accuracy is over-rated

[bedlamsbard]

Still toying with the idea of genderswapped cross-dressing lady knight and crusader Robin Hood. I kind of want to swap Marian too and make her into Martin...the Sheriff of Nottingham. Theirs is a forbidden, star-crossed love!

Or she can just stay Marian and be Robin's childhood friend and then there can be lady friendships and ladies loving ladies. Or I could split the difference and have Marian and Martin as twins or something. And then there can be THREESOMES.

...look, I'm pretty sure I gave up any pretensions towards historical accuracy when I made Robin Hood into an ass-kicking lady crusader. Perhaps I shall just write the intro scenes for both of them and decide later. (I mean, if I actually decide to write this. I don't have any plot aside from "Robin Hood is a laaaaaaaady. AND AWESOME. Too awesome to have manpain.")

Marian

There was no one in the courtyard except a young man tending to a tall horse. Marian admired the horse for a moment -- it was a mare, better than any she'd seen before -- then said, "Boy, tell your mistress that Lady Marian [] is here to see her."

"Tell me yourself," the man said, turning around.

Marian blinked at her. "I -- Robin?"

Robin of Locksley came over to her, her mare following her like a dog. "Hello, Marian."

"You're tall," Marian blurted out. "And you're wearing men's clothing!"

Robin put her arms out to lift her down. "None of my gowns fit any more," she said, not sounding much bothered by it. "My mother and the sempstress are making frantic alterations so I can stop making a disgrace of myself."

Marian tilted her chin up to look at her. Robin was a head taller than she was, as tall as any man and probably taller than most, with broad shoulders and well-muscled arms. Her red hair was just barely long enough to touch her shoulders. She grinned easily at Marian, showing a crooked tooth.

"Do you think you're a disgrace?" Marian blurted out. One of her guardsmen took the reins of her horse, looking at Robin with undisguised curiosity.

Robin shrugged. "I went on crusade to the Holy Land. I spilled blood -- mine, Christian, Moorish -- for God. There's a papal indulgence that says I'm cleansed of all my sins for that. None of that is disgraceful."

"Did you really take a Saracen lover?"

Robin's only response was a gusty sigh.

"Come inside," she said eventually. "I'm sure my mother will be all a-flutter over having company."

Martin

When Martin rode through the gates, it was to find the courtyard empty except for a young man tending to a tall horse. Martin admired the horse, wondering if he coax Lord Robert into selling him one of the mare's colts, then said, "Boy, go and tell your mistress that Sir Martin [] is here to see her."

"Tell me yourself," the man said, turning around. The mare followed him like a dog as he came over to grin up at Martin. "Hello, Martin. I hear you've been appointed as sheriff of Nottingham. My congratulations."

Martin gaped down at her. "Robin?"

"The one and only." She crossed her arms over her chest, still grinning. She'd been tall the last time Martin had seen her, but now she would have been tall even for a man, with broad shoulders and a swordsman's well-muscled arms. She'd shorn her red hair back to her shoulders. Martin had known her since they were both children, and even he could barely tell that she was a woman.

He dismounted, still staring at her. They were of a height now. "I -- I didn't recognize you," he said, and cast around for an excuse. "You're wearing men's clothes."

Robin of Locksley shrugged. "I like men's clothes. If you'd ever tried wearing a gown, you'd understand why." She raised a hand to stroke her horse's neck as the mare thrust its head over her shoulder. "Do you want to come inside? Or go for a ride?"

"You don't have a chaperone," Martin said after a moment.

She raised an eyebrow. "I ran off with a yeoman archer, I spent years in the Holy Land as an archer and then a knight, I was a prisoner of the Moors -- I really don't think I have much of a reputation left to be worried about. Let's go for a ride."

"We'll go for a ride," Martin agreed, and saw Robin grin comfortably.

Hmm. I think I prefer Martin, but on the other hand, laaaaaadies.

Comments

[highlyeccentric]

In a book called 'gendering the crusades' there's an article about cross-dressing lady crusaders. It's completely, utterly bollocks with terrible source analysis, but it might provide you with funsies! There's also an article about literary cross-dressing in this book.

[bedlamsbard]

Heh, I shall see if my uni library has it!

Ah, literary cross-dressing. *pets Britomart*

[darklyndsea]

*completely unhelpful* Do them both!

[bedlamsbard]

Heh, do the version where Marian and Martin are twins, you mean? That is a variation that I didn't write out...

[darklyndsea]

Or both separate stories. Write all three? *even less helpful than before*

[darklyndsea]

No, wait, I've changed my mind! Do the version where Marian crossdresses as Martin, the sheriff of Nottingham!

[bedlamsbard]

*has sudden strange mental image of crossing Robin Hood with Twelfth Night*

[sara]

There's a longstanding tradition of hideously historically inaccurate versions of Robin Hood; you're not failing to do research, you're participating in an ongoing literary tradition.

[bedlamsbard]

LOL. I can't quite tell if that's a compliment or an insult...

[sara]

I think people often have that problem with me.

It wasn't an insult. It was more an encouragement not to take the problem too seriously, because I think in this particular narrative there is a lot of latitude. (I mean, I still really like the version where Robin and Marian are foxes, and everyone knows how I feel about furries.)

[bedlamsbard]

I mean, I was pretty sure it wasn't, ack.

This is true -- cursor_mundi mentioned that over on the other post.

Oh, hey, I'd forgotten about the Disney one. The thing is that the Robin Hood narrative isn't one of my favorites, so I'm not terribly familiar with all the incarnations.

[sara]

Heh, I grew up with the soundtrack to that. I can still do all the songs.

You really do want to read the Robin McKinley one.

[dogstar]

YEs, you do! OMG, everyone should read that one!

[bedlamsbard]

See, I own that one, but I haven't actually read! It is one of the few Robin McKinley books that I haven't read.

[sara]

Well, go read it. It is at least as fun as medieval Spain.

And I don't say that lightly; when I was your age, I was seriously obsessed with medieval Spain.

[bedlamsbard]

Medieval Spain is pretty darn awesome.

Alas, my copy is at home. I can't remember if the library here has a copy that's not in Rare Books.

[cofax7]

It's really good, so long as you ignore the wandering POV. Or treat it as omniscient (though I don't think it really is...)

[aella_irene]

Hurrah! I prefer Martin. (Also, I think you should avoid the incest threesomes. But I am like that.)

[bedlamsbard]

I lean towards Martin myself, but I like the idea of having both of them, so I might do that. (But probably not threesomes.)