Robin Hood - the Outlaw

 Salvete Omnes,

this month I have revisited the American legend of Zorro, so perhaps a quick gallop to the British Isles and the tale of Robin Hood or Robin of Locksley, the famous outlaw of Sherwood Forest, Lady Marian and his Merry Band. 

A Gest of Robyn Hode

Robin or Robertus (Robert?)

the image above, from Wiki Commons,   a XV century print showing allegedly Robin Hood on horseback - sweet to have survived.

Robin and Marian

The Outlaws of Medieval England - a pdf from University of  Hawaii. And a  net article on the real outlaws of medieval England. More about the outlaws in medieval England and Iceland, legends and lore.

 About the sorry life of the outlaws - a short description from this ballad ( English XV century poetry) and a painting by Joseph Edward Southall .

'The snow, the frost, the rain,

The Cold, the heat, for dry or wete,

We must Lodge on the plain,

And, us above, no other roof,

But a brake bush or twain (The Nut Brown Maid, 172-176)

Another ballad here - Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne. 

There are many videos on Robin (apart from fiction films) available on Yt - eg Chronicle - Medieval History Documentaries  or Robin Hood, Sherwood Forest & stories from an English bowman (more from the reeanctor point of view). Or English writer Dan Davis' documentary on William of Cassingam. 
We can also turn to trusty Academia - eg the whole book titled Robin Hood in Greenwood Stood - Alterity and Context in the English Outlaw Tradition, a collection of articles where there is one on the social context of late Medieval Archery. From Univeristy Federal do Rio de Janeiro comes article - The Adventures of Robin Hood: Legend, Cinema and History. And many, many more on Academia. 

In this link there is the list of movies and television productions about Robin Hood (I like many of them and  enjoyed  this tv series, because of the music by Clannad), and some illustrations from American etc books on the famous outlaw

Robin and Little John

from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by American Howard Pyle

Friar Tuck and Robin

.

.

enjoy

Valete

Gamirra aka Kimmerians vs Ashurnasirpal II - Parthian shot

Salvete Omnes,

long time ago I made a post about the relief from the British Musuem showing nomads, most likely the Kimmerians , being pursued by the Assyrians under king Ashurnasirpal II (883-859BC) , shooting backwards from the horseback - Parthian shot - and finally making signs of submission towards the pursuing Assyrian chariot.

Today I would like share this image from the said museum - it is a drawing of the said relief (from Kalhu palace) created in situ by Austen Henry Layard in 1840s .

In the drawing some Kimmerian details are more detailed than in the image of the said relief I had back in 2014.
Perhaps will make another drawing based on these detail.

note that the reign of this Neo-Assyrian king was the period when soldiers mounted on horses became a part of the Assyrian army. But these horsemen rode in pairs, where one rider held the reins of the archer's horse who fired the arrows while mounted. A bit more than awkward one could observe .
In contrast our nomads in the relief above do not need that assistance, being completely independent one from another.

Meantime, you can download the drawing from the museum's site or this one above.

Valete

Chinggis Khan - Mongol Empire History - forthcoming book from Cambridge Univ. Press

 Salvete Omnes,

Chinggis Khan as the first emperor of Yuan Dynasty 

a shot entry - of course it is the dog day for sure - :) 

a new book on the Mongols and their meteoric rise to power and empire is coming this year - be it August or perhaps later . The publisher is the Cambridge University Press - The Mongol Empire, Two Volume Set. - Hiram & Kim editors et al. 

Chinggis Khan on horseback according to a Yuan Dynasty artist

Yuan Dynasty in China

Kublai Khan on a hunting expedition, by Chinese court artist Liu Guandao, c. 1280

Temur Khan hunting geese - detail 

the empire was won on and from horseback - and many of these mounts might have succumbed to the hardships of  campaigning 

while other mounts thrived on 

horse archery, martial and hunting skills were the most desired attributes for a Mongol horseman

 

detail from a Yuan Dynasty painting 

a detail from Yuan Dynasty scroll - lots of jingles on this horse harness 

Looking forward to see this publication 

pure beauty of this painting from 1271-1368 period

valete

Huntsman or hunter from Palmyra

 Salvete Omnes,

let us canter to Academia platform and Palmyra of the Parthian, Sassanian & Roman empires world. 

more than 2000 years ago camel and horse-riding Palmyrene traders with their caravans traversed the ocean of sand and rock deserts and dry steppes of eastern Syria and Arabian Peninsula -

The Archaeological Museum at Palmyra (Tadmor)  contains this stone relief showing a leopard hunt from horseback - a horse archer is shooting his arrows, carried in a saddle strapped gorytus, at the snarling feline.

Prof. Michal Gawlikowski uploaded his article titled Hunter (published in 2009) on this hunter from Palmyra - it can be had from academia.-  you can read it there or download it too.
 more sculptures showing trousers and leggings in the ancient Palmyrene art

 more about the ancient camel riders from the Syrian desert in the future, God willing.

ps

 

 some Arabic proverbs about camels - here

Valete

Taq-e-Bostan - Sassanians hunting stags

 Salvete Omnes,

and the last visit to Iran with Robert Ker Parker in 1820s, this time sir Robert drew the king and his court hunting stags or male deer. 

we  are faced with a visual royal narrative carved on the side of the mountain rock at Taq-e-Bostan, on the opposite side of the wild bear hunt relief. Khosrow II is hunting the deer - 

So this Taq-e-Bostan stag hunting - I think the great king is hunting a fallow deer - shows the ritual of organized, courtly hunt, subject to many artworks in the history of art.

Valete