Robin Hood by Howard Pyle — a book for the night: the opening, the author and a Sherwood Forest trail

A quiet evening is the time to slip into the green glades of Sherwood. Howard Pyle’s Robin Hood (1883) is not a dry retelling of the old ballads but a single warm, witty book that one man both wrote and drew himself. A noble outlaw in Lincoln green robs greedy abbots and barons and gives the takings back to the poor, while a brotherhood of free archers gathers around him — Little John, Friar Tuck, Will Scarlet, Alan-a-Dale. This is the book that gave the world its “standard” Robin Hood, the one we picture when we think of the Nottinghamshire woods, archery contests and green jerkins. For bedtime it works because it holds you with joy rather than dread: there is plenty of good laughter, honest bouts with quarterstaves and songs by the fire, and each chapter is a complete story just the length of one evening.

The opening

The book opens with the line it is remembered for — an old storyteller’s beginning:

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“In merry England in the time of old, when good King Henry the Second ruled the land, there lived within the green glades of Sherwood Forest, near Nottingham Town, a famous outlaw whose name was Robin Hood.”

And here is the line that sets the tone of the whole book: “No archer ever lived that could speed a gray goose shaft with such skill and cunning as his, nor were there ever such yeomen as the sevenscore merry men that roamed with him through the greenwood shades.”

The full English text is free and legal: Project Gutenberg, eBook #964. (The Russian edition of this piece carries our own translation of these lines.)

Why read it tonight

Pyle’s Robin Hood looks like a string of adventures, but at heart it is about a justice done not by power or law but by free men in the forest: take from the one who first took from the poor, and give it back. Pyle wove the scattered folk ballads into one connected, warm and ironic tale, written in a deliberately “old” style that reads like a song by the campfire. Villains here are beaten not by cruelty but by skill, a good eye and quick wit, and almost every clash ends in peace, a song and a shared feast. The opening movement — how Robin becomes an outlaw and the greenwood band forms around him — is about fifteen minutes read aloud; nothing frightening in it, but you know at once whose side you are on. We won’t give away the ending — only that of all the Robin Hood books, this is the one most often called the definitive one.

About the author

Howard Pyle was born on 5 March 1853 in Wilmington, Delaware, and died on 9 November 1911 in Florence — more than seventy years ago, which is why his text is now in the public domain. Three things worth knowing. First, Robin Hood (1883) was his first book, and Pyle not only wrote it but drew its pictures and ornaments himself; those illustrations fixed the look of the “standard” Robin Hood. Second, Pyle is called the “father of American illustration”: his pen work looked back to old masters such as Dürer, and he both wrote and illustrated his children’s books. Third, at his home in Wilmington he ran a free school of illustration that trained a whole generation of American illustrators — the tradition later known as the Brandywine school.

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Places to visit

The book is invented, but its forest is real: Sherwood still stands today, in Nottinghamshire — a day trip from London. Addresses, hours and prices were checked today on the venues’ own sites.

Sherwood Forest National Nature Reserve, Forest Corner, Edwinstowe, Nottinghamshire (NG21 9RN) — Robin Hood’s very forest. Entry to the forest is free. Parking is £7 a day for non-members of the RSPB and free for RSPB members (checked today on the RSPB site). In the week from 5 November the reserve, visitor centre, café and shop are open 10:00–15:00, and the car park 09:00–16:00. About fifteen minutes’ walk from the visitor centre stands the Major Oak, the huge ancient oak that legend ties to Robin’s hideout; you can reach it freely through the forest.

Nottingham Castle, Lenton Road, Nottingham (NG1 6EL) — the legend’s chief adversary, seat of the famous sheriff. Open daily (except 25–26 December and 1 January); in winter, from 2 November 2026 to 5 February 2027, 11:00–16:00, last entry 15:00. A “pay once, visit all year” ticket is £18 for an adult, free for children 15 and under (up to three per adult) and free for carers; a cave or dungeon tour is £9 extra. By the castle walls stands the famous Robin Hood statue — visible from outside, free.

Where to get it

Free. The full English text is in the public domain: Project Gutenberg, eBook #964. To find the book in British libraries, use the Library Hub Discover catalogue.

Buy it in Russian. The Robin Hood legend has appeared in many Russian retellings and editions; search “Робин Гуд” at the Russian-language bookshops in Britain — Notre Locus and Bookashka (children’s section). Pyle’s own text in Russian is harder to find than a general retelling — check stock and price on the shop’s site; an English paperback is carried by ordinary British bookshops too.