The Death Cookie

This article originally appeared in an old incarnation of The Death Cookie. Since Stag's hat is one of the items described in American Artifacts, this seemed like a good time to reprint it.

If you're a music fan (especially a blues fan), there's a good chance you've heard at least a song or two about a man named Stagger Lee, or maybe Stag O'Lee, Stacker Lee, Stack-A-Lee, or any of the many names Stag's been known to go by. Songs about Stagger Lee have been recorded by over 200 different artists, including Mississippi John Hurt, Lloyd Price, The Grateful Dead, and Nick Cave. The details vary from song to song, but the basic story goes something like this:

In the past month, I've had Robin Hood on the brain. I've been toying with the idea of doing some sort of Robin Hood supplement for QAGS for several months now, so when I found a copy of J.C. Holt's book, Robin Hood, which attempts to find the historical Robin by tracing the character's literary history, I bought a copy. I've also been watching the second season of the recent BBC Robin Hood series starring Jonas Armstrong, which is lots of fun despite (and occasionally because of) it's quirks. Last but not least, I went to see a Ridley Scott movie starring Russell Crowe that is called Robin Hood but doesn't actually seem to be about Robin Hood. Don't get me wrong: I appreciate the fact that characters like Robin Hood change over time, but certain core aspects of the character need to remain. Otherwise, the character ceases to be a character in any meaningful way. As a public service to Ridley Scott, here are The Rules of a Robin Hood story.