Getting (and Staying) Medieval

From the nineteenth century to the twenty-first, virtually all Robin Hood adaptations have featured a medieval setting. This article explores the uses of medieval verisimilitude and historicity in Robin Hood adaptations, ultimately arguing that a medieval setting continues to dominate twenty-first century retellings as a means of providing both a sense of education and a sense of distance. Following in the tradition of Walter Scott’s 1819 novel Ivanhoe, early-twentieth-century book and film adaptations of Robin Hood deployed historical verisimilitude for ostensibly pedagogical purposes. While less explicitly educational than earlier adaptations and despite their very different aesthetics, both Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood (2010) and Otto Bathurst’s Robin Hood (2018) retain more-or-less medieval backdrops, and the two films provide useful examples of how and why Robin remains firmly in a medieval setting in most adaptations. In the case of Ridley Scott’s film, medieval verisimilitude continues to lend a veneer of educational value to the narrative, while in both films, a medieval aesthetic provides a distancing effect for any political implications of Robin’s actions. The essay closes by examining a notable exception to the pattern of a medieval Robin: the 2023 television series Robyn Hood, whose transposition of a medieval outlaw narrative into the modern day (including an urban setting and a Black female Robin) sparked a racist backlash and review-bombing campaign that led to the show’s swift cancellation. Today as in the nineteenth century, Robin Hood remains largely confined to the medieval period for modern audiences.