Path of the She Wolf (17 page)

As with my previous books
The Forestwife
and
Child of the May
, this story contains a mixture of ideas from the earliest Robin Hood stories, life at the time of King John, and my own interest in women’s history.

The charter that King John agreed and then revoked in 1215 later became known as Magna Carta. It was not until 1225, that King John’s eighteen-year-old son, Henry the Third, granted the Forest Charter. This charter contained the much longed for words ‘No man from henceforth shall loose neither Life nor Member for Killing our Deer.’

In the year 1216, where my story ends, King John struggled on for a few months, travelling around the country with his mercenaries, desperately trying to hang on to power. He lost many of his possessions, money and jewels in an accident in the Wash, then died at Newark in October of that year. As soon as he was dead, his household servants robbed him of his personal goods.

Disguise is one of the most powerful and repetitive
elements of the early Robin Hood legends. The story of an old woman changing clothes with Robin Hood in order to save him from capture is taken from this tradition. The rescue of the widow’s sons from a hanging at the crossroads is another old story which involves disguise, although in the original version it was of course Robin Hood that did the rescuing.

In many of the stories Robin Hood seems to have a rather unusual relationship with the Bishop of Hereford. Robin invites him to dine and teases him, makes him dance and takes money from him, but always lets him go on his way. While studying the period of King John’s reign, I became interested in the many troubles of the de Braose family, whose members were persistently persecuted by King John. I was fascinated to find that Giles de Braose, brother to William, was indeed the Bishop of Hereford, and was also one of King John’s most bitter opponents throughout the baron’s rebellion. I could not resist bringing him into the story.

My version of the Sheriff of Nottingham is drawn from the legends and not based upon the real Sheriff of Nottingham, at the time of Magna Carta.

Close to where I live is the Derbyshire village of Hathersage. A large gravestone in the churchyard is marked as the grave of Little John, friend and lieutenant to Robin Hood. The local tradition is that Little John was born in Hathersage and returned there as an old man, after Robin Hood’s death, at the hands of a nun, the Prioress of Kirklees Abbey.

Theresa Tomlinson was born in Sussex. The daughter of a vicar, she spent her early childhood in various places in the north of England. As a child she had no interest in writing, but she loved reading. Her main interest was drawing and painting. She attended Hull College of Art, and later trained as a teacher at Hull College of Education. She taught as an infant teacher for five years

Theresa and her husband live in Whitby, North Yorkshire, where Theresa spent her childhood. Over the years she has acquired an outstanding reputation for her historical novels, particularly those, like
Wolf Girl
, set on the north-east coast of England. Shortlisted twice for the Carnegie Medal and for the Sheffield Children’s Book Award, Theresa takes a keen interest in the area where she lives.

Recent visits to Turkey have fuelled her enthusiasm for the ancient mythology of that part of the world. Her scrupulous research has resulted in two epic stories,
The Moon Riders
and
Voyage of the Snake Lady
.