Robin Hood : His Grave and Real Home

According to early ballads such as "A Lyttel Geste of Robyn Hode, Robin Hood was born in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and lived under a tree in Barnsdale, now known to be Wentbridge, West Yorkshire. The Sayles, mentioned in the Geste are now called Brockadale Woods, although the old name survived into the twentieth century. Nearby is the old Great North Road, called Watlinge Street in medieval times and in the ballad. Here, Robin Hood and his outlaws would waylay strangers.

The early ballads do not mention Friar Tuck or Maid Marian, who were actually fictional characters in medieval May Day festivities. In the early 15th century, Robert Stafford, chaplain of Lindfield, Sussex took the alias Friar Tuck when he became an outlaw. Robin Hood, too, may have taken the name of a mythological character. In Somerset, southwest England are two ancient barrows (burial mounds) called Robin Hood's Butts. These mounds, between Taunton and Whitestaunton, and far from the haunts of Robin Hood the outlaw, are actually named after the pagan woodland elf known as Robin Hood, or Hodekin. Especially as fairies traditionally wear green, it is likely that the outlaw was consciously associated with the elf, whether or not Robin Hood was the outlaw's real name.