Oberon

Lore & Background

Oberon is first attested as the name of a fairy king in the early 13th century chanson de geste entitled Les Prouesses et faitz du noble Huon de Bordeaux, wherein the eponymous hero encounters King Oberon of the fairies as he passes through a forest. Huon is forewarned by a hermit not to speak to Oberon, but his courtesy causes him to answer the fairy king's greetings and so wins his friendship and aid. The fairy king is dwarfish in height, though very handsome. He explains that, at his birth, an offended fairy cursed him not to grow past three years of age but relented and gave him great beauty as compensation. In this story, he is said to be the child of Morgan le Fay and Julius Caesar. He is given some Celtic trappings, such as a magical cup that is ever full. "The magic cup supplied their evening meal; for such was its virtue that it afforded not only wine, but more solid fare when desired", according to Thomas Bulfinch.

In Their Own Story

In William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, written in 1595/96, Oberon is the king of all of the fairies and is engaged in a dispute with his wife Titania, the fairy queen. They are arguing over custody of a child whom Oberon wants to raise to be his henchman. Titania wants to keep and raise the child for the sake of her mortal friend and follower who died giving birth to him. Because Oberon and Titania are both powerful spirits connected to nature, their feuding disrupts the weather. Oberon tricks Titania into giving him back the child using the juice from a special flower that makes one "madly dote upon the next live thing that it sees". The flower was accidentally struck by Cupid's arrow when he attempted to shoot a young maiden in a field, infusing the flower with love. Oberon sends his servant, Puck, to fetch the flower. Furious that Titania will not give him the child, Oberon puts juice from the magical flower in her eyes while she is asleep. Titania awakens and finds herself madly in love with Bottom, an actor whose head was just transformed into that of a donkey, thanks to a curse from Puck. Oberon witnesses Demetrius rejecting Helena, admires her amorous determination, and decides to help her. He sends Puck to put some of the juice in Demetrius's eyes. Puck finds Lysander and puts the love potion on Lysander's eyes instead. When Lysander wakes, he sees Helena first and falls in love with her. Oberon is furious with Puck and casts a sleeping spell on the forest, making Puck reverse the potion on Lysander. Oberon now looks upon Titania and her lover, Bottom, and feels sorry for what he has done. He reverses the spell using a magic herb. When she wakes, she is confused, thinking that she had a dream. Oberon explains that the dream was real and the two reunite happily. They then return to Athens in the epilogue to bless the couples.

Reader's Guide

Oberon is a character in The Scottish History of James IV, a play written c. 1590 by Robert Greene. In 1610, Ben Jonson wrote a masque of Oberon, the Faery Prince. It was performed by Henry Frederick Stuart, the Prince of Wales, at the English court on New Year's Day, 1611. Oberon is a main character in Michael Drayton's narrative poem Nimphidia (1627) about the fairy Pigwiggin's love for Queen Mab and the jealousy of King Oberon. In the anonymous book Robin Goodfellow, His Mad Pranks and Merry Jests (1628) Oberon is known as "Obreon" and is the father of the half-fairy Robin Goodfellow by a human woman. Christoph Martin Wieland first published his epic poem Oberon in 1780; it in turn became the basis for the German opera Huon and Amanda, later known as Oberon, by Sophie Seyler. Johann Wolfgang Goethe included the figures from Shakespeare's work in Faust I. Oberon is married to Titania, and the couple are celebrating their golden wedding anniversary in Faust I. In 1826, Carl Maria von Weber's opera, Oberon, debuted at Covent Garden in London, England. Oberon appears with Titania in Richard Dadd's unfinished painting, The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke, displayed in the Tate Museum.

Did You Know?

• Oberon is first attested as the name of a fairy king in the early 13th century chanson de geste Les Prouesses et faitz du noble Huon de Bordeaux.
• In that story, Oberon is said to be the child of Morgan le Fay and Julius Caesar.
• The fairy king is dwarfish in height, though very handsome, and was cursed at birth not to grow past three years of age.
• Shakespeare saw or heard of the French heroic song through the c. 1540 translation by John Bourchier, Lord Berners, called Huon of Burdeuxe.
• In 1830, botanist John Lindley named a flowering plant in the family Orchidaceae, Oberonia after the fairy king.