Robin Hood his death(e)

Chapter Eight (and last) of Greenwood Tales: Robin's Death and Burial, in which I read out the tale of the death of Robin Hood.

This is taken from Dorothy King’s volume of Robin Hood tales, won by my later father in a maths competition at school in the 1950s. The story itself derives from a 17th century ballad, Robin Hoode his Death, which describes the doomed outlaw shooting his last arrow into the greenwood, to be buried where it fell.

The grim tradition of Robin’s death goes back to the final ‘fytte’ or verse of The Geste of Robyn Hode, printed in the 15th century. This was the earliest attempt at compiling the disparate tales of Robin Hood into a complete narrative or ballad cycle.

Robin’s demise is reported in just a few lines at the end. After falling sick, he goes to his kinsman, the Prioress of Kirklees, to have his blood let. For unexplained reasons, the prioress hates Robin and plots with her lover, Roger of Doncaster, to murder him:

“Sir Roger of Donkestre,
By the prioress he lay,
And there they betrayed good Robin Hood,
Through their false play.”

There is no further detail, and we are left to assume that the evil deed was done. The ballad immediately concludes:

“Christ have mercy on his soul!
That died on the rood,
For he was a good outlaw,
And did poor men much good.”

The painting is The Passing of Robin Hood by N.C. Wyeth, 1917.