Robin Hood and Barnsdale
A record in The Hawthorn Archive, preserving folklore with its place, type and source context attached.
Robin Hood’s legendary geography is not confined to Sherwood. A Gest of Robyn Hode places important action around Barnsdale, traditionally associated with South Yorkshire, giving the region a substantial claim within the early literary tradition.
The coexistence of Barnsdale and Sherwood shows how a famous folk hero can accumulate more than one landscape. Later popularity may make one location dominant without erasing older geographical layers.
Source trail: A Gest of Robyn Hode and scholarship on Robin Hood’s medieval geography.
Related Journal record: Robin Hood Legend.