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What is a hero? This not an easy question to answer. When we look closely at the life stories of many popular heroes, we find that they are not always very good or very likeable people. They have become heroes because of their actions, not because of their characters. People may be famous while they are alive, but after they are dead, stories are told and songs are written which make them into heroes.

The British hero who still remains larger than life is, of course, Robin Hood. Historians tell us that little — if any — of his story is true, but people love the idea of an outlaw¹ who stole from the rich to give to the poor and they continue to believe it. In 1991, the Robin Hood Festival attracted 100,000 tourists to Sherwood Forest. They wanted to see Robin's favourite hiding-place, the «Major Oak» — a tree which was planted a couple of hundred years after the hero's death. They crowded into St. Mary's Church, where Robin married Maid Marian — a marriage between a fourteenth-century hero and a woman who was added to the story two hundred years later (in a church which was completely rebuilt four hundred years later). They queued to get into The Tales of Robin Hood, an exhibition about the life of the outlaw who, according to the Dictionary of National Biography, never existed.

Villains², like heroes, are the subjects of stories and songs which often have little to do with historical facts. Just as heroes are always stronger, braver and more heroic than they are in real life, villains are always more wicked, more cruel and more villainous. For example, there are stories about Blackbeard the Pirate which tell us that he acted with great cruelty to his own men when he was drunk and could cut a man in two with one blow of his sword. In fact, Blackbeard probably encouraged these stories to make himself more frightening to the captains and crews of the ships he attacked. There are just as many stories which say that he avoided battles and showed some kindness to his enemies, but we like our villains to be black-hearted and that is the way we remember him.

Test № 21

I. Определите, верны (True) или неверны (False) сле­дующие утверждения.

1. Historians often make into heroes people who were famous while they were alive.

2. According to historians, Robin Hood married Maid Marian in St. Mary's Church.

3. Blackbeard was much more cruel in reality than in the stories about him

4. People like villains and heroes to be black and white.