Speech to the Conference of the International Association of Robin Hood Studies, at the University Centre Doncaster.

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Godliness next to
Anonymous
Anti-establishment rhetoric in Robin Hood
ballads and contemporary media texts

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The social construction of Robin Hood
and Anonymous
 Uses and gratifications theory
 Pragmatic linguistics
 Audience theory
 Reception theory
 Narrative analysis

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Contemporary media texts investigated
Films / Movies
 ‘Robin Hood’ (Dwan, 1922),
 ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’
(Curtiz & Keighley, 1938) and
 ‘The Rogues of Sherwood Forest’
(Douglas, 1950).
 Robin and Marion (Lester, 1976)
 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'
(Reynolds, 1991).
 ‘Robin Hood’ (Scott, 2010)
 BBC Robin Hood TV series
(Minghella & Allan, 2006)
Video Games
 The video games chosen were the
 'Curse of Sherwood' (Brewster, 1987)
and
 'the Adventures of Robin Hood'
(Firstlight, 1991)
 Defender of the Crown’
(Cinemaware, 2003).
 ‘Robin Hood’ (James, 1956)
 'Everything I do' that is associated
with (Reynolds, 1991).
 Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s score
(1938)
Music

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Development of socially constructed
Trolling/Trolls
 MIG dogfighting
 Usenet
 Searching
 Scandinavian
 Provoking
 Mischief Making
Robin Hood
 Robyn hode
 Robert Earl of Huntingdon
 Robin of the Hood
 Robin of Loxley
 Hobbehod
 Robbing the hood

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William Langland's Piers Plowman
Original
 "I kan noght parfitly my
Paternoster as the preest it
syngeth but I kan rymes of Robyn
Hood and Randolf Erl of Chestre."
My translation
 "I do not know my Paternoster as
perfectly as the priest sings it, but
I know rhymes of Robin Hood and
Ranulf Earl of Chester"

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"Gentrification" a memetic follow on
from Piers Plowman?
Piers Plowman (1300s)
 Robin Hood is linked with Ranulf Earl
of Chester who worked with William
Earl of Pembroke under Henry III,
whose son was Edward I.
 Was the negative tone of Sloth a sign
of him being a disgruntled priest,
more at home with the people?
 Was Piers Plowman just conveying
popular culture of the time, with
Langland not knowing the reference
to Robin Hood would be significant?
Munday (1500s)
 Munday travelled with the Earl of
Pembroke, who shared his family
history back to the 1200s, including
anti-Catholicism and the Robin Hood
/ Ranulf link?
 The Death of Robert Earl of
Huntingdon etc. likely based on these
historical family retellings and gentry
biases?
 Gentrification thus a fork of the
legend no more significant then any
other use/misuse?

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Anarchism and Civil Disobedience
Trent Peacock (2008)
 “We [Anonymous] just happen to
be a group of people on the
internet who need—just kind of an
outlet to do as we wish, that we
wouldn't be able to do in regular
society. ...That's more or less the
point of it. Do as you wish. ...
There's a common phrase: 'we are
doing it for the lulz.‘”
English Chronicles (c.1460)
 “Around this time, according to
popular opinion, a certain outlaw
named Robin Hood with his
accomplices, infested Sherwood
and other law-abiding areas of
England with continuous
robberies.”

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Anarchism and Civil Disobedience
Anonymous
 Takes direct action against the
Church of Scientology
 Cyber-trickery
 Hacktivism
 Used to justify “trolling”
Robin Hood
 Takes on the Church, including
monks
 Officiates Alan a Dale's marriage
 Trickery
 Saves the mother’s sons
 Used as a means to solicit church
donations

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Anti-Authoritarianism
Anonymous
 Bullies people who speak out
against them
 Bullies people on external websites
and post on 4chan
 Critical of people with PhDs and
"Asbergers"
 Wear masks to hide true identities.
 Taking revenge attacks
Robin Hood
 Proves own strength with those
who doubt his abilities
 Takes on quests against the Sheriff
and tells his merry men
 Has many traits of autistic people,
such as mastery of archery
 Dresses in disguise in order to play
tricks on the Sheriff
 Gets back at the Sheriff

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Inequality, economics and subversion
Anonymous
 Takes part in "Occupy" events
 Hacks into banks
 Critical of the top 1%
 DDoS Attacks the music industry
 Flash mobbing
 Posting of offensive imagery
 Club House “mentality”
Robin Hood
 Robs the rich to feed the poor
 Breaks into castle/carriage
 Pities a poor knight
 Music is an inherent part of the
legend
 Traveling minsters and campfires
 Robberies and quests

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Conclusion
 For centuries people have used “Robin Hood” for their own purposes:
 The poor to speak about the rich
 The rich to show disgust for the poor
 Those against the Catholic Church
 The politicians to attack “terrorists”
 Capitalists to attack “socialists”
 Robin Hood will continue to change and be used for whatever purposes suit
the narrative of the day:
 Will the Richard the Lionheart link ever be severed and Edward take over?
 Will it ever be popular in the US to rob from the rich to give to the poor?

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Any questions?
 Uses and gratifications theory
 Audience theory
 Reception theory
 Narrative analysis
 Gentrification

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References
 Jonathan Bishop (2014). Viewing Robin Hood and Anonymous as embodiments
of non-conformity: A comparative analysis of media-texts used for provoking
thoughts of protest, disobedience and idealism. International Journal of
Internet Trolling and Online Participation 1(2)
 Stephen Knight (2003). Robin Hood: A mythic biography. Cornell University
Press.
 Julian M. Luxford (2009). An English chronicle entry on Robin Hood. Journal of
Medieval History, 35:1, 70-76.
 Trent Peacock (2008). MediaShift Idea Lab: Reinventing Community News for
the Digital Age. On Jesse Brown (Pres.) Search Engine. Canadian Broadcasting
Centre, Toronto, ON.