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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Raven Crowking" data-source="post: 5499461" data-attributes="member: 18280">Actually, I'm glad you brought this up as an example.  I don't know how much mythology and folklore you go in for, so I don't know how much you actually know about the "Robin Hood of legend", or even which "Robin Hood of legend" you mean!  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing    :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" />Let's use this page as a bit of a reference:  <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Hood" target="_blank">Robin Hood - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a>Again, as with the Bruce Wayne or turnip farmer examples, we are examining whether or not Robin Hood could be considered a normal human at the start of his career.  The early ballads are also quite clear on Robin Hood's social status: he is a yeoman. While the precise meaning of this term changed over time, including free retainers of an aristocrat and small landholders, it always referred to commoners. The essence of it in the present context was "neither a knight nor a peasant or 'husbonde' but something in between."[16] We know that artisans (such as millers) were among those regarded as "yeomen" in the 14th century.[17] Nothing supernatural there.  Note that, as a yeoman, Robin is some form of commoner.  Possibly a farm owner.  Possibly a turnip farm owner.  <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/laugh.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing    :lol:" data-shortname=":lol:" />The character of Robin in these first texts is rougher edged than in his later incarnations. In "Robin Hood and the Monk", for example, he is shown as quick tempered and violent, assaulting Little John for defeating him in an archery contest; in the same ballad Much the Miller's Son casually kills a "little page" in the course of rescuing Robin Hood from prison.[6] No extant ballad actually shows Robin Hood "giving to the poor", although in a "A Gest of Robyn Hode" Robin does make a large loan to an unfortunate knight which he does not in the end require to be repaid;[68] and later in the same ballad Robin Hood states his intention of giving money to the next traveller to come down the road if he happens to be poor.Again, nothing supernatural there.  He is even defeated in an archery contest.In the 18th century, the stories become even more conservative, and develop a slightly more farcical vein. From this period there are a number of ballads in which Robin is severely "drubbed" by a succession of professionals including a tanner, a tinker and a ranger.[84] In fact, the only character who does not get the better of Hood is the luckless Sheriff. Yet even in these ballads Robin is more than a mere simpleton: on the contrary, he often acts with great shrewdness.<img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/ponder.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":hmm:" title="Hmmm    :hmm:" data-shortname=":hmm:" />  Clearly superhuman.But, ah, you might be thinking of that little incident of splitting an arrow in an archery contest.  Specifically because the good folks at Myth Busters couldn't reproduce it (although at least one filmed appearance of the trick, as described on the program, was attributed to the work of a very talented human archer).Well, sorry, but Myth Busters didn't prove it couldn't be done; they only proved that they couldn't do it.  And, while it is an interesting data point (and a fun program), it is not conclusive.But, even if it were, we are again making the mistake of looking at a character at the height of his powers, and imagining that this somehow indicates where he was when he started out.  As though Bruce Wayne was the frikkin Batman on the night his parents were murdered.  As though Peter Parker were somehow superhuman before the radioactive spider bite.As though the legendary Robin Hood might not have once been a turnip farmer.Which brings it back around to why this conversation can't go forward.And around and around we go.RC</blockquote>

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