Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-226878-20150710200046/@comment-174.89.110.232-20151116085443

Mercen-X, I believe the issue of how Russel Thrush could be a Robin Hood type and one of the four leaders (if so) of CRDL has been thrashed sufficiently and in all honesty I'm tired of it. Go on believing your belief; I still maintain that he's a bully and OOC whether you take Robin Hood as a lovable, honorable rogue or as an outlaw. (Look into the state of the law and how easily a man is outlawed in a country without a written constitution, long before Runnymede. Being an outlaw wasn't necessarily something a completely honest person could escape.) We can agree to disagree.

Yes, you misunderstood my statement of fact that robins are not wholly red birds as being a challenge. I would never challenge you to disprove a fact. No wiggle room here; robins simply are not wholly red. Google some pics if you like.

Surely expanding on a theory or a plot point is within the bounds of frank discourse. You see it as my being in a straitjacket shaped like the ballads of Robin Hood, leaving no space for further development. I see my expansion as development itself. The ballads from the 1200's on were highly popular and most were of the jolly Gest or jape type when they weren't about righting injustices.

I am not sure how many considered him an outlaw only, and would welcome your sources for the statement that 'he really was considered by many to be a criminal.' In the literature and oral tradition (ballads) he was more likely to be portrayed as a dispossessed noble than a dangerous robber. Robert of Loxley or Robert, Earl of Huntington are two examples. There is quite an extensive body of knowledge still being studied about the historicity of Robin Hood, with a couple of standout candidates proposed with documents like the town rolls of both employees of the government and people fined for a variety of misdoings to support the theories. If you are serious about researching Robin Hood to support your theory that Russel Thrush is an allusion to him, there's plenty of information on the net. But Robin, Little John and Will Scarlet are in the tradition, the three of them alone, show up in the 1200's earliest materials. Robin is actually in 'Piers Plowman'....

No, it's time to stop doing research for others. A few months ago I was researching the mythological Robin Hood as connected to the May Day revels. Marian shows up and the pairing is not entirely wholesome fare for the whole community. It took me into the Robin Goodffellow and Wild Hunt realms. I don't believe it impossible to break out of my straitjacket. I'm simply interested in everything.

Good night, all.