Robhen wrote:
WoodysLadyM,
the Blessed Virgin Mary (Our Lady) of the Geste, and The Maid Marian are one and the same person. Maid, is the abbreviation of Maiden - Old English maegden, maid - virgin.
Marian - of or relating to the the Virgin Mary.
You are right in saying that she was originally paired with Friar Tuck in the May Games. The chaste Maid Marian on the one hand and Friar Tuck, the Lord of Misrule, on the other. Something to do good being countered with bad, positives and negatives, etc.
Have you read 'Robin Hood and the Potter.' Robin flirts outrageously with the sheriff of Nottingham's wife in that ballad. No thought for his Maid Marian there then.
I really don't think you can get that from the context of the lines I quoted. The name Marian itself may very well relate to the Virgin Mary and Marian
herself may have been a stand in for the Virgin in the later tradition, but that doesn't make them one and the same in the ballad. In any case, Robin's
devotion to Mary has more to do with the Cult of Mary during the Middle Ages than with courtly love. Whether courtly love came along after the Cult of Mary,
either as a development or in opposition to it, I don't really know. I'll leave that to the theologians and/or historians on the board. It's a
complex subject, I'm sure.
Robin does seem to be flirting with the Sheriff's wife in Robin Hood and the Potter. This could be the cause of
Robin's problems with the Sheriff. I wonder if this ballad has ever been written up or included in a movie or TV series? I vaguely remember an episode from
the Richard Greene series where he's posing as a potter or butcher and stealing kisses from his lady customers. Regardless, the ballad is highly
entertaining. Oh and there's also a reference to "Our Lady" in the 3rd stanza.
