In all the annals of Fairyland nothing is more wonderful--and the
annals are found in many hundreds of volumes--than that chapter which
tells of the reign of the true fairy King Oberon and his beautiful
wife Titania, who is sometimes called Queen Mab. Marvellous are the
doings of Oberon’s little subjects in every land--good fairies and bad
fairies, dwarfs, elves and sprites, brownies, pixies and gnomes, pucks,
trolls and kobolds and Robin Goodfellow--and marvellous are the tales
which have been told of them by travellers in the fairy realms.
[Illustration: A SMALL INDIAN PRINCE ... HAD BEEN STOLEN’]
[Illustration: “_And a fairy baby left in it’s place._”]
Now, once upon a time there was sadness throughout the whole kingdom of
Oberon--and his kingdom has no boundaries--because of a quarrel which
had arisen between the king and the queen. It was a very small matter
to begin with, but the king was a king and did not think it consorted
with his dignity as such that his will should not be law, while the
lovely Queen Titania thought that even the powerful king of the fairies
should give way to her wishes. A small Indian prince, a dusky child,
son of a mighty monarch of the East, had been stolen and a fairy baby
left in its place and King Oberon wanted the changeling to be one of
the knights of his train, while Queen Titania insisted on keeping him
as one of her pages. Long and bitter was the quarrel but neither
king nor queen would give way, and at length they parted and half the
fairies marched off under the banner of the king and half under the
banner of the queen.
[Illustration: “_I do but beg a little changeling boy_”]
Now you know of course that it was the fairies that looked after all
things, the flowers and the trees, the streams and lakes, the little
birds and beasts, and even--though they might not be aware of it--after
the doings of many men and women; thus when it befel that their king
and queen quarrelled and all the fairies rallied to their separate
courts everything was neglected: the corn died unripened, the grass
withered in the fields, so that the flocks and herds starved, the
summers were cold and wet, the winters were sickly and mild, and many
good men, women and children lost their tempers and became troublesome
and unhappy they knew not why, and certainly never imagined that it was
all because of a quarrel between the rulers of the world-wide kingdom
of Fairy.
[Illustration: “_The Fairyland buys not the child of me_”]
For a long time it seemed as though the king and queen would not be
reconciled. When they met Oberon would say, “I do but beg a little
changeling boy to be my henchman”; and Titania would reply, “Set your
heart at rest, the Fairyland buys not the child of me.” And again the
king would say, “Give me the boy and I will go with thee”; and the
queen would answer, “Not for thy fairy kingdom.” Luckily Oberon by
means of his fairy-arts was finally able to win his way and gain the
little changeling for his retinue, the king and queen were reconciled
and all the fairies returned to their happy work: the crops and grass
revived, flowers bloomed everywhere, the birds sang, summer was once
more warm and sunny, and winter once more white and frosty, while men,
women and children suddenly regained their good tempers, knowing as
little why they did so as why they had lost them. All the world was
indeed once again bright and happy as it should be. Great was the
rejoicing throughout the realm of Fairyland, and greater still it
became when King Oberon summoned to his court all his subjects from all
parts of the world to celebrate the reconciliation. Quick as thought
his wish was made known by Ariel and Puck his ready messengers, and
at once all the little people were hurrying to obey the monarch’s
behest, and within the forty minutes which Puck takes to put a girdle
round about the earth all had assembled. Then there was such a sight
of wonderful splendour as would have astonished human eyes: there
in beautiful colours were fairies from the flowers and the rainbows,
from streams and woodland, elves, dwarfs and gnomes from caves under
the earth where gold is hammered and precious stones are made; there
were pixies and brownies and quaint little sprites innumerable; there
was Cinderella’s fairy godmother, and there was Allwise the dwarf who
wanted to marry Thor’s daughter; there was Robin Goodfellow, and there
was Ariel; there were Titania’s attendant fairies Peaseblossom and
Cobweb, Moth and Mustardseed; there was Thumbeline and the fairy Prince
her husband, and Hop-o-my-Thumb, and Thumbling; there were the King’s
courtiers--Perriwiggin, Perriwincle, Puck, Hob-Goblin, Tomalin and
Tom-Thumb; there were the Queen’s maids of honour--Hop, Mop, Drop, Pip,
Drip, Skip, Tub, Tib, Tick, Pink, Pin, Quick, Gill, Un, Tit, Wap, Win,
Wit with Nymphidia the mother of the maids--but if I were to give you
a list of all the different fairies who gathered about Oberon’s court
I should fill up this book and leave no room for any stories or for Mr
Robinson’s illustrations.
[Illustration: At once all the little people were hurrying to obey the
monarch’s behest]
There were, to put it shortly, all the fairies that ever lived, all the
fairies that you ever knew, told of in tales or dreamed of in dreams,
and a marvellous sight it would have been if we could have seen them
gathered about the fairy palace of King Oberon. Everyone knew everyone
else, and many were the stories told of elfish mischief and of benefits
done to good people by their attendant fairies. Oberon and Titania
passing along, talking to their happy subjects and attended by the
changeling boy who had caused so much trouble, overheard one of these
stories, and turning to his queen, the king said: “My Titania, shall
we not hear some of these stories which our people can tell of their
doings with men, women and children in the world of big folk?” Titania
readily agreed that it would be delightful; and elfin trumpeters passed
amid the multitude and blew their horns, and said that all were to
arrange themselves in the great Fairy Ring and were to be prepared to
tell stories until the dawn. Then there was a pretty hustling
and bustling of merry crowds jostling and soon all were arranged in
circles about the great Fairy Ring, and Oberon and Titania ascended a
throne which was beautifully formed of sweet-scented flowers that never
faded. At the foot of the throne a stool was placed, and on it the
story-tellers were to sit while amusing the Court; such was the magic
of the circle that though the fairy speaking only addressed himself to
the king and queen, his voice was heard even by the fairies furthest
away, on the very outermost part of the ring. Happily for us the
changeling boy was there sitting on the steps of the throne, and when,
years afterwards, he found his way back to his father’s kingdom, he
wrote down all the wonderful stories he had heard at the Court of King
Oberon, and they have since been translated into many tongues by many
writers, so that some of them will no doubt be familiar to you. Here,
however, we have the stories just as Oberon’s changeling wrote them
down, and the first story was repeated by a Scandinavian dwarf out of
the cold north, who told how it was that the great hero Thor got
[Illustration: The Scandinavian dwarf]
[Illustration: His long red beard waved in the sky as he drove in his
goat-drawn chariot]