Robin Hood comes to Delaware

1:22 p.m., Sept. 23, 2005--A merry band of scholars will gather on campus Sept. 29-Oct. 2 for the fifth biennial meeting of the International Association for Robin Hood Studies.

The association, which alternates between English towns (Nottingham and York) and North America cities (Rochester, Ontario and Newark) for its meetings, chose “Images of Robin Hood” as this year’s theme. The UD meeting will cover all aspects of the Robin Hood legend and its characters, from early printed books and broadsides to children’s books, comic books and film.

The following sessions are open to the public without registration. The complete schedule is available at [http://www.washjeff.edu/users/ltroost/robinhood.html]. For more information, contact Lois Potter, Ned B. Allen Professor of English, at [lpotter@sigurd.English.udel.edu]

In conjunction with the meeting, several films centering around Robin Hood will be screened on the campus. The 1922 silent film version of Robin Hood (1922) with Douglas Fairbanks will be shown at 8 p.m., Sept. 29, in the Loudis Recital Hall of the Amy E. du Pont Music Building, accompanied by medieval and Tudor music performed live by Hesperus, an early music group. Tickets for this program are $10 for adults, $7 for seniors and $3 for children at the door.

In addition, Robin Hood films will be shown in the Morris Library’s Media Viewing Room and Room 037 of Memorial Hall. Screenings in the Media Viewing Room will include Looney Tunes depictions of Robin Hood at 3 p.m., and the 1973 Disney animated film at 3:20 p.m., both on Sept. 30; and The Princess of Thieves, a 2001 production staring Keira Knightley, at 1:30 p.m. and The Adventures of Robin Hood, starring Errol Flynn, at 3:30 p.m., both on Oct. 1. In 037 Memorial Hall, Robin Hood and the Seven Hoods with Frank Sinatra will be shown at 9:45 p.m., Sept. 30, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights, directed by Mel Brooks, will be shown at 9:30 p.m., Oct. 1.

An exhibition, “Robin Hood: Selected Resources,” also is on view in the Information Room of the Morris Library.

Early depictions of Robin Hood will open the meeting Thursday, Sept. 29, at 3 p.m. in Bayard Sharp Hall. Topics include: “Where did you get that hat?” by John Marshall of the University of Bristol and “Picturing Our Hero: Robin Hood in the 18th and 19th Centuries” by Thomas Hahn of the University of Rochester.

“A Dance of Free Men in a Forest: The Douglas Fairbanks Robin Hood Romp” will be the topic of a 9 a.m. paper, Friday, Sept. 30, in the Class of 1941 Lecture Room of the Morris Library, and Brandywine area illustrators such as Howard Pyle and N.C. Wyeth, who represented the generous bandit for American audiences, will be the topic at the 10:30 a.m. session. (After the close of the symposium on Sunday, the visiting scholars will have the opportunity to visit the Brandywine River Museum, which contains examples of illustrative art by Pyle and Wyeth.)

Friday afternoon sessions will move to the Amy E. du Pont Music Building, with a session on “Myth and Language” in the Lecture Room at 1:30 p.m. Another session titled “Maid Marian and Transgression” will be held simultaneously in the Choral Room. The final two Friday sessions will be held in the Lecture Room of the Amy E. du Pont Music Building. “Robin Hood in Music and Drama” will begin at 3:15 p.m., and papers on Reginald de Koven’s operetta Maid Marian will follow at 4:40 p.m.

Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, a one-person play created by Michael Boudewyns, artistic director of the First State Children’s Theatre, will be presented at 8:15 p.m., Friday, Sept. 30, in Room 127 Memorial Hall.

All sessions on Saturday, Oct. 1, will be held in Memorial Hall. From 9-10:30 a.m., papers will be presented on “Medieval Contexts” and on the topic “Sexual Outlawry.”

The keynote address, “Robin and Arthur: A Dialectical Comparison,” will be presented at 11 a.m., Saturday, by Stephen Knight, noted Robin Hood scholar at University of Wales at Cardiff, who will examine the relation between the Robin Hood and King Arthur legends.

From 1:30-2:45 p.m., sessions will be held on “Postmedieval Robin Hood” and “Is This Young People’s Literature? Some Problematic Robin Hoods.” Two final Saturday sessions will be held from 3-4:15 p.m. on “International Robin Hood Figures” and “Other Medieval Outlaws.”

The symposium will conclude with a reading of Daniel Hoffman’s poem, “A Little Geste,” published in 1960 as a modern interpretation of the medieval poem. The reading will be at 4:30 p.m. in Room 127, Memorial Hall.

Article by Cornelia Weil

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