From Introduction:
Robin Hood. The name alone conjures images of heroic scoundrels fighting off the oppression of the rich and powerful in the eaves and shadows of the great forest of Sherwood, or atop the battlements of Nottingham castle.
There have been a thousand incarnations of the legendary outlaw and his Merry Men over the years and centuries, and we’re seemingly still not tired of the tales in the twenty-first century. Beyond a large number of books on Robin Hood, which looks at the legend in a staggering level of variety, the story is just as popular on television and on the silver screen.
And as one might expect, the oldest tales of Robin Hood are far different then the tale we know today, with such iconic characters as Friar Tuck and even Maid Marian being later additions to the myth, not to mention the whole "rob from the rich and give to the poor" shtick.