The Prioress and Robin Hood’s Return
A record in The Hawthorn Archive, preserving folklore with its place, type and source context attached.
Some Robin Hood ballads tell of the outlaw’s final journey to a religious house, where a prioress is implicated in his death. The episode differs markedly from the more familiar adventures in the forest and is one of several ways the tradition supplied an ending for its central figure.
The story should be distinguished from verifiable medieval biography. Ballad versions and later retellings differ, and the presence of a named religious setting does not establish the circumstances of a real person’s death.
Evidence: ballad tradition. Source trail: Francis James Child, The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, including Robin Hood’s Death; early printed Robin Hood collections.