Lord of the Trees
BBC Series Robin Hood
Apparently "The Blessing" is an old celebration that goes back "hundreds of years" with feasting in Sherwood. Nothing can be killed during this time. Guy has a fit about the poaching. In the meantime, rough soldiers are tearing up a local tavern. Soon you're comparing the peaceful, respectful villagers worshipping Hern in the forest with the nasty, lying, fighting soldiers arguing in the castle.
After some gentle scenes of dancing and enjoyment, we find that the soldiers have been rousting about town - and we learn that they killed Will's wife in the past. It's become personal. The soldiers go in after Alan and his village - and Guy begins to chop down their sacred tree.
Intriguingly, when he tells Hugo, Hugo is actually upset that he's trying to kill pagans. Hugo seems to believe in the old gods and is tolerant of his people worshipping them as long as they come to church too.
The crew want to go kill the soldiers - but they have to wait for the Blessing period to be over. Apparently the soldiers can rampage the area for 2 days. Robin says they can catch them as long as they don't harm them. An ambush doesn't work, but a little "play" manages to rope them all in harmlessly. Will wants to kill them all - but Robin says no.
Guy escapes and shoots down "Herne" in their festival - but soon is lost in the woods and becomes paranoid and lost. Robin and gang descend on the soldiers. The main soldier takes off with Marian hostage. I always wonder why I see this - why does Robin wait a while before shooting his arrow? But it's so that the arrow doesn't go through the soldier and into Marian too.
I like this one for its various scenes of 'peaceful festival life' :)
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