RA FRIDAY - MISSING LUCAS. BUT GISBORNE, TOO. GUEST POST BY LEAH LARSON

This week's RA Friday has got a very special guest: Leah Larson, Associate Professor of English and graduate program director at  Our Lady of the Lake, a small Catholic liberal arts university. She has published an article on Maria Edgworth's novel Belinda and has written numerous articles for encyclopedias and other reference works. She has  presented papers on Robin Hood at six conferences.


Richard Armitage has been the inspiration for books, artwork, and fan videos. I’m not creative, but I can say that Richard Armitage has made me a better scholar. As a university professor, I have to publish articles and present papers at conferences. Because of my heavy teaching and administrative load, I often have problems finding inspiration for my scholarly work. Two and a half years ago, while staring at a photo of Sir Guy in all his leather loveliness, I was inspired to turn my obsession into something scholarly. I presented a paper on the BBC Robin Hood at the Texas Medieval Association conference and was complimented by a major medieval scholar who encouraged me to push on with this topic. At a larger conference, my paper on fan responses to Sir Guy caught the attention of a top Robin Hood scholar, who asked me to present at the International Conference of Robin Hood Scholars. So there I was, standing in front of a full house, which included every major Robin Hood scholar—even Stephen Knight, the foremost authority on the Robin Hood legend—talking about Sir Guy fan fiction and fan videos.

 
The first person to ask me a question after my paper was Frances Tempest, the costume designer for Robin Hood series one and two—the woman who designed the buttery leathers that have starred (along with the gorgeous wearer of these leathers) in hundreds of fan videos. All I wanted to ask was if she had fitted the costume. But I knew she had and knew if I was going to retain any scholarly integrity I couldn’t ask that question! Frances is a lovely woman, and I have enjoyed visiting her when I am in the UK. I try to suppress my fangirl side, but did ask her if she knew what she had started by dressing Richard in such tight leather. She just laughed.

In researching the Robin Hood legend, I developed an appreciation for the series. I know a lot of people have put it down, but on close examination it stands up as being as good as any other Robin Hood. In Jane Austen adaptations, directors cannot stray too far from the novel. But with Robin Hood there is no novel, no one “canonical text.” The Robin Hood legend has always been played with and changed. Robin didn’t become a member of the nobility until the Elizabethan age. And the legend wasn’t always set during the time of Richard I. Like the Arthurian legend, each retelling of the Robin Hood legend reflects the ideas of the society that is retelling it. With this in mind, I spent (many pleasurable) hours viewing the BBC Robin Hood, writing down much of the dialog, noting interesting costumes and connections to earlier versions of the story. Of course, the parts of the series where Guy played a major role required much more in-depth examination!

I found only one article that focused solely on the character of Guy as seen in the ballad. Stuart Kane, the author of the article, stated that the Guy of the ballad was erotically charged and this eroticism created a discomfort in Robin Hood which led to his extreme violence. Kane’s description reminded me of the episode “Tattoo? What Tattoo?” where Robin displays his most violent self. I believe that there is something inherently erotic in this character as portrayed in the original ballad, but that no one until Richard was able to fully express this eroticism. And—in another thrilling RH scholar moment—Stephen Knight told me that he thought I was onto something in my analysis of Guy’s character. But the BBC Robin Hood and Richard took this character even farther, expanding Sir Guy beyond the brute of most versions or even the erotic brute of the ballad.

In the original ballad, Sir Guy is dressed in horse skin—tail to head. In the series, Guy is the only character who always wears leather—at least in the first two series. Since the beginning of my research, I’ve wondered about the connection between the leather and the horse skin. I’ve talked to other scholars who have said “They must have read the ballad and made a connection.” But Frances Tempest insists that she didn’t know about the original Sir Guy and the horse skin when she designed the costume.
So why give Guy, and only Guy, all leather all the time?

As a medievalist, I love Guy. I love the community that my interest in Guy has enabled me to join. My favorite RA characters are medieval—Uthred and Guy. I wish Richard would play Richard III or my favorite medieval hero, William Marshal. But I do have Thorin to look forward to. I’m not a big Tolkien fan (at least not of his fiction, but I bow down to his scholarly work). But Tolkien was a major C20 medieval scholar. So who knows what scholarly avenues Richard will take me down in his portrayal of this heroic dwarf!