These tales were unrelated to each other, no particular canon save for what we have collected in the modern era for study. In the older ballads and songs, the Sheriff of Nottingham is a figure that appears as each story requires him to sometimes as a lawman simply chasing the outlaws, but often a figure who is as much of a staple in the town as Robin and his men, being a frequenter of bars, celebrations and markets.
This is, no doubt, due to the fame of the stories of Robin Hood. As the current Sheriff of Nottingham says, the position has survived to the present day for tourism purposes, her key role being to welcome visitors, promoting the city and its culture. Nottingham is famous, however, for never relinquishing the role entirely. The growth of metropolitan police, treasury departments and so on diminished the roles of the sheriff. The role of sheriff evolved over the centuries as the needs for policing evolved in society the first sheriff of the city of Nottingham (not the larger shire) was installed in 1449. Though our most famous medieval sheriff comes from a post-Norman time period, the term is Anglo-Saxon and pre-dates the invasion. While they collected rent and taxes, investigated crimes,and maintained an amount of military personnel, they were largely representatives of the king's justice, reporting to the monarch and having to wait for judges to visit the county in more serious justicial cases. Medieval sheriffs were responsible for their own regions, but were not the be-all and end-all. The word 'sheriff' is a combination of 'shire' and 'reeve,' the latter meaning a crown-appointed senior official in a township. It's an indication of the kind of position being sheriff granted a person - a position that inherently invited indignation, cruelty an violence. Of all the villains Robin could face, the typically-unnamed Sheriff is the constant thorn in his side bishops and potters come and go, but the local sheriff remains ever-present. Whether he's an unwitting player in Robin's games or the personal villain out for vengeance, the Sheriff is the ultimate enemy, hunting the outlaws with every resource at his disposal. It's a mere position of constabulary, but the rivalry is as famous as Robin as an individual. And amongst all these staples of the story, since the very beginning, there has been Robin's greatest foe - the Sheriff of Nottingham. The Robin Hood legend is notable in that it has remained fundamentally unchanged in all the centuries of its telling it features a band of outlaws in Lincoln green, skulking in the forest robbing merchants and priests, pranking the vain and reaping the riches their leader is a champion of the longbow, his lieutenant a giant with a quarterstaff.
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