Is Robin Hood typically English? Well the only other country that I'm aware of which has a similar figure is Scotland with Rob Roy, and he was very much real, though many tales have been built upon his legend since then. I wouldn't be surprised if Germany or the regions around the old Black Forest have similar figures though.
I think Robin is in some ways an echo back to an older England. We also have other rebel figures such as Hereward The Wake (only sketchy information is available about him, but he is from the fens of Lincolnshire, next door to Notts & Yorkshire) and Wat Tyler (a real figure). What is special about Robin is how he retreats to the woods, maybe the wild woods or what remained of them. Its funny to think but even now, almost 1,000 years on, there is a feeling of regret about what the Normans did to the English, cutting dead a culture and really being responsible for 1,000 years of class conflict (though they gave us some great Kings and all their tales
). So I can imagine how easily a figure such as Robin would quickly become magnified into a legend, a myth in fact.
Robin also changes with time - he is currently linked to Green Man figures and we also make a big deal out of the rebel aspects of him. So i can't think of a more appropriate archetype for Tolkien to weave into his own legendarium and use in his own way to create something entirely new. What's also quite interesting is that if Tolkien inadvertently called up the folk memory of Robin when Faramir appeared to him, this might be that 'sidelined nobleman' aspect of Robin, whereas the more odd, woodsy aspects are called uo by Tom Bombadil, and he even calls up a princely aspect in Legolas. Maybe Ghan-buri-ghan calls up the ancient aspect of Robin, tricksy and linked to the wild man of the wildwood.
Quote:
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I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic, to the level of fairy story - the larger founded on the lesser in contact with the earth, the lesser drawing splendour from the large backcloths
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I thought I'd bring up this quote as it does obviously relate to the construction of Tolkien's own mythology, but it also reflects real mythology, big ideas based on local follktales, and in a way, this is what Robin Hood has become, an entire
concept which has grown from simple, local tales.
The continuing influence of Robin Hood is to be underestimated at our peril, because tales and ideas of him are sunk really deeply into people's hearts and minds here. I think in many ways Robin grew up as a legend as he symbolised resistance to the Normans and their overwhelming new ways of life; the ordinary people remained English and did not become 'continental', kept that way by being reduced to being peasants in the feudal system, so maybe this is how the legends have lasted. I think that would be in sympathy with what Tolkien thought about the regret that England had lost its mythology (or a chance of one), and I think that maybe the idea of Robin would be in complete sympathy with his notions for this 'mythology' he was creating?