Talk:Maid Marian

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Middle Ages Icon Maid Marian is part of WikiProject Middle Ages, a project for the community of Wikipedians who are interested in the Middle Ages. For more information, see the project page and the newest articles.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale.
??? This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.

Article Grading:
The article has not been rated for quality and/or importance yet. Please rate the article and then leave comments here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.


help what am I meant to do!


Today, I changed the article to note that the term "May Day" is not particularly accurate in regards to Maid Marian. The village festivals that she participated in are often called the May Games, and take place around May or June, often close to Pentecost. There are only a few instances recorded of such festivals occuring on May 1 proper. This has led to some confusion between "May Day" and "May Games". David Wiles, author of the 1981 book, The Early Plays of Robin Hood corrects this fallacy (and also mentions the male cross-dressing Marian). Wiles's statements have been supported by Stephen Knight (in three books), Jeffrey Sigman and pretty much every modern Robin Hood scholar.

Apparently, however, people who have actually studied the Robin Hood legend for decades don't have as informed opinion as those who removed this correction based on some book not written by Robin Hood experts.

A supporting quotation from the current world expert on Robin Hood.

"The play-games have a firm location in the calendar: they are in May, but not May Day; the Robin Hood play-games are not to be confused with the fertility symbolism of May Day and the maypole. Rather, Robin Hood's time is Whitsun, the "White Sunday" that celebrated Pentecost and the descent of the Holy Spirit. "White Sunday" was white not only in terms of holiness but also because then, as now, by mid- to late May the hedges and shrubs of rural England were densely white with the hawthorn flower, also known as May flower and whitethorn. Seeing the landscape change so quickly is still a striking, even moving, sight; the fertility linked to Robin Hood is not that of an agressively masculine maypole but that of the more generalized force of fertile nature."

 Robin Hood: A Mythic Biography by Stephen Knight
 University of Cornell Press, 2003, pp.11-12

Contents

[edit] Questionable book reference

I just reverted vandalism on this page, and I also removed this entry:

Can anyone verify this? The Theresa Tomlinson page lists the novel as being published in 1993. If the character of Maid Marian appears in this book, please add it to the article again, verifying the year and modifying the Theresa Tomlinson article as needed. CoderGnome 03:01, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] MARIAN IN THE 20TH CENTURY

The article might mention that it has become a nearly universal custom nowadays in retellings of the story for the tale to end with the announcement of Robin's and Marian's forthcoming marriage - almost always in connection with King Richard's deus ex machina return from the Crusades to set everything right. Also, notice how many modern renditions have shown her as "Lady Marian" rather than "Maid Marian." Almost all, I think.

You would need a citation for that. Goldfritha 02:26, 13 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Requiem for a Dream

I've removed this line in the Movies section, as it's not really notable. I'm sure there have been numerous occasions where Maid Marion gets mentioned once in a work of fiction. Rojomoke (talk) 17:48, 20 November 2007 (UTC)

  • In the movie Requiem for a Dream one of the characters is named Marion. Right before she conducts sexual activities with someone he names her "Maid Marion", and chuckles.

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Lucy Griffiths.jpg

Image:Lucy Griffiths.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on criteria for speedy deletion. If you have any questions please ask them at the Media copyright questions page. Thank you.

BetacommandBot (talk) 20:47, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Removed Uncited Section

I removed this section which had an August 2007 cite request on it:

In yet another incarnation, Marian is depicted as an albino, who is part of an enclave of outcasts consisting of 'freaks' that have been thrown out of the city by the Sherriff, and provide Robin with the first few Merry Men

CredoFromStart talk 17:12, 25 February 2008 (UTC)