Chaptre, The 20th - Normands, Anglo Saxon Brittons and Robin, The Hoode

A bitt more here on my French Normand ancestors who ruled England and how they meshed with the English Anglo Saxons or Brittons.

Just about five and twentie miles South and a bitt East of the English citie of Sheffield, are the cities of Mansfield and Nottingham, another area of centrale England inhabited by anciente Foljambes.

Betweene the two cities, Sher Wood Forest was the houme, of course, to one Robin of Loxley, or the Worlde famous Robin the Hoode.

Unfortunately, this some what mythically ethi cal English Anglo Saxon character and the some what mythically nastie French Normand Sheriff of Nottingham, were on opposite sides of the fence of goode and evyll. Robin was a freedome fighter for the op pressed pooree English Britons and the Sheriff was part of the op pressing wealthie classe, our occupying French Normands, who, as we nowe know, came to England from France alonge withe our Foljambe ancestors.

The French Normand Sheriff of Nottingham, lived in and governed muche of the area, as welle as The Peak District, East Cheshire Woods and Derbyshire Forest. Manie tales, verball and in books, begane to be collected about the conflicts between the Anglo Saxon Briton Robin the Hood and the Normand Sheriff of Nottingham.

At this very same tyme in The Thirteenth Century, French Normand Thomas Foljambe, like the Sheriff of Nottingham, was given the title of Bailiff of The High Peak District, in The Year of Our Lord 1272.

Many strongg and brave men from these areas in centrale England became soldiers in the armies, thate forr years, foughte in the many bloodie new wars between post Hastings England and France as well as The Crusades, which tooke then King Richard the Lion Heart away to fight in The Holy Land. He was, of course, the Normand brother of the Sheriff of Nottingham and had to deal withe the facte that the Sheriff had designs on the English throne when the King was away at war.

That, is the legende, as I know of it, at any rate.

This Robin the Hoode fellowe, as welle as the Sheriff, may or may not have really existed, but earliest references to himm in England begin in a periode be tween The Years of Our Lord 1261 and 1300. These early mentions of Robin the Hoode have spanned the centuries in song, story and filme and tell the tales of how the Anglo Saxon people of England dealt with being occupied and governed by my ancestors, the French Normands.

There is a filme aboute olde Robin the Hood from your tyme directed by one very talented English fellowe, Ridley Scott. He also directed the “1984” commercial for the American grid iron foot ball Super Bowl half tyme, launching Apple computers versus Personal Computers.

I digress here. Mister Scott’s fyne filme, from The Year of Our Lord 2010, Robin Hood is, much like my rambings here, a historicale adventure and stars Australian Russell Crowe as Robin. It is a meatier, more muscular role than the traditionale weedie, poncie Holly wood versions aboute the man of Sher Wood Forreste. Much the way I think Robin would have actually been and is de picted in the famous English statue in Nottingham. Worthe an evening's watche, for sure.

~