Maid Marian
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Maid Marian is the female companion to the legendary figure Robin Hood.
The earliest Medieval Robin Hood stories gave him no female companion. The Robin Hood character at this time was rather brutish woodsman and a female companion would have been out of place.
Maid Marian was first attached to Robin Hood in the late sixteenth century as Robin was gentrified and given a virginal maid to pine after. Her biography and character have been highly variable over the centuries, being sometimes portrayed as a pagan or Saxon and other times as a high born Norman.
Maid Marian's character evolved, becoming conflated with the Goddess Diana as she became portrayed as a skilled huntress that fought alongside Robin. In the Victorian Era she reverted to her previous role as the dainty maid. With the rise of modern feminism in the 20th century, the character has often been depicted as an adventurer again, sometimes as a crack archer herself. The standard ending for Robin Hood stories became that he married Maid Marian and left the woods for a civilized aristocratic life.
Literature
There have been several books based on the fictional character:
- Maid Marian — 1821 novel by Thomas Love Peacock
- Maid Marian — 2004 novel by Elsa Watson