OBERON (Auberon, Alberon), king of the fairies, husband of Titania, first appears in literature as protector of the hero in Huon de Bordeaux, a chanson de geste, dating from about the 12 th century (see France, vol. ix. p. 638). The name corresponds to the German Alberich or Elferich (elf-king). The fairy element in the legend of Huon has been treated in modern times by Wieland in the poem, and by Weber in the opera, of Oberon ; and the story of the elf-king’s quarrel with Titania, as every one knows, supplies an important motif in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.