Reading this gave me the idea for a "B" movie, set in Sherwood Forest. Title might be "Robin Hood and his Merry Buggers".

Unsure what period the story is meant to be set in: the language spans about 800 years. The characters mostly speak King James Bible English i.e. 1600's, apart from one short sentence which may be Old Norse. There are hints of Anglo-Saxon (Aelf) also Welsh (Llyr). The author might like to know that the ancient name for Nottingham was Snotingaham.

C van D.

The period of the story was deliberately left a bit vague to cover inadvertent anchronisms, I envisioned the story as taking place sometime in the late

12th century. Everyone would be speaking some form of late Old English or early Middle English.

Obviously, if I knew enough Old English to write dialogue in it, it would be incomprehensible to a modern reader. So, I used 17th century English to give the dialogue an archaic flavour. Unfortunately, I accidentally slipped into modern English in Gundula's admonition to Tom to watch where he is going in the forest. I thought I had corrected that before I submitted the story.

The "Old Norse" is actually rustic 19th century Norwegian but was intended to be taken as Old Norse. [E]rik and Rolf are from the Danelaw. Llyr is , indeed a Welshman. The brigands have accumulated in the (unnamed) forest from various parts of the British Isles.

"Snotingaham", eh ? I shall certainly remember that. There will be more of this "B-movie". A half-dozen brigands must somehow give the Sheriff and his henchmen their comeuppance and ultimately, there must be a confrontation between Tom and AEdelfurth.

I liked it very much. I admire Bagoas' hability to use different modalities of English to render the subtleties of the characters and give the "color" of the period.

The one about the Witch's Curse is my favorite among those stories with "historic settings".