Stranger than Fiction

I recently read two books about Robin Hood for a course I’m taking this summer, so for this review I’m including both of them, comparing them in terms of content, focus, and tone/writing style. These books are choices for the category Myth, Legend and Folklore for the 2025 Nonfiction Reader Challenge hosted by Book’d Out. The earlier book is Robin Hood: A Complete Study of the English Outlaw , by Stephen Knight, 1994. Knight was a Professor of English at the University of Wales, College Cardiff, and a former Professor and Head of the Department of English, Media and Cultural Studies as De Montfort University, England. Much of Knight's scholarly writings have been in the areas of medieval English literature,  Robin Hood ,  Merlin  and the  Arthurian myth . Knight’s literary background is clearly the basis for his comprehensive literary and cultural study of the Robin Hood legend. It explores how Robin Hood has evolved through ballads, literature, plays, films, and...