The folkloric hero Robin Hood has appeared many times, in many different variations, in popular modern works.

Films and television series

Theatre Robin Hood has appeared in a number of plays throughout the medieval, early modern and modern periods. The first record of a Robin Hood play being performed is in Exeter in 1426–27.Stephen Knight & Thomas Ohlgren, 'Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham: Introduction' Robin Hood Project http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/robyn-hod-and-the-shryff-off-notyngham-introduction The earliest surviving text of a Robin Hood play is dated c.1475 and entitled Robyn Hod and the Shryff off Notyngham.Cambridge, Trinity College MS R.2.64 (fragment), c. 1475'Robyn Hod and the Shryff Notyngham' in Robin Hood Project http://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/robyn-hod-and-the-shryff-off-notyngham

The plays which perhaps have been most influential upon the Robin Hood legend as a whole are Anthony Munday's The Downfall of Robert, Earle of Huntington and The Death of Robert, Earle of Huntingdon (1597–98). It is in these plays that Robin is first depicted as a nobleman. Further plays followed during the early modern period such as the anonymous Looke About You (1600) and Robin Hood and his Crew of Soldiers (1661).

Radio

On 18 April 1992, BBC Radio 4 first broadcast John Fletcher's 90-minute radio play entitled The Legend of Robin Hood, which was a full cast drama that drew closely on the original Robin Hood ballads. It was directed by Nigel Bryant and featured music composed by Vic Gammon. As well as depicting some of Robin Hood's adventures in Sherwood Forest and Nottingham, it also covers a fruitless quest that Robin makes Little John to the Holy Land to help the crusaders.

On May 18, 2019, Augustine Institute released a full cast 12-part audio drama written and directed by Paul McCusker entitled The Legends of Robin Hood. Starring Gwilym Lee as Robin Hood (a.k.a. Robert of Locksley), Katie Foster-Barnes as Maid Marian (named Marian Fitzwalter in this version), with Robert Portal as Sir Guy of Gisbourne and Nicholas Boulton as Richard the Lionheart.

Books The first published prose account of Robin Hood's life appears to be the anonymously authored The Noble Birth and Gallant Atchievements of that Remarkable Out-Law, Robin Hood (1678). Material from this work was often plagiarised by criminal biographers in works such as: The Whole Life and Merry Exploits of Bold Robin Hood (1712), Alexander Smith's A Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen, Footpads, Shoplifts and Cheats (1719), Charles Johnson's Lives and Exploits of the Most Noted Highwaymen (1734). In addition, there were numerous books printed throughout the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries that went by the name of Robin Hood's Garland. These were cheaply printed collections of later Robin Hood ballads.

