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Prepare presentations on a) King Arthur and Knights of the Round Table and b) Robin Hood and his Merry Men using additional sources.






King Arthur was a king who ruled England. He brought peace to the land because no enemy could defeat him and many backed away from his deadly sword. Arthur owned a special sword that was given to him and that could kill anyone. The scabbard, or the sword’s case, could instantly heal any disease. This sword was called Excalibur. When King Arthur was ruling England, he grew restless and the legend goes that he soon conquered France. He then formed Camelot and the Round Table. Camelot was Arthur’s royal castle and the place where the Round Table was located.

King Arthur and the knights were semi-fictional characters that protected England for over a century. The debate over whether they really existed is still a hot topic with historians. Most agree that he did rule England around 500 A.D. Since he lived before the middle ages, he was not the medieval knight that many think he was. Most believe that he did rule England for a short while but not in the style of greatness that the stories make him out to be. Some historians believe that he did live in Camelot with his Round Table. No matter what the real facts are, it is true that King Arthur probably did exist.

Many people wonder if the Round Table was a round table, a group of men, or just a figure of speech. It was actually a real table created to seat over 150 knights in King Arthur’s castle, Camelot. It was made of very valuable wood and by its size would have been worth A LOT of money. It was created by Merlin as a wedding present when Arthur married Guinevere. There are rumors that said that Merlin enchanted the table to make it invincible when Arthur was alive. This is of course only a rumor. The round table was a majestic and powerful table.

Robin Hood is a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for " robbing from the rich and giving to the poor, " [1] assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his " Merry Men." [2] Traditionally Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes.[3] The origin of the legend is claimed by some to have stemmed from actual outlaws, or from ballads or tales of outlaws.[4]

Robin Hood became a popular folk figure starting in medieval times continuing through modern literature, films, and television. In the earliest sources Robin Hood is a commoner, but he was often later portrayed as an aristocrat wrongfully dispossessed of his lands and made into an outlaw by an unscrupulous sheriff.

In popular culture Robin Hood and his band of merry men are usually portrayed as living in Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamshire, where much of the action in the early ballads takes place.[5] So does the very first recorded Robin Hood rhyme, four lines from the early 15th century, beginning: " Robyn hode in scherewode stod." [6] However, the overall picture from the surviving early ballads and other early references[6] suggest that Robin Hood may have been based in the Barnsdale area of what is now South Yorkshire (which borders Nottinghamshire).

Other traditions point to a variety of locations as Robin's " true" home both inside Yorkshire and elsewhere, with the abundance of places named for Robin causing further confusion.[7][8] A tradition dating back at least to the end of the 16th century gives his birthplace as Loxley, Sheffield in South Yorkshire, while the site of Robin Hood's Well in Yorkshire has been associated with Robin Hood since at least 1422.[9] His grave has been claimed to be at Kirklees Priory near Mirfield in West Yorkshire, as implied by the 18th-century version of Robin Hood's Death, and there is a headstone there of dubious authenticity.[10]

The first clear reference to " rhymes of Robin Hood" is from the late 14th-century poem Piers Plowman, but the earliest surviving copies of the narrative ballads which tell his story have been dated to the 15th century or the first decade of the 16th century. In these early accounts Robin Hood's partisanship of the lower classes, his Marianism and associated special regard for women, his outstanding skill as an archer, his anti-clericalism, and his particular animosity towards the Sheriff of Nottingham are already clear.[11] Little John, Much the Miller's Son and Will Scarlet (as Will " Scarlok" or " Scathelocke") all appear, although not yet Maid Marian or Friar Tuck. It is not certain what should be made of these latter two absences as it is known that Friar Tuck, for one, has been part of the legend since at least the later 15th century.[12]

In popular culture Robin Hood is typically seen as a contemporary and supporter of the late 12th-century king Richard the Lionheart, Robin being driven to outlawry during the misrule of Richard's evil brother John while Richard was away at the Third Crusade. This view first gained currency in the 16th century, but it has very little scholarly support.[13] It is certainly not supported by the earliest ballads. The early compilation A Gest of Robyn Hode names the king as " Edward, " and while it does show Robin Hood as accepting the King's pardon he later repudiates it and returns to the greenwood.


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