SHERWOOD Trilogy Series

Welcome, Gentles all, to the beginning of our tale on a subject that you probably think that you know quite well. All we can humbly say is that --- you are wrong. We hope to please you with our tale of Bold Robin. To entertain you, to thrill you, and to bring you joy. But most of all we desire to simply tell you the truth. Not sugar coated or fancily fabricated. Not blunt edged nor prettily played on a lute. But bare, brutal and often bloody; As were the times and the people that lived in them. In that way, Robin’s tale is much like your own, and wants Love’s tinted glass to shine warmly on things that should have been --- but never really were. So if it’s fancy songs and fairness that you crave, look not for them in these pages. Honour and Love, Beauty and Goodness there is, but they are dispersed with a hesitant hand; and are shot through with Fate’s cruel twists. While fire and sword, war and famine are found here in abundance. Sadly, much as they are in our own world. So come along, Gentles all, and list to our true tale of Bold Robin! For I was there with him from the start, And stood with him at the end, And pray to a god that oft times seems deaf, that I’ll be with him once again! Told by W. Scarlet / Copied by F. Tuck 1225 A.D. --- Sherwood

Robin and Marian. Names you’ve known all your life; more familiar than Anthony and Cleopatra or Romeo and Juliet. Come join these two ‘star crossed lovers’ on the adventure of a lifetime, acted out on the hot, desert sands of the Holy Land, the pirate infested waters of the Mediterranean and in the cool, dark shadows of Sherwood Forest! Robin and Marian, along with Will, Much and Little John, have been forced to flee England after being accused by the powerful Sir Guy of Gisbourn of a number of grisly murders, including that of Marian’s uncle, Sir Robert Locksley. In 1190 Richard the Lionheart was gathering an army to take on the Third Crusade, and so, after joining a company of archers, Robin and his band (including Marian), set out for the Holy Land --- what the crusaders of the time called ‘Outramere’. After a number of adventures, including being shipwrecked on Cyprus and being held for ransom, Robin has rescues Marian and her tough female camp followers along with Berengaria, the Lionheart’s beautiful bride to be. All are once again sailing with King Richard’s convoy on its way to the scorching sands of ‘Outramere’ --- while secretly longing for the cool comfort of Sherwood. Come along on their adventure and see Robin & Marian all over again ‘for the very first time’!

Robin and Marian, along with Will, Much and Little John, have all made it safely back home to Locksley Hall from the Holy Land. King Richard however, has not. Captured and held for ransom by Duke Leopold of Austria, his mother Eleanor and his wife Berengaria must now raise a fortune in silver. Prince John has used Richard’s misfortune as a stepping stone to the empty throne. Many of the barons however, reject John’s self-centered rule and rebel. A civil war erupts with John getting aid from another of Richard’s enemies, Philip II of France. Sir Guy of Gisbourn and his cousin, the Sheriff of Nottingham, have given Marian and her followers till the end of September to vacate Locksley Hall --- or suffer the consequences. At the end of Book II, Prince John, urged on by his beautiful witch-like mistress, Hawdwise of Chalus, was leading a combined English & French army north to fight the rebels under the command of someone known only as the ‘Hooded-Ghost of Sherwood’. This ‘hooded ghost’ is really Marian’s brother, Sir Hugh Fitzwalter who, now, seriously wounded, can no longer lead his troops. Robin, Sir Hugh’s sometime lieutenant, steps in to take his place. The last thing we saw was Robin organizing a ‘special greeting’ for the Sheriff and his men when they come to evict Marian from Locksley Hall. Meanwhile, Prince John is slowly leading his large force northward, planning eventually to lay siege to Sherwood itself if he has to in order to crush this ‘hooded ghost’! Join us now for the third and final book of ‘SHERWOOD’ where Robin & Marian come ‘Home At Last’.