The first Robin Hood novel written, although not published, is Robert Southey's 'Harold, or, The Castle of Morford' (1791).Bodleian MS. Eng. Misc. e. 114 This exists in manuscript form in the Bodleian Library. The first published Robin Hood novel was the anonymous Robin Hood: A Tale of the Olden Time (1819), and a few months later Ivanhoe by Walter Scott, 1819. Ivanhoe was Scott's first novel where history and romance is combined. Robin Hood in this book is the saviour of the nation. The Upper classes need the working classes as much as the working classes rely on their 'betters'. Scott's tale is significant because it is the first time that Robin is presented as an Anglo-Saxon freedom fighter, a theme which many later Victorian Robin Hood novels would utilise. The next novel following Scott was Thomas Love Peacock's novella Maid Marian. The novel was originally intended as a satire on continental conservatism and its enthusiasm for all things feudal and medieval, and in particular the unwarranted praise of aristocracy. Thus through his novella Peacock attempted to show how man's feudal overlords have always been the same: greedy, violent, cynical, and self-interested. Robin also appears as the principal protagonist of two tales printed in an early penny blood entitled Lives of the Highwaymen in 1836. This serialised tale, however, is little more than a reprint of the earlier biography of Robin Hood that appeared in Charles Johnson's work. In Thomas Miller's Royston Gower; or, The Days of King John (1838), Robin is not the principal protagonist but is an outlaw who comes to the aid of the title character after he defects from the Normans and decides to fight against King John for the establishment of a 'charter of rights'. G. P. R. James' Forest Days (1843), while not intended as a political or social commentary, is significant because it abandons the traditional dating of the Robin Hood story in the 1190s and instead places the Robin Hood legend during the Simon de Montfort rebellion (1264–67). By far the longest Robin Hood novel, standing at almost half-a-million words, is Pierce Egan the Younger's Robin Hood and Little John; or, The Merrie Men of Sherwood Forest (serialised 1838–1840). As in Ivanhoe, Robin is a Saxon, although he is not actually outlawed in the novel until nearly the end of the first book. The novel traces Robin's life from birth to death. Egan's text was translated into two French books, Le prince des voleurs (The Prince of Thieves), and Robin Hood le proscrit (Robin Hood the Outlaw), by Alexandre Dumas, between 1863 and 1864. Dumas' works were then retranslated back into English by Alfred Allinson in 1904. A 'companion' novel to Egan's text was published by J. H. Stocqueler in 1849 entitled Maid Marian, the Forest Queen; Being a Companion to "Robin Hood". The first Robin Hood novel written specifically for children appears to be Stephen Percy's Tales of Robin Hood (1840). John B. Marsh's children's book Robin Hood appeared in 1865, as did a penny dreadful entitled Little John and Will Scarlet (1865). The next major novel written was entitled The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle in 1883. In T. H. White's novel The Sword in the Stone (1938, later incorporated into The Once and Future King), young Wart (Arthur) and Kay have an adventure with a man they initially call Robin Hood, but are told that his real name is Robin Wood. His merry men refer to him as "Robin 'ood," dropping Ws instead of Hs, in the Nottinghamshire accent of the time. White's theory is supported by the fact that the French call him Robin des Bois, or Robin of the Woods.

