Oberon (mythology)
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Oberon, King of the Fairies, is most famous as a character in William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Whatever the earlier history of the faery helper, Oberon, he got his literary start helping the hero in the French chanson de geste, Les Prouesses et faitz du noble Huon de Bordeaux (first half of the 13th century). The noble Huon, son of Seguin count of Bordeaux, kills a man who lay in ambush for him, who turns out to be Charlot, the Emperor's son. He is condemned but wins a reprieve on condition that he visit the court of the amir of Babylon, and bring back a hank of the amir's hair and four of his back teeth, after having slain the greatest of his knights and three times kissed his daughter Esclarmonde. By the help of the fairy dwarf Oberon, Huor succeeds, though he meets with many adventurous episodes. Charles l'Enfant, a son of Charles the Bald died in 866 of wounds inflicted by a certain Aubouin under similar circumstances. The real Seguin was count of Bordeaux under Louis the Pious in 839, and died fighting against the Normans six years later.
Thus Oberon appears in a 13th century courtly fantasy based on a shred of 9th century fact. He is given some Celtic trappings, such as a magical cup that is ever-full for the virtuous (compare the Holy Grail): "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. And he is said to be the child of Morgan le Fay— and Julius Caesar!
A manuscript of the romance in Turin contains a prologue in the shape of a separate romance of Auberon, and four sequels, and there are later French versions.
Shakespeare saw it, or heard of it, through the translation (ca 1540) of John Bourchier, Lord Berners, as Huon of Burdeuxe. In Philip Henslowe's diary there is a note of a performance of a play, Hewen of Burdocize, on December 28, 1593.
"Oberon" as king of the elves has an earlier history, as Alberich (elbe "elves" reix, rex "king"), a sorcerer in the legendary history of the Merovingian dynasty; he is the otherworldly "brother" of Merowech, eponym of the Merovingians. He wins for his eldest son Walbert the hand of a princess of Constantinople. As Alberich in the Nibelungenlied he guards the treasure of the Nibelungen, but is overcome by Sigfrid. Thus his Burgundian myth evolves in another direction and he winds up stealing the Rhinemaidens' gold in the operas of Richard Wagner.
Ben Jonson wrote a masque of Oberon, or the Fairy Prince (1616). Carl Maria von Weber's opera, Oberon, or the Elf-King's Oath (after a poem by Christoph Martin Wieland) debuted at Covent Garden, London, in 1826.
External link
- Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911 (http://94.1911encyclopedia.org/): "Huon de Bordeaux" "Oberon"
Thomas Bulfinch, Age of Fable vol. IV retells the chanson of Huon de Bordeauxes:Oberón (mitología)