Tuesday, March 10, 2009

THE GRAVE OF ROBIN HOOD?


This gravestone says:
Hear underneath dis laihl stean
las Robert earl of Huntingtun
neer arcir yer as hie sa gued
And pipl kauld in Robin Heud
sick utlawz as he an iz men
il england nivr si agen
Obiit 24 kal Decembris 1247


This IS English; back in those days, many people were illiterate or near to it, and, there still wasn't many English rules and spellings set in stone. Even hundreds of years later, til quite recently, people tended to spell with, flair, I guess you could say. (Ye Olde Shoppe, etc.)
In today's English, this says (for those who are having as much trouble as I did at first - at first glance I did think it was another language, even):
("laihl" means "grave", or similar enough; the meaning together is "gravestone)
Here underneath this laihl stone
Lays Robert, Earl of Huntington
(? never?) archer (?) as he so good
And people called him Robin Hood
Such outlaws as he and his men
will England never see again
(Obiit = Date of Death; kal = kalends, aka "month"; thus the last line reads:)
Death, 24th (day) of the month of December, 1247




Here to the left-hand side is the grave itself, protected by an iron bar fence.










Here is the guest house at Kirkslees - the only structure left from the estate that Robin Hood died and was buried on. (Kirklees is in Yorkshire, England)













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