Noble robber. Robin Hood Stories

This book of the series" Eternal Heroes of World Literature "is devoted to Robin Gud, who occupies its special place in the pantheon of" eternal images. The name Robin Hood has long become a household name, it is equally widely used both in a positive sense (fighter for justice, the king of the outcasts) and in ironically-negative (a thunderstorm of wallets, a bandit from a high road) Robin Hood is most often compared by other literary characters of this series, who appeared from the pen of J. Byron, A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky, A. Duma, N. Kostomarov, Sh. Nodier, A. Pushkin, V. Schiller, F. Shiller ... Judging by the number of works about Robin Hood and his literary followers (gangsters, daredevils, "godfathers", "authorities" of all stripes), including stage, musical, picturesque, television and film versions, the theme of the “noble robber” does not lose its own relevance.
And yet who is he, this Robin Hood? A romantic hero who robbed the rich to help the poor, or a robber, idealized by subsequent generations in order to justify his own affairs and actions?