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I read Howard Pyle's Robin Hood wherein it is written (on whatever it is they write it on up there):

A certain one sayeth that upon a stone at Kirklees is an old inscription. This I give in the ancient English in which it was written, and thus it runs:

HEAR UNDERNEAD DIS LAITL STEAN LAIS ROBERT EARL OF HUNTINGTUN NEA ARCIR VER AS HIE SAE GEUD AN PIPL KAULD IM ROBIN HEUD SICK UTLAWS AS HI AN IS MEN VIL ENGLAND NIDIR SI AGEN OBIIT 24 KAL. DEKEMBRIS 1247.

So naturally I was curious and I found this grave marker in a Google search.

Robin Hood's tomb

Is there any evidence that anyone is buried underneath this stone? Can you date an inscription like this?

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Peter Turner
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    I think this grave marker is very fake. It screams "photoshoped". – Jader Dias Jun 03 '11 at 14:10
  • @Jader, well, that's a nice sceptical response. Here's another older picture with a reference to a book it came out of http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~calderdalecompanion/ph19.html#4 – Peter Turner Jun 03 '11 at 14:17
  • Or maybe the marker was carved based on the description in the book, and became (or was intentionally) a tourist attraction. Similar to "the Round Table" that you can see... – GEdgar Jun 10 '16 at 16:40

3 Answers3

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That inscription is not original, so dating it is not going to help.

The inscription is probably from the 18th or 19th century when the current monument was made, although the text is older and was recorded already in 1632. However, even that is of course many hundred years later.

http://britannia.com/tours/rhood/rhgrave.html

Lennart Regebro
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The best book on Robin Hood is by J.C. Holt. The earliest sources of the Robin Hood legend are ballads written before 1450. In one of them a King Edward comes to Yorkshire to capture Robin Hood but comes to like him and makes him one of his yeomen. The only King Edward who was in Yorkshire before 1450 was Edward II, who came to Yorkshire in 1323. Documents of the time list one of the men in his service in 1323 as Robyn Hod. I base my novel The Robin Hood Chronicles on the identity of Robin Hood and Robyn Hod, though Holt is not so positive in his identification as I am.

Sam Sackett
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  • [We require references for all significant claims here](http://meta.skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/5). Please edit your answer to include appropriate references. – Mad Scientist Oct 23 '12 at 18:33
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    He does reference a book by J.C. Holt right in the first sentence though. Still, I do agree it would be nice to have at least the exact name, and maybe references to some chapters and some quotes. – Ilari Kajaste Oct 25 '12 at 19:11
  • The exact name appears to be [Robin Hood](https://www.amazon.com/Robin-Hood-Third-J-Holt/dp/0500289352). At least, historian [J. C. Holt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._C._Holt) wrote a book entitled **Robin Hood**. – Brythan Jun 12 '16 at 11:48
  • According to (http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/north/vol2/pp538-560#fnn79), Edward I visited Scarborough Castle (in Yorkshire) in 1275 and 1280, so "The only King...." part of your answer is false. – Francis Davey May 07 '17 at 09:45
  • Edward I also held a Parliament in York in 1298. Where are you getting this information from? It seems implausible that Holt (a respected English historian) would be confused about Edward I's parliaments if nothing else. But you cite no other source. – Francis Davey May 07 '17 at 09:49
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There's a book on the history of archery called "The Grey Goose Wing":
The author discusses the Robin Hood legend, and essentially says it is impossible to pin down. Evidently there were several figures in history with some-what similar stories and the legend may have been knocking around for many years prior to the events depicted in the books and movies.

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