The 19th century ballad scholar Francis Child collected 38 separate Robin Hood ballads (and variant versions of them) in his ballad collection -- as well as a few other ballads which featured Robin Hood in some versions but not in others. Composed over hundreds of years, these ballads form the Robin Hood legend. Scenes from these tales have been used in many novels, movies and television shows.

Mostly I have used ballads from the 17th century and afterwards. I prefer the earlier ballads, but I think these later ones are written in easily understood English and don't need footnotes. The ballads include introductions, and in some cases I've included multiple versions of the same story (including excerpts from the 15th century ballads). The numbers are those assigned by the great 19th century scholar Francis Child in his multi-volume collection The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (the volume with the Robin Hood ballads appeared in 1888.)

Also, I've included two excepts from Howard Pyle's classic 1883 children's novel The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood (retelling the ballads available here). And you'll find Alfred Noyes' Sherwood, the first of Clayton Emery's Robin and Marian mysteries and two comic book stories from the 1950s on here too.

You can also play one of the tunes used for many of the ballads.