Even if we were certain of his existence, it is doubtful we could ever know where he truly was buried. The stories as we know them today are the various stanza of balladeers and story-tellers stretching back several hundred years. An amount of poetic creativity is to be expected. The grave monument has been shown to be a 17th c forgery, but that is not to say that the real stone might have been replaced....
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 digg�d be.
"Lay me a green sod under my head,
And another under my feet; p. 122
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 Kirkl�ys.