Maid Marian's Character:

From quotes! First of all, I had to put down this classic one from Tennyson... because, well, it's classic.

“And these will strike for England,
And man and maid be free
To foil and spoil the tyrant
Beneath the greenwood tree.” Tennyson, The Foresters

And I absolutely love Maid Marian as portayed by T.H. White! From The Sword in the Stone:

“Robin lay happily with his head in Marian’s lap. She sat between the roots
of the lime tree, clad in a one piece smock of green girded with a quiver of
arrows and her feet and arms were bare. She had let down the brown shining
waterfall, which was usually kept braided for convience in hunting and cookery,
and with the falling waves of this she framed his head. She was singing a duet
with him softly, and tickling the end of his nose with the fine hairs…
[the two boys, Kay and Art go with the Merry Men on an adventure]
The boys had felt disgruntled at first, at being put in a woman’s band. They would have preferred to have gone with Robin, and thought that being put under Marian was like being trusted to a governess. They soon found their mistake.
It was not easy to be a companion of hers. In the first place, it was impossible to keep up with her unless she waited for them-she could move on all fours or even wriggle
like a snake almost as quickly as they could walk- and in the second place she
was an accomplished soldier which they were not. She was a true Weyve-except for
her long hair, which most of the female outlaws of those days used to clip. One
of the bits of advice which she gave them before talking had to be stopped was
this: Aim high when you shoot in battle, rather than low. A low arrow strikes
the ground, a high one may kill in the second rank.
“If I am made to get married,” thought the Wart, who had doubts on the subject, “I will marry a girl like this: a kind of golden vixen.”
As a matter of fact, though the boys did not know it, Marian could hoot like an owl by blowing into her fists, or whistle a shrill blast between tongue and teeth with the fingers in the corner of the mouth; could bring all the birds to her by imitating their calls and understand much of their small language; could hit the popinjay twice for every three times of Robin’s; and could turn cartwheels. But none of these accomplishments were necessary at the moment.”