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The Human Touch Blog ~
David Farrant

Halloween Treat – The Ghost Of Robin Hood

Well, Halloween today; that supposedly spooky night when the spirits of the dead are supposed to be able walk the earthly plane. Sorry, I’m telling you all the obvious.

I could go into the traditions and true origins of Halloween instead. But I won’t, as that might just border on the boring! So, I’ll just get on and write like its just another day – which it is in reality.

Matt mentioned the Halloween interview yesterday. When I see the finished text of that, I’ll post it up here for the benefit of people might not have seen it out of London. I’ll get Gareth to type it out for me (my typing is dreadfully slow), so probably for early next week. I’ll also ask C if its possible to get the picture up here as well. I really don’t know about that. And even if it is possible, I don’t want to ‘overload’ the poor guy! He’s done so much already lately. We’ll see anyway.

Had a few emails as a result of the Metro, actually and also others to ask me about this ridiculous Robin Hood ‘vampire thing’ which I might have inadvertently started in my ‘temporary gossip’ column but which wasn’t mentioned in the paper. (That really wasn’t planned actually, so I might give you all some more gossip soon!).

Well everyone, I really don’t want to get onto Robin Hood here for the simple reason certain people have now linked it up with the ridiculous Highgate ‘vampire’ story. I’ve already said that I didn’t really want to discuss that here (although I will still post up the Metro interview for ‘collectors’), and the Robin Hood invention is really the same.I will say this much about the Robin Hood thing, though, which I hope might suffice:

As a usual ghost story, this one has an added ingredient of a neglected, almost forgotten grave situated in dense woodland on the Kirklees estate in West Yorkshire. The grave is said to conceal the mortal remains of Robin Hood, due to a old plaque on the side of it stating that this is the case. There is absolutely no more evidence than this, and even this is considerably weakened by the fact that the whole thing itself is only a Victorian folly.

Whatever, the grave itself is situated on private land with the owner naturally anxious to deter unauthorised sightseers from her land and causing vandalism or damage. This would seem only reasonable and fair, but this fact alone has been sufficient to capture the wild imaginations of some people over the years who have tried to exploit the situation by inventing stories about some ‘secret conspiracy’ to keep people away and by publishing home-produced pamphlets using such a fallacy to boost their very limited circulation.

Add to this, that these same people have actually introduced stories of ‘vampires’ and black magic into the fictional scenario, and you have a typical example of a ghost story being born out of imaginations of some ‘brainless bigots’!

As one person in the know commented to me recently . . . “The only old fossils up there [at the alleged grave] are very living one’s”! (Well, the guy should know; he’s made a film about the whole story!). I guess that really just about sums it up! There exists absolutely no substantial proof that this is really the grave of the legendary Robin Hood. All we are really left with is a Victorian folly and the lamentable declarations of neurotic writers whose sole intention seems to be creating a legend out of nothing about the alleged grave of the legendary Robin Hood.

Well, as its Halloween, I thought this would be an appropriate time to mention the ghost of Robin Hood.

For the moment,
David

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3 responses

  1. David,
    just found your blog,i’m enjoying your daily writings,also read your metro interview(i read anything if its free!). enjoyed that too! enjoying things a bit too much lately,am waiting for something bad to happen,i cant take so much enjoyment,its not natural!! keep writing,take care.

  2. Hi David,
    I loved the ‘Metro’ article, and so did my son. We both thought it captured the ‘essence’ of you and your work.
    Highgate and Robin Hood – you are so right, especially about Highgate’s ghost having been ‘souped up’ into something it isn’t, just to satisfy someone else’s publicity lust.
    Columbine.

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