Brian McIntyre, age 13, of Shreveport, Louisiana, for his question:

DID ROBIN HOOD REALLY LIVE?

Scholars have long discussed the idea of whether there ever was a real Robin Hood. Early historians spoke of him as living in both the 1100s and the 1200s, and he is also mentioned as having lived in the late 1300s.

Scholars have finally agreed that Robin Hood was strictly a legendary English hero of the common people, much as Ring Arthur was a hero of the upper classes.

For many years ballads told how Robin Hood as an outlaw lived in Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamshire. His followers included Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, Little John and a jolly band of yeomen.

Robin Hood, the stories said, was first of all a gentleman. He divided the money that he had stolen as an outlaw with the needy.

Sir Walter Scott introduced Robin Hood in "Ivanhoe." Alfred, Lord Tennyson, made him the central figure in his drama, "The Foresters," and Howard Pyle wove the old tales into "Merry Adventures of Robin Hood."