Similar fables to King Arthur and Robin Hood in other cultures?
Similar fables to King Arthur and Robin Hood in other cultures?
Did someone mention ‘William Tell?’
Alibaba in some ways.
Nasreddin Hoca is the most popular Turkish folk hero
Analysis the Spider is a great trickster folklore character from the Akan in Ghana. I loved these stories as a kid and had a great book on tape.
Can't go wrong with this list:
The 12th Doctor met Robin Hood, who he insisted was fake even after meeting him. It was genuinely a very fun episode.
The TV series Merlin had the late great John Hurt and was also a super fun time.
The 13th doctor met the king during the witch hunts, which apparently was a decent impersonation of him. It was called The Witchhunter iirc
You could probably just look up any major medieval their for something VERY specific
There is the Nibelungen saga, a Germanic folk tale. It is too complex to give a short summary. Part of it is the heroic story of Siegfried, the dragon slayer.
It is western and well known in Germany, but judging by the lack of English sources, not very well known elsewhere. For more, I recommend reading the German Wikipedia entry (with translation)
Ned Kelly is getting very Robin Hood like here in Australia, although his actual story isn’t as heroic.
For an arthurian hero, perhaps Whitlam? Or Governor Macquarie, who arrived in Australia and removed the corruption in the system, and also changed our currency from alcohol to coinage (basically he took on the bastard cops and won). He also was able to answer the question of “you and whose army?” with “my army” and not be inaccurate. Naming half of Australia after himself was a bit rum though…
Totally ignoring ‘non-Western’ like most people here, but it’s all I know.
You could look into the Pre-Christian mythology of Ireland. The Túatha Dé Danann, Fomorians, the Fianna (including Fionn mac Cumhaill), and Cú Chulainn.
There are countless books available, including by WB Yeats, but the most ubiquitous is likely Early Irish Myths and Sagas from Penguin Classics.
We’ve got Trạng Quỳnh. Sort of a trickster folk-hero. Not exactly literal with the whole economic redistribution element, but in other ways somewhat similar to Robin Hood.
With regard to watery figures dispensing swords as a method of selecting government figures? We do have the legend where a golden turtle dispensed a magic sword to Lê Lợi at Hoàn Kiếm lake to help repel foreign invaders. It later had to be returned.
The latter story is often compared to the Arthurian legend.