Sherwood

Welcome, Gentles all,
to the beginning of our tale on a subject
that you probably think that you know quite well.
All we can humbly say is that --- you are wrong.

We hope to please you with our tale of Bold Robin.
To entertain you, to thrill you, and to bring you joy.
But most of all we desire to simply tell you the truth.

Not sugar coated or fancily fabricated.
Not blunt edged nor prettily played on a lute.
But bare, brutal and often bloody;
As were the times and the people that lived in them.

In that way, Robin's tale is much like your own,
and wants Love's tinted glass to shine warmly on things
that should have been --- but never really were.

So if it's fancy songs and fairness that you crave,
look not for them in these pages.
Honour and Love, Beauty and Goodness there is,
but they are dispersed with a hesitant hand;
and are shot through with Fate's cruel twists.
While fire and sword, war and famine
are found here in abundance.
Sadly, much as they are in our own world.

So come along, Gentles all,
and list to our true tale of Bold Robin!
For I was there with him from the start,
And stood with him at the end,
And pray to a god that oft times seems deaf,
that I'll be with him once again!

Told by W. Scarlet / Copied by F. Tuck
1225 A.D. --- Sherwood

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