ABSTRACT
It was said in the days of medieval romance that there were three matters which were worth a poet's consideration, the matter of Britain, the matter of France, and the matter of Rome the Great. In England one might almost add to these a fourth, the matter of the Greenwood. The stories of Robin Hood and his outlaws have the same childhood fascination as the stories of King Arthur and Merlin, and they are a good deal more familiar to most of us than the stories of Roland and Oliver, or of Brut the Trojan, the legendary founder of the British kingdom. Their legends, like those of the Round Table, are part of the great medieval legacy to modern nursery story, and command the same attention from those who find a compelling interest in the quest after the origin of twice-told tales.
