  We propose and discuss a scheme for robust and efficient generation of
many-particle entanglement in an ensemble of Rydberg atoms with resonant
dipole-dipole interactions. It is shown that in the limit of complete dipole
blocking, the system is isomorphic to a multimode Jaynes-Cummings model. While
dark-state population transfer is not capable of creating entanglement, other
adiabatic processes are identified that lead to complex, maximally entangled
states, such as the N-particle analog of the GHZ state in a few steps. The
process is robust, works for even and odd particle numbers and the
characteristic time for entanglement generation scales with N^a, with a being
less than unity.
