Robin Hood

Along with the legendary King Arthur Robin Hood is one of the most popular heroes of English folklore. In the Middle Ages, a large cycle of wonderful works has developed around the figure of the noble leader of the forest robbers and the exile. The full scientific translation of this cycle is first offered to the attention of the domestic reader. Ballas about Robin have been created for six centuries. Echoes of chivalrous novels sound in them, then the sophistication inherent in the Baroque style is manifested, and the simplicity and merryness of the folk poetic text is interspersed with a witty and thinly thought -out parody. Ballads to this day have not lost freshness and relevance. Their eternal topics: the confrontation of a blind law and a moral position, the dream of a good and fair intercessor, greed and spiritual blindness of the powerful of this world, the final triumph of virtue. The inhabitants of the Green Forest appear before the reader: Robin Hood and Virgo Marion, Little John and Wil Statley, Monk Tuk and Guy Gisborn, King Edward and Nottingham Sheriff - in all their diversity and popularity; The “old good England” opens, according to the famous expression, “never existing, but as if recently remaining somewhere around the bend.” Ballads about Robin are the embodiment of the British spirit, freedom and honor, not constrained by chains of the law; The English freemen, the open spaces of green forests and the sun -flooded lawns; The eternal "cheerful month of May", which is so dear to the heart of a freedom -loving resident of the vague albion. In addition to the ballads, that included the plays “Games”, dedicated to the celebration of the May Day (fun triumph of spring and annual revival, known in England since ancient times), as well as fragments of historical chronicles, allowing to correlate the collective image of Robin with those who once lived People whose names are found either in house books of eminent families, then in the censuses of the population, then in unpaid tavern accounts for El and beef, or even in judicial protocols. The “Additions” section included the best of the Classical Translations known today by the Ballad about Robin (N.S. Gumilyov, M.I. Tsvetaeva, VS.A. Rozhdestvensky, S.Ya. Marshak and so on), as well as options for stories About Robin, the plot and denouement of which are sometimes opposite to the fact that they were included in the main section of this publication. The collection is filled with master's illustrations L.-J. Read, representing not only genre scenes from the life of Robin and his restless comrades, but also - a huge rarity - a gallery of all the characters of the cycle individually.