British Outlaws of Literature and History: Essays on Medieval and Early Modern Figures from Robin Hood to Twm Shon Catty

The medieval outlaws of Britain maintain a hold on the contemporary imagination judging by their presence in literature and on film. Exploring the nature of both historical and fictional outlaws, these twelve critical essays survey the literary, historical and cultural environments that produced them, namely the medieval and early modern periods. Divided into three parts, the text recovers the historical records of real outlawed men and women and the representation of Jews in medieval Britain as possible outlaws, outlaws associated specifically with Wales, and the popular figure of Robin Hood and the context of the late medieval poems and plays that feature him as a prominent figure.