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Robin Hood's Death
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Robin Hood's Death is Child ballad 120. It is one of the oldest existing tales of Robin Hood and is similar in many details to another old ballad, A Gest of Robyn Hode, that also tells of his death, but exists only in fragmentary form.[1]
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Robin Hood goes to get himself bled (a common medieval medical practice) by his cousin, a prioress. He refuses a bodyguard that Will Scarlet offers and takes only Little John. The prioress treacherously lets too much blood, killing him, or her lover Roger stabs him while he's weak. Little John wishes to avenge him, but Robin forbids it, because he has never harmed women.
In a fragmentary form, a woman appears early on the journey "banning" Robin Hood. That manuscript breaks off with the outlaws asking why she is doing it. It is often taken as "cursing" him, but may mean "lamenting" -- predicting his death and weeping in advance.
This is the commonest ending to tales of Robin Hood, although in a few other tales, such as Robin Hood and the Valiant Knight, other villains appear, to perform the bleeding that is his usual end.
- ^ Holt, J. C. Robin Hood p 25 (1982) Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-27541-6.
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