Some characters are so well known, they need no introduction.

Take for example, Robin Hood.

See, all I did was say his name and already you've imagined a peak-capped arrow shooting robber stealing

from the rich and giving to the poor.

Perhaps you imagine the swashbuckling arrow Flynn in brilliant 1938 technicolor, or maybe a green garbed Carrie Elwhis, prancing

through Mel Brooks Classic Men in Tights. Or maybe, as my research team of primarily

millennial-aged women insists, you spent your youth swooning over a handsome

charming dreamboat of a Robin Hood who just also happened to be a cartoon fox.

Hey, you do you. Whatever your Robin Hood of choice is, just know this, you aren't alone,

because it turns out everyone's favorite bandit has been on the prowl through our imaginations for nearly a thousand years,

and some of these robins just may have been real.

Way back in 1226, a court register from Yorkshire England

mentioned a fugitive named Robin Hood, whose land

was being repossessed by the state.

And then there's William Rob Hood from 1262, member of a band of outlaws.

And we have a man named Robin Hood awaiting trial in 1354 in Northamptonshire.

And it doesn't stop there.

Historians have unearthed record after record of criminals named Robin Hood

across decades and even centuries and no we aren't dealing with an immortal bandit

as much as I would love that. It turns out Robin Hood seems to be an alias used by various English

outlaws throughout history. Why, you might ask? Well probably for the same reason that

you and I love Robin Hood because of the stories of course. While the first written Robin Hood

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