Oberon, also known as the King of the Faeries, is the High King of the Fae, a classification of magical beings, which come from Fairyland, a realm separate from the Human Realm. He is an unseen character in God of War (2018). He is only ever mentioned in passing by Mimir.
Celtic Mythology[]
Oberon (/ˈoʊbərɒn/) is a king of the faeries in medieval and Renaissance literature. He is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream, in which he is Consort to Titania, Queen of the Faeries.
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 passed three years of age (one of the earliest examples of the wicked fairy godmother folklore motif) 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.
A manuscript of the romance in the city of Turin contains a prologue to the story of Huon de Bordeaux in the shape of a separate romance of Auberon and four sequels and there are later French versions as well.
He is given some Celtic trappings, such as a magical cup (similar to the Holy Grail or the cornucopia) 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.
Shakespeare saw or heard of the French heroic song through the c. 1540 translation by John Bourchier, Lord Berners, called Huon of Burdeuxe. In Philip Henslowe's diary, there is a note of a performance of a play Hewen of Burdoche on 28 December 1593.
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.
Oberon tricks Titania into giving him back the child using the juice from a special flower that makes you "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, instead infusing the flower with love. Oberon sends his servant, Puck, to fetch the flower, which he does successfully.
Furious that Titania will not give him the child, he puts juice from a magical flower into her eyes while she is asleep. The effect of the juice will cause Titania to fall in love with the first live thing she sees upon awakening. Titania awakens and finds herself madly in love with Bottom, an actor from the rude mechanicals whose head was just transformed into that of a donkey, thanks to a curse from Puck.
Meanwhile, two couples have entered the forest: lovers Hermia and Lysander are pursued by Demetrius, who also loves Hermia, and Helena, who loves Demetrius. 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, describing him as “a youth in Athenian clothing”, to make him fall in love with Helena. Puck finds Lysander – who is also a youth wearing Athenian clothing – and puts the love potion on Lysander's eyes. When Lysander wakes, he sees Helena first and falls in love with her. Meanwhile, Demetrius has also been anointed with the flower and awakes to see Helena, pursued by Lysander, and a fight breaks out between the two young men. Oberon is furious with Puck and casts a sleeping spell on the forest, making Puck reverse the potion on Lysander, admonishing Puck to not reverse the effects on Demetrius. Both couples awake and begin the journey back to Athens.
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, becoming once again the benevolent fairy king and queen.
God of War (2018)[]
Long before the events of the God of War (2018), Oberon was the King of the Fae from a faraway land. Mimir served under the Fae King for many years as an errand boy and unofficial jester causing mischief among the humans. Though this was considered to be a crime worthy of severe punishment by most of the other Fae, Oberon allowed this behavior because he found Mimir's actions to be entertaining.
Though initially amused by the chaos that Mimir and his kin would cause, Oberon eventually grew bored with their antics, and Mimir, fearing that he might finally decide to punish them for their crimes chose to leave his homeland behind eventually winding up in the Nine Realms.
God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla[]
While in Valhalla, Mimir is separated from Kratos and is made to relive memories of when he lived in the forest serving King Oberon, alongside his crew of fairie-folk such as Cobweb and Mustardseed. Eventually prompted by this, he shares with Kratos his misadventures and history with Oberon, back when he was known by such names as Puck and Robin of the Goodfellows. Mimir explains that he was once a true believer in Oberon, but eventually saw through his charisma and feigned wisdom and realised he was a small hypocritical tyrant. Oberon fancied himself a romantic and claimed that love was more important to him than anything else. One time, Oberon had heard of a lord near Athens who had conquered a warrior queen and was marrying her as part of terms for peace. Oberon considered this to be so romantic that he forced his entire entourage across the sea to attend the wedding and to pay respects, and argued with his Queen, Titania, for the whole journey there.
Settling in a forest outside of Athens to observe "the Duke's" other guests, the fairie-folk observed "the romantic complications" of some local youths. Oberon, with his lofty so-called romantic ideals, decided to intervene and tasked Puck to fetch a magical flower that can manipulate the affections of others, though Mimir later reflects that the flower doesn't make everyone under its effects fall in love but cause the people to temporarily feel a kind of obsessive devotion that is commonly-mistaken for love. Supposedly wanting to nobly help true love prevail under the pressure of family arrangements, in truth Oberon wanted to use the magical flower to torment his own wife. Puck retrieved the flower and used it to make Titania fall in love with something preposterous: an actor. That night, she and all under the flower's spell made fools of themselves until the magic's effects wore off.
Mimir explains regretfully that, although he would like to say he left Oberon's service out of principle, in truth he left out of pride; that if Oberon had shown Puck more appreciation, he might have spent far longer tolerating his evils, such as being all too happy in his compliance in Titania's humiliation.
Personality[]
Nothing is known about Oberon's personality past the fact that he greatly enjoyed Mimir's chaotic nature and found humor in the humans who were unfortunate enough to be the targets of his pranks. Oberon also had a tendency to make his wife Titania the victim of some of these cruel pranks as noted by Mimir himself.
He did seem to have a more serious side to him as Mimir feared punishment for his actions after it became clear that Oberon had grown tired of his jokes.
Powers and Abilities[]
Oberon's full abilities are unknown, but given that he is the King of the Fae, it can be assumed that he is extremely powerful.
Trivia[]
- Though he never appears in the game outside of a mention, Oberon could be considered a very important character to the overall story and the series, as he was the primary reason for why Mimir chose to leave his homeland and travel to the Nine Realms. Without this, Mimir would likely never have met and been imprisoned by Odin and would never have met Kratos and Atreus to be able to aid them in their quest to reach Jötunheim.
- From what was said about Titania from Sigrún in God of War Ragnarök, it is likely that Oberon abused Titania the same way Odin did to Freya.