"Robin Hood's Death and Burial" is the final ballad of the Robin Hood cycle -- the death of the outlaw. Grown old and ill, Robin rides to Kirkley Hall to be bled by his kinswoman the prioress, a common medieval remedy. She betrays him, opening a vein and leaving him locked in a room to bleed to death. Too weak to escape, Robin blows his horn; Little John comes running and begs to burn the priory in revenge. Robin refuses -- he has never harmed a woman and will not begin at the end. He shoots one last arrow from the window and asks to be buried where it falls.
The ballad dates from the seventeenth century, though the story of Robin's death at Kirklees is among the oldest elements of the legend, attested in medieval sources. It is one of the most emotionally powerful ballads in the cycle, anchored by Robin's final act of mercy and his quiet instructions for his own grave.
This text appears in Hamilton Wright Mabie's A Book of Old English Ballads (1903), one of the standard anthologies of the English ballad tradition.
WHEN Robin Hood and Little John
Down a down, a down, a down,
Went o'er yon bank of broom,
Said Robin Hood to Little John,
"We have shot for many a pound:
Hey down, a down, a down.
"But I am not able to shoot one shot more,
My arrows will not flee;
But I have a cousin lives down below,
Please God, she will bleed me."
Now Robin is to fair Kirkley gone,
As fast as he can win;
But before he came there, as we do hear,
He was taken very ill.
And when that he came to fair Kirkley-hall,
He knocked all at the ring,
But none was so ready as his cousin herself
For to let bold Robin in.
"Will you please to sit down, cousin Robin," she said,
"And drink some beer with me?
"No, I will neither eat nor drink,
Till I am blooded by thee."
"Well,
I have a room, cousin Robin," she said,
"Which you did never see;
And if you please to walk therein,
You blooded by me shall be."
She took him by the lily-white hand,
And led him to a private room;
And there she blooded bold Robin Hood,
Whilst one drop of blood would run.
She blooded him in the vein of the arm,
And locked him up in the room;
There did he bleed all the live-long day,
Until the next day at noon.
He then bethought him of a casement door,
Thinking for to begone;
He was so weak he could not leap,
Nor he could not get down.
He then bethought him of his bugle-horn,
Which hung low down to his knee,
He set his horn unto his mouth,
And blew out weak blasts three.
Then Little John, when hearing him,
As he sat under the tree,
I fear my master is near dead,
He blows so wearily."
Then Little John to Fair Kirkley is gone,
As fast as he can dree;
But when he came to Kirkley-hall,
He broke locks two or three;
Until he came bold Robin to,
Then he fell on his knee;
"A boon, a boon," cries Little John,
"Master, I beg of thee."
"What is that boon," quoth Robin Hood,
"Little John, thou begst of me?"
"It is to burn fair Kirkley-hall,
And all their nunnery."
"Now nay, now nay," quoth Robin Hood,
"That boon I'll not grant thee;
I never hurt woman in all my life,
Nor man in woman's company.
"I never hurt fair maid in all my time,
Nor at my end shall it be;
But give me my bent bow in my hand,
And a broad arrow I'll let flee;
And where this arrow is taken up,
There shall my grave diggèd be.
"Lay me a green sod under my head,
And another under my feet;
And lay my bent bow by my side,
Which was my music sweet;
And make my grave of gravel and green,
Which is most right and meet.
"Let me have length and breadth enough,
With a green sod under my head;
That they may say when I am dead,
Here lies bold Robin Hood."
These words they readily promised him,
Which did bold Robin please;
And there they buried bold Robin Hood,
Near to the fair Kirklèys.
Colophon
From A Book of Old English Ballads, edited by Hamilton Wright Mabie, with illustrations by George Wharton Edwards (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1903).
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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