Booklog 16/2022: Meagan Spooner: Sherwood

[jacey]

I'm a sucker for Robin Hood books, though this is a bit different. Robin of Locksley dies in the first chapter, leaving his betrothed, Marion of Edwinstowe, desolate. In unseemly haste, Guy of Gisborne is given Locksley Manor and immediately comes courting. Propelled by various injustices to her people and the people of Locksley, Marion eventually comes out of her depression and gradually takes on the persona of Robin Hood, becoming more and more embroiled in her double-life. Even (most of) her 'merry' men don't know her true identity and think that the spirit of Robin is with them. It eventually reaches a conclusion I did not expect, which was good, but strange. I was eager to like this and found I didn't like it as much as I expected to. Though there are many good things about Sherwood, I found one or two things that rankled. Marion is, and has always, been better than Robin. She's a better archer, a better fighter, better with a sword. She's the one who taught him to climb trees (and castle walls). Yes, she makes occasional mistakes, mostly of judgement, but in general she slips into a leadership role because she's tall for a woman, and no one guesses her gender.

There were a couple of mild historical bloopers early on which I glossed over, but when Marion attends a banquet at Nottingham Castle at which potatoes are served I was thrown right out of the story. After that I found myself watching for more anachronisms such as arrows being 'fired' instead of loosed, and 'fall' being the season that follows summer. As far as I can tell fall didn't come into use in English until the 1500s. Autumn comes from the French autompne, from the Latin autumnus, but can't be proven to be in use before the 1300s. An earlier word might have been harvest. It comes from the Old English word hærfest, of Germanic origin. <sigh> You can tell I went down the google rabbit hole following up on this. I probably wouldn't have bothered if I hadn't been so disappointed in the potatoes.

 

 

 

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Comments

[cmcmck]

Well you can imagine how much a historian cringes at some historical novels!

[watervole]

Oh dear...

I too would have been thrown out by the spuds. And once disbelief ceases to be suspended, it's hard to push it all the way down again.

[jacey]

Agreed, and it's such a pity because there'sa lot to like about this book.