ABSTRACT
What denes Robin Hood is not a universal or transhistorical set of meanings, but rather the legend’s exibility in adapting to new contexts, a suppleness deriving from the difculty in determining anything concrete about the gure’s real history.1 To explore contextual adaptation in the Robin Hood legend, this analysis compares the rivalry between Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne in two adaptations that offer distinctive interpretations of the meaning of their conict: the ballad Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne, extant from the mid-seventeenth century2 and director Allan Dwan’s 1922 lm Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood, starring Douglas Fairbanks. This pairing is of particular interest in that both ballad and lm include a strong rivalry with Guy of Gisbourne (as opposed to the Sheriff of Nottingham)3 and draw emphatically on physical exploits.4 Indeed, the lm shares with the ballad not only the spirited action of “the early bold Robin Hood,”5 but also similarities in motifs and themes surrounding the rivalry between Robin and Guy. Both adaptations explore issues of fellowship and homosocial bonding, highlight Guy’s bestial nature, establish Robin’s need to destroy Guy, and have Robin kill him brutally. In different ways, they also underscore the two characters’ antagonism while blurring the lines between their identities. But, despite these strong overlaps, each adaptation interprets the rivalry through its own contexts. Specically, the conict between Robin and Guy in the ballad draws on other early Robin Hood ballads, the motif of homosocial bonding through ritual combat, and the parochial tradition of the hobbyhorse in the May games. The lm, in contrast, interprets the conict between Robin and Guy through its visual medium and creates a coming-of-age tale in which Robin’s rivalry with Guy over Marian forces Robin to grow up and attain sexual maturity.6 Through its visual narrative, the lm likewise highlights Fairbanks’s boyish masculinity, creating a distinctively American-even “Fairbanksian”—interpretation of the legend.
