Robin Hood

Question: When the caravan that is moving the grain is captured by Robin Hood, he ties the men together and they are forced to walk back to the town ("17 miles" or so). Shouldn't they have used the metric system to state the distance they have to travel to the town? I thought stating the distance to be traveled in miles was just for the sake of the joke for American viewers.

nanderson

Chosen answer: A "mile" is not American in origin. The British adapted it from the ancient Roman term, "mille passuum," meaning one thousand paces or strides. Each pace was the length of five Roman feet, resulting in a mile that was approximately 5,000 feet long. This measurement fluctuated up until the Tudor era, when Parliament established the current measuring standard, though the metric system, which was developed by the French in the late 1700s, has since replaced it in Europe and elsewhere. Britain still uses mile as a standard measure of distance on road signs and for speed limits, etc.

raywest

Question: An interesting wind-up lute-type musical instrument is played at one point. Would such an instrument have existed at that time?

Answer: By "Wind-up lute", I assume you mean the hurdy-gurdy. Certainly, instruments fitting the description of the hurdy-gurdy were around in the time when Robin Hood was set.

Madstunts

Factual error: On the cliff top before the battle on the beach, you are treated to a lovely if fleeting glimpse of wind farm turbines, not really fitting for the 12th Century.

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Trivia: William Hurt as William Marshal repeats a line that he first spoke in "The Big Chill" with exactly the same inflection. In "The Big Chill" he was referring to his departed friend Alex, and in "Robin Hood" he was referring to King Richard. The line is: "Look what happened to him."

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