On Oberon, and the Fae...

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Apollon
Practicus
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On Oberon, and the Fae...

Post#1 » Sat Mar 17, 2018 1:49 pm

First of all, I haven't worked with neither Oberon, the queen of Faeries, nor any fae before. I plan to do it soon, but never did. The following is, then, an essay on these beings from the point of view of the folklore.
The reason of doing this is important to me, so I can talk about them in the most objetive way I can (not being influenced by my UPG), this however also means I've never met any of them and I could be very well mistaken. If the lattest is to be the true case, please, tell me.


Very recently I purchased a copy of the Book of Oberon as it got my very attention and curiosity. The book, being very large in size and in contents, is inconsistent at times, but also richly illustrated on the spirits there mentioned. Working with the book alone would be hard, but considering it is only directed at academic researchers or magicians I assume it is no problem at all.

Topics covered range from simple spells and incantations, to planetary magic, to demonic evocations(listing the Goetia demons, their offices, and a notable number of demons which do not appear in the Goetia or any other text so far I've read), angelic magic, and also faery magic. This last topic is very interesting, listing Oberon, the king of fae, Mycob, queen of fae, and seven fae sisters (daughters of Oberon and Mycob?).

I must admit I never found about Oberon or any of the fae listed in this book anywhere else, however, after researching on their names a bit, it's clear they were well-known during the middle ages, and formed part of the rich folklore of Germany, France and Brittish Isles.

In the beginning of the book, in the introduction, there's some authors' comments on Oberon and Mycob, but mainly on Oberon. Following comes a brief rephrasing of the book.
This king of fae appeared on Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream allongside with his wife Titania, queen of Faeries (Note here the difference between the names Titania and Mycob). In this play, the two monarchs help train a boy becoming a knight, to latter have their own problems which the whole Nature suffered, to latter reconcile each other bringing harmony and beauty back to Nature.
However, Oberon's first appearance is in the French epic Huon de Bordeaux. In this text, Oberon is offspring of a secret romance between Julius Caesar and a woman. When Oberon was born, he was granted many gifts, but also was also cursed not to grow after three years of age. He also helps the story's hero magically.

Yet more interestingly, Oberon has even more ancient roots, deriving from the Old High German Alberich (lit. King of Elves). He appeared in the Nibelungenlied and in the poem Ortnit.
(brief summary of author's notes end here).

So far, I've only read in Occult communities that the fae are to be taken with great care as they are very tricky in nature, being also masters in the magic of glamours. John Michael Greer even dares to compare folkloric tales of the fae with modern UFO sighting and stories of abduction from aliens, claiming modern people are only being victims of the fae's glamours and tricks.

It is time for me to dare to challenge the Occult overview of these entities. Largely around Oberon and Mycob.
Is Oberon the king of fae? What are the fae? - I have stated before I never worked with them, so I'm afraid I can't answer the latter question. However, Oberon may or may not be the king of "fae". As I said before, Oberon derives from Alberich, which means king of elves. Are elves and fae the same? - Well, folkloric views of them are somewhat similar.

On a further searched I found "fae", at least in my language, could refer to any elemental creature. "Elf", on the other hand, derives largely from German and Nordic views, and has more concise features. Mainly being like a lesser deity, having magic powers and long life or being immortal in nature.
The word "Elf"(or better said, the German word "Alb" or "Alf", both meaning "elf") ethymologically means "white"("albus" in Latin). Another word from this root is albino. While this is of lesser importance here, it helps us imagine what an elf would look like: human-like creatures with fairly with light sking, hair, and even eyes. I know this would be a jump on conclussions, but popular images depict them exactly as that.

Oberon and the queen, in the literary works I have mentioned before, appear as creatures with powerful magical powers(what in other words could be just lesser deities, spirits, intelligences, etc.), at times prideful, knowledgeable in nature, very beautiful, having huge riches too. They also appear with many offspring consisting of little faeries(as they would appear in popular media) or elf-like, nude creatures.

It is at this point that I'm not fully sure as to what exactly is a faery and what is an elf, as they seem to be very similar at times, or even the same creatures in popular culture.
I will also mention here that the Oberon or Alberich that appears in the Nibelungenlied is actually a dwarf, who being defeated by Sigfried, becomes the hero's vassal.

A dwarf, as we all know, are little human-shaped creatures knowledgeable in many earthly matters, having also huge treasures of gold. If they were seen as very ugly at first is debated among scholars.

Remember when previously in this post I said Oberon appears in Huon de Bordeaux as a child bearing noble lineage but who could not age more than three? Having three years old I'm sure Elves would appear as tiny in shape too, or, dwarf-like.

Dwarves, Elves, Faeries,... are all creatures said to live in the elements, but they're hard to tell apart in legends sometimes.

When people in the middle ages thought of Elves, they would think of something very similar of what Tolkien showed in his work The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien, being a very skilled linguist who translated many works from ancient Nordic and Germanic languages, should know very well how elves looked back then: human-shaped creatures with light skin, hair and eyes. Let also note here that Tolkien's elves are not little men, however they for some reason cannot age (Same as Oberon).

So, concluding this post, I believe Oberon, Mycob, and the seven faeries too, are not to be mistaken with what we see about the fae in occult communities. They could be very knowledgeable in those matters as well, but I don't think they are as tricky and dangerous as some authors claim to be.
And, by the way, about Mycob... I will say that Shakespeare also wrote about the queen of faeries in another of his works, in this case however she was names Mab, which is more similar to the name which appear in the Book of Oberon. Titania, the name Shakespeare gave her in A Midsummer Night's Dream, is derived from Ovid's Methamorphosis, and means "Daughter of Titans". This could also be a hint as to who are elves, why they exist or what role they could have in nature.

-I apologise for any typos written here or any poorly-written statement. If you cannot understand any of the stuff I wrote please tell me, and if you believe I jumped at conclussions way too early or that I'm mistaken, I insist I would hear your thoughts happily :)

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