Robin robbed

The impact of cuts concerns us all, but few have yet changed nationality for that reason. Such, however, was the fate of Robin Hood (THES, April 12). By removing a reference to his opponent Gilbert, the Norman archer whose arrows Robin splits in Ivanhoe, your editors aligned the allegedly Saxon hero with his equally alleged enemies. In the article I argued for the hero's mythic volatility, but not to this perfidious extent.

STEPHEN KNIGHT Cardiff University