Robin Hood and his Merry Men, Sherwood Forest, Maid Marion, and the evil Sheriff of Nottingham are the stars of a whole load of tales about stealing from the rich to give to the poor. There have been movies, plays, books, video games, and comics all with Robin Hood at their center. The earliest written mention of Robin Hood is in a poem from the year 1377, where a priest says he found the tales of Robin Hood easier to remember than the Lord’s Prayer. It was not until the 1400s that the adventures of Robin started to be written down in the form of ballads, and they are very different from the stories that we know and love today.

Source: Royal Armouries