Do we like them?

Do we like Robin Hood?

A character from The Robin Hood ballads (English folklore) (14th–15th century on)

Our score: 8 out of 10. Yes, we'd back him. He's a charming rebel who stands up to corrupt officials and shares what he takes. He does leave a trail of bruised sheriffs and lightened purses.

Robin Hood is the best-known outlaw in English folklore. He is the legendary outlaw hero of a series of English ballads, some of which date from at least as early as the 14th century. He is traditionally a master archer and swordsman who lives in Sherwood Forest with a loyal band of companions and dresses in Lincoln green.

Many of the tales show him and his companions robbing and killing representatives of authority and giving the gains to the poor. His main enemy in the ballads is the Sheriff of Nottingham, a local agent of the central government. Later retellings added Maid Marian and sometimes a crusader backstory. The core of the legend stays the same: a free man hunted by unjust power who keeps outwitting it.

We score him an 8 because his cause is good and he is clever, generous and loyal. He loses points because he is still a thief and a brawler, and the older tales are rougher about violence than the cheerful modern versions. He is the sort of rogue you'd happily follow into the forest, as long as you kept your purse well away from the Sheriff.