The content of the text tells of a mother's insistent questions about her son, Lord Randal. His mother wants to know everything about his life but he only gives short answers quickly.

Lord Randal answers his mother's questions by saying that he was in greenwood where he met his true-love. He admits to having been poisoned by it eating fried eels and that leftovers fed them to his hunting dogs and hawks. Lord Randal asks his mother to make the bed because he understands that he is going to die. The mother begins to ask him what he will leave as an inheritance. He replies that he will leave twenty cows to his mother, all his gold and silver to his sister, the house and the lands to his brother and hell and fire to his true-love.