Redwall Vs. Robin Hood:
A Semi-serious review.

Panelist: A-tha-lia NHC

Recently (meaning a month ago), my Language Arts teacher gave us an
"independent reading assignment". I thought, "Oh, I can find something
good to read--like Redwall!" But nooo, she said that we had to
read a "classical" book. Not Redwall. I could've done wonderful writing
assignments with a Redwall book, but I had to pick "The Adventures of
Robin Hood".

I expected it to be exciting like in the movies (especially the one with
Robin Hood and Maid Marian as foxes!). I was sadly mistaken.

-The Language
The language was some-century Old English. I find mole and North-land
speech easier to understand. Take the excerpt from Chapter 10 of Robin Hood:
"...Just I myself, since this is really rather a fool's errand, and it is
not right that I should risk any lives but my own." Ok, I've read this for
the 15th time now, and I'm just now beginning to understand what he said.
I think he said that just himself should go somewhere and the moon is made
of cheese. *nodnod* Modern English is better on my poor mind... *nodnod*

-The Plot
I couldn't find any clear plot in the story. The good king goes away, tries
to come back, and is thrown in an Austrian jail. His bad brother declares
Robert Fitzooth the Earl of Huntingdon and Esquire of Locksley (or, simply,
Robin Hood) to be an outlaw. Then there's a bunch of short stories of how
Robin Hood meets up with a bunch of different people, and the good king
returns and says Robin isn't an outlaw anymore. End of story, yes? No.

The good king goes away again, gets killed, and only his bad brother and his
cronies know about it. The bad brother proclaims himself king, gets
revenge on Robin Hood (for... something...) who escapes and runs off some
where. During his escape, Robin Hood got hurt and at the end of the story
he dies.

Oh yes, and back in one of the short stories, where Robin meets certain
people, it says something about how some people get captured and escape
by changing clothes with someone or something like that. I forgot how and if that fit into the story of Robin Hood.

In short: the bouncing around in the Redwall books is not as bad as this!

-Comparisons
Well, the whole book wasn't bad. Here's a few ways the book and Redwall
series compare:

--Time and Setting: both are set in Mideval-ish times, somewhere in a
place similar to England. (I don't know what Redwall and Mossflower are
supposed to be like, so I think of it as England.)

--Weaponry: Archery and swords. Whoopie...!

--Uhh, that's it.

-Conclusion
Don't waste your time reading Robin Hood if you have a perfectly good
Redwall book to read. Stick with Redwall: it's better for the mind.