Maid Marian was originally a character in May Games festivities (held during May and early June, most commonly around Whitsun) ^[3] and is sometimes associated with the Queen or Lady of May of May Day. She became associated with Robin Hood in this context, as Robin Hood became a central figure in May Day, associated as it was with the forest and archery. Both Robin and Marian were certainly associated with May Day festivities in England (as was Friar Tuck); these were originally two distinct types of performance — Alexander Barclay, writing in c.1500, refers to "some merry fytte of Maid Marian or else of Robin Hood" — but the characters were brought together.^[4]

Marian is likely derived from the French tradition of a shepherdess named Marion and her shepherd lover Robin (not Robin Hood). The best known example of this tradition is Adam de la Halle's Le Jeu de Robin et Marion, circa 1283.^[5]

Marion, indeed, remained associated with such celebrations long after the fashion of Robin Hood faded again.^[6]

Many early Robin Hood tales deal with Robin's devotion to the Virgin Mary (such as in Robin Hood and the Monk).This aspect of the character slowly vanishes as Maid Marian makes her way into the tales.^{[citation needed]} This, combined with Marian's initial status as a maid, suggests another possible origin for the character.

Marian did not immediately gain the unquestioned role as Robin's love; in Robin Hood's Birth, Breeding, Valor and Marriage, his sweetheart is 'Clorinda the Queen of the Shepherdesses'.^[7] Clorinda survives in some later stories as an alias of Marian.^[8]