Thug...Brigand...Hood?

I find there are few things as enjoyable as a fresh look at an old tale. Stephen R. Lawhead's Hood is an exercise in following the Robin Hood legend to its historical roots and then some.

(Didn't know Robin Hood has a historical basis? According to the historical notes in the back of the book, folks were singing songs of him - as a highwayman and antihero - as early as the mid-11th century. Wild! Britain may be small, but they keep first-source records like no one else.)

Hood makes a perfectly reasonable case for making Robin - or, in this case, Rhi Bran, meaning "King Bran" or "King Raven" - a Welshman, and bumping him back to the 11th century. As the story opens, William the Conqueror has died, and the war for succession between sons Robert and William has ended with William the Red emerging as victor and eager to continue annexing Britain (of which he has most) and Wales, a rough, unexplored country. The most significance consequence of this invasion was that Normans began aggressively scrapping the centuries-old Saxon organizations of ownership, lords and serfs, and fealty in favour of their own, more brutal system, throwing England and Wales on their heads and creating a situation wherein the people could only be kept in line by terror and force. Later in the book, we witness the enactment of the Forest Law that effectively makes all lands the king's and considers all peasants who hunt in the forest to be poachers and traitors. In the midst of this, teenaged Bran is the lazy, selfish, passionate, skirt-chasing son of a Welsh king (who were really a sort of souped-up mayor, presiding only over a town or canton) who is off trying to seduce fellow child of nobility Merian when his father rides to Lundein to pledge fealty to William in exchange for being able to keep his land. When Bran realizes what day it is, he rides out to catch up with the war party and discovers that they've been ambushed and massacred by the Ffreinc (French, or Norman) Count de Braose, who, unbeknownst to the king and people, has been given the land by William, and has no plans to own it merely as a liege lord. Bran finds himself, as heir to the throne of Elfael, on the run for his life with the sole survivor of the massacre, his father's champion, Iwan, as his companion. His people have fled too, fearing their new and brutal Freinc lord, and disappeared into the forest. After Bran's visit to Lundein to bring the crime of a murdered king before William ends in extortion and failure, and his return to Elfael to confront Count de Braose ends with him again fleeing for his life, his subsequent deus ex salvation results in the return to his people...and the beginning of his fight for justice and the return of his land that will eventually grow into a full-fledge guerilla war against the occupying Normans.

These are, of course, the barest bones of Lawhead's tale. A Brit, it stands to reason that his skill at historical fiction is significant, to understate. But what really makes Hood stand out from the pack - and at the top of the "historical basis for legend" genre - is the characterization. Bran's immaturity and underdeveloped sense of justice, combined with his intense passion and lack of restraint, make who he grows into and what he does next make sense, in terms of both this story and the Robin Hood legend. Fat Brother Aethelfrith, dubbed Friar Tuck by welshman Iwan who can't pronounce the English name, gets a fascinating though brief backstory and is delivered from comic relief to something much better (though still with a sense of humour), becomes a behind-the-scenes cornerstone. Merian, the daughter of another Welsh king, behaves not like some sort of plucky proto-feminist, but like the daughter of a minor noble that she is whose only goal and role has been to learn courtesies and seek to marry up - when Bran comes to her for help and a horse to escape de Braose's soldiers hot on his tail, she waffles about how mad her father would be and winds up doing nothing but stealing a weapon from her brother to give him.

The Norman villains of the story are equally developed and interesting. The afore-mentioned Falkes de Braose spends half of the book as a pathetic object of pity before becoming all-out evil. And in an interesting twist, it is not the young and evil count but his father, the less systematically evil and not especially pathetic Baron, who turns his eye on Merian. The count's abbot, Hugo, is the very picture of the blasphemously cruel, unrighteous, and hypocritical churchman, and Lawhead, a Christian, does not turn his head from or make any excuses for this very unfortunately real character (though he is contrasted by Tuck and the former Bishop of Elfael, amongst others). Sir Guy of Guysburne and Sherrif Richard de Glanville are late players to the story who garner larger roles in the next book of the trilogy. Most importantly, though most of these villains are fools, none of them are stupid. They are all aware of their situations and surroundings, and worthy adversaries for our heroes. This, I find, is the key part of just about any hero vs. villain story.

Overall, Hood is an excellent and satisfying read that puts other "legend as history" tales to shame - though I've never read Lawhead's take on Arthur Pendragon, which I hear is also excellent. On a side note, for I didn't know how to place this comment but feel its an important one, Hood also bears witness to Lawhead's respect for his audience. For example, early in the book a food bag is referred to as a tuck bag, and not all readers would know that tuck is a sort of slang for food - and, when Iwan dubs the rotund Aethelfrithe "Friar Tuck" out of his frustration at not being able to pronounce the name, there is absolutely no reminder or nudge-nudge-wink-wink - and Lawhead still refers to him as Aethelfrithe in the narration. Lawhead doesn't expect all of his audience to know everything, but he does expect them to remember what they've read but a few hours ago - as I said, he respects us.

Book 2, Scarlet, will be reviewed shortly as I just finished it ten minutes ago; book 3, Tuck, is slated for release in early 2009. I eagerly await.