>>20183377Long after the Christian form of marriage (with its insistance on sexual monogamy) had replaced the older Pagan handfasting, the rules of strict fidelity were always relaxed for the May Eve rites. Names such as Robin Hood, Maid Marion, and Little John played an important part in May Day folklore, often used as titles for the dramatis personae of the celebrations. And modern surnames such as Robinson, Hodson, Johnson, and Godkin may attest to some distant May Eve spent in the woods.
These wildwood antics have inspired writers such as Kipling:
>Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight,>Or he would call it a sin;>But we have been out in the woods all night,>A-conjuring Summer in!And Lerner and Lowe:
>It's May! It's May!>The lusty month of May!...>Those dreary vows that ev'ryone takes,>Ev'ryone breaks.>Ev'ryone makes divine mistakes!>The lusty month of May!It is certainly no accident that Queen Guinevere's 'abduction' by Meliagrance occurs on May 1st when she and the court have gone a-Maying, or that the usually efficient Queen's Guard, on this occasion, rode unarmed.