The Life and Adventures of Robin Hood by John B. Marsh (1835–1910), 1865. The Romantic History of Robin Hood, by Barry Pain, 1898. Robin Hood and His Merry Outlaws by J. Walker McSpadden (1874–1960), 1898. Young Robin Hood by George Manville Fenn, 1899, focuses on the young son, also named Robin, of the Sheriff of Nottingham learning from Robin Hood and Little John. Robin Hood: His Book by Eva March Tappan, 1903. Stories of Robin Hood Told to the Children H. E. Marshall, 1905. The Tale of Robin Hood and His Merry Men, Elinor Mead Buckingham, 1905. Robin Hood; His Deeds and Adventures as Recounted in the Old English Ballads by Lucy Fitch Perkins, 1906. The Story of Robin Hood and His Merry Men by John Finnemore (1863–1915), 1909. Bold Robin Hood and His Outlaw Band by Louis Rhead, 1912. Robin Hood by Henry Gilbert, 1912. The Story of Robin Hood by Bertha Evangeline Bush, 1912. Tales and Plays of Robin Hood by Eleanor Louise Skinner, 1915. Robin Hood by Paul Creswick (1866–1947), 1917. Robin Hood and His Merry Men by Sara Hawks Sterling, 1921. Robin Hood by George Cockburn Harvey, 1923. The Stories of Robin Hood by Nathaniel Moore Banta, 1923. Robin Hood and His Merry Men by E. C. Vivian, 1927. Robin Hood by Edith Heal, 1928. Robin Hood by Ula Waterhouse Echols, 1932. Bows Against the Barons by Geoffrey Trease, 1934, a leftist depiction of Robin Hood from the viewpoint of a young-adult protagonist. Robin Hood: The Prince of Outlaws by Carola Oman, 1937, is cited as "one of the most influential of the juvenile literary publications", and remained continuously in print for at least forty years.Norman, Diana (25 November 1976). "Guardian Women: the Young Edwardians". The Guardian. p. 11 The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White, 1939, gives his "correct" name as Robin Wood; he is one of the figures that Wart meets during his education. Son of Robin Hood by Paul A. Castleton, 1941, and Son of Robin Hood in Nottingham, 1942. Chronicles of Robin Hood by Rosemary Sutcliff, 1950. Robin Hood by Antonia Fraser, 1955. The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green, 1956. "The Silver Horn of Robin Hood" by Donald E. Cooke, 1956. Robin Hood: The Outlaw of Sherwood Forest by Orville Prescott, 1959. Tales of Brave Adventure by Enid Blyton, 1963. Robin in the Greenwood by Ian Serraillier, 1967, and Robin and His Merry Men, 1969 The Adventures of Robin Hood by Patricia Leitch, 1979. The Death of Robin Hood by Peter Vansittart, 1981. Robin Hood by Catherine Storr, 1984. The Outlaws of Sherwood by Robin McKinley, 1988, a retelling in which Robin Hood is, in fact, the worst archer in his band, but whose shrewdness leads them through their dangers. Lady of the Forest (1992) and Lady of Sherwood (1999), both by Jennifer Roberson Sherwood by Parke Godwin, 1992, and Robin and the King, 1993 The Forestwife trilogy by Theresa Tomlinson, 1993–2000. Robin Hood and His Merry Men by Jane Louise Curry, 1994, and Robin Hood in the Greenwood, 1995 The Story of Robin Hood by Robert Leeson, 1994 Robin's Country by Monica Furlong, 1994. Romance novelist Marsha Canham builds the Robin Hood legend through possible historical fact in her Robin Hood Trilogy set during the reign of King John of England: Through a Dark Mist (1991), In the Shadow of Midnight (1994), and The Last Arrow (1997). Robin Hood and Little John by Barbara Cohen, 1995. Robin Hood and His Miserable Men by Dick King-Smith, 1997. Robin Hood According to Spike Milligan by Spike Milligan, 1998, parodies the legend of Robin Hood. Robin Hood: The Boy Who Became a Legend by Kathryn Lasky, 1999. The Rowan Hood series by Nancy Springer, 2001–2005. Robin Hood and the Silver Arrow by Tony Bradman and Tony Ross, 2004. Robin Hood All at Sea by Jan Mark, 2005. Robin Hood's Best Shot by Ian Whybrow, 2006. The King Raven Trilogy (Hood (2006), Scarlet (2007), Tuck (2009)) by Stephen R. Lawhead, 2006, relocates the Robin Hood legends to Wales. In Lynn Viehl's Darkyn book series Robin Hood is one of the Darkyn (which are vampires). He gets his own romance story in the final novel Stay the Night (January 2009). Robin the Hoodie reimagines Robin Hood as a young troublemaker in modern-day Nottingham, complete with ASBO (2009). In Hodd, author Adam Thorpe explores the theory that the legendary Robin Hood is the mythologized creation of the narrator based on his time spent with the real outlaw.Harrison, John. "Copse and Robbers." The Guardian 2009-06-20 retrieved 2010-02-10 Angus Donald's Outlaw Chronicles, consisting of Outlaw (2009), Holy Warrior (2010), King's Man (2011), Warlord (2012), Grail Knight (2013) and The Iron Castle (2014) feature Robin Hood as Robert Odo. Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow by Robert D. San Souci, 2010. "The Thief, The Sheriff, His Bitch, and a Bastard" (2011) by H. E. Coleman Robin: Lady of Legend (2012) by R. M. ArceJaeger features a woman as Robin Hood. Scarlet (2012) by A. C. Gaughen The Books of the Wode (2013-2020) by J. Tullos Hennig are a reworking of Robin Hood stories and other legends (such as The Tale of Gamelyn). The series portrays Robin Hood and Maid Marian as siblings, with the primary romantic relationship between Robin and Guy of Gisborne.