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Article: Maid Marian Made Possible: Feminist Advances in Late Twentieth-century Retellings of the Robin Hood Legend for Young Adults
- Article from:
- ALAN Review
- Article date:
- October 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Assembly on Literature for Adolescents -- National Council of Teachers of English Fall 2003. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Both Robin McKinley and Esther Friesner, contemporary retellers of the Robin Hood legend, refer to Howard Pyle's The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood as their first significant introduction to the legend. Pyle's text retells most, if not all, of the Robin Hood ballads (a mere glance through the table of contents reveals 20 of these ballads, from "Robin Hood and the Tinker" to "Robin Hood and Guy of Gisbourne"). However, Pyle's text does not handle the ballad of "Robin Hood and Maid Marian"-nor does it explore Maid Marian's role in the legend. As a result, the very text that feeds and informs the Robin Hood legend of the twentieth century is thorough in its treatment of literary heroism but ...