The Sheriff has had many deaths, even in the surviving medieval ballads he gets a handful of different ones. Robin later feels cheated that the Sheriff considers him too much of a coward to show his face at the obvious trap and shoots an arrow through the Sheriff's window with a message letting him know just who he gave the prize to. Sometimes Robin's disguise as a one eyed beggar goes undetected and the outlaw wins the golden or in some cases silver arrow that is the prize of the tourney.
When he returns home after being outwitted and robbed by Robin he tells his wife that the outlaw had him dead to rights and would have probably ended his life had he not known his adversary had such a good wife waiting for his return. In one version when Robin was able to win the contest in disguise he led the Sheriff to the forest promising to help him find where Robin is hiding. The Sheriff organized a shooting competition to lure Robin from the forest, from there the outcome and preparation varies even as early as the ballads, though he often has or allows Gilbert his head archer enter the contest. Phillip Mark, the historical High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and the Royal Forests in 1208 has been proposed as a candidate and been named as the Sheriff in several adaptations. The sheriff an occupation which existed at the time of the ballads (though the title was High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and the Royal Forests, the simple title of Sheriff of Nottingham was a later job title of a less powerful position) but he is never named in the surviving ballads and it is not known if he was based on a historical figure.
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