Thomas Ohlgren and the late Lister Matheson succeed in making the familiar seem somehow fresh and new in this book, a compilation of extant fragments, manuscripts, and early printed versions of the Robin Hood rhymes.
The introduction to the volume provides a very brief overview of the strengths and weaknesses of other recent editions of the Robin Hood ballads.
Although the volume is intended for scholars, and the first-time reader of Robin Hood might well prefer an edition that strives for consistency, this new edition of the rhymes will be an absolute pleasure for anyone interested in how the outlaw and the greenwood captured the imaginations of both printers and early readers.
The above three paragraphs are from a review of the book, by Madonna J. Hettinger, published in the Medieval Review.
This edition of twelve Robin Hood texts, from fifteenth and sixteenth-century manuscripts and prints, many of them fragments, creates a unique resource, said Helen Phillips writing in the journal Speculum.
