they call me a slob, but I do my job” (Reitherman 1973, 16:49–16:52), the wolf gets constructed as a criminal, since he acts lawfully in an unjust system.
- 9.
For a more detailed analysis of the connections between the Robin Hood myth and populism see Rolfe 2016.
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Ullmann, A. (2022). “Taxing the Heart and Soul Out of the People”. In: Dettmar, U., Tomkowiak, I. (eds) On Disney. Studien zu Kinder- und Jugendliteratur und -medien, vol 9. J.B. Metzler, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-64625-0_11
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