Inhabitants of Avalon

A Look at Who They Are and Where They Come From

King Oberon-The King Oberon who rules over Avalon stays very true to his depiction by Shakespeare from A Midsummer Night's Dream. There Oberon is a jealous, uncompromising king, who is convinced that his wife is secretly enamored by Theseus, one of the humans currently hiding in the forest. He is also jealous of the half-fairy foundling that Titania has taken in as her new servant, refusing to acknowledge the justice of her claim--that she swore to her dying friend that she would watch over the lad.

Consumed by his petty grievances, Oberon has Puck collect magical flowers--pansies--with which to concoct a magic love potion to teach Titania a lesson. The first time through, Puck messes up and anoints the wrong man ("Did you say that human or that human? Oh never mind...") but later gets it right, causing his queen to fall in love with Bottom, an ugly half-man, half-donkey creature. Only after Titania has humiliated herself with Bottom is Oberon appeased, and has all the enchantments broken.

Gargoyles' Oberon also acts in a similar manner. While he's realized that playing another such prank on his wife is not the wisest of courses, that doesn't stop him from being high-handed and cruel. Deciding that the Fae (particularly Titania) have become too arrogant, he banishes them from Avalon to wander Earth for a thousand years to learn humility. No one is entirely sure what he does during this time, as it is doubtful that he was aware of possessing any character flaws at all. Upon returning home, he immediately begins trying to get rid of the Avalon Clan, seeing them as pests and vermin. Only the bravery of Angela and Goliath, and the quick-thinking of Elisa, is the Clan saved, and their presence allowed.

Queen Titania-To be fair, Oberon did have some reason to want to punish Titania for her arrogance. No one would ever accuse the Fae Queen of an excess of humility, in either A Midsummer Night's Dream or Gargoyles. Vain, spiteful, jealous in turn, Titania runs rings around her husband, and views most people--both human and Fae--as little more than walking amusements. Her ostensible reason for keeping the little Indian boy may have been because of a promise she'd made, but her real motives stemmed from a desire to keep him for herself, like a new toy or pet.

It is questionable whether she has changed as much in her millennium long exile as her husband may have wished she would. One of her first acts upon returning to Avalon is to betray her husband's vulnerability to his enemies, the gargoyles. Granted, she did it in payment for their help with "The Matrix", but I highly doubt that that was the response Oberon was looking for. Later, Titania convinces Oberon to kidnap her grandson Alexander and bring him back to Avalon, as the boy had a great deal of magical potential that would be wasted on Earth. Again, she says that the attempt was only to awaken Fox's innate powers and show how necessary it was to have Alex trained, but there can be no doubt that she would have taken Alex without a qualm had Fox, Xanatos, and the gargoyles not successfully intervened.

The show stays very consistent with the usual myths and legends concerning the Fae Folk, the most important being their aversion to cold iron. It is this secret that Titania reveals to Elisa and the Avalon Clan to defeat Oberon: that by ringing an iron bell they would be able to call an end to the hunt. The Wild Hunt is also a time-honored Fae past time. On the nights of the full moon, and the nights of the dark of moon, the members of the Faerie Court would ride out on a long hunt across England. Sometimes their prey was an animal (like the white hart from The Chronicles of Narnia), sometimes a human that they deemed especially worth their ire, and occasionally, the members of the Unseelie Court would chase innocents to their doom. Oberon and Titania are the rulers of both the light-Sidhe and the dark-Sidhe, and in his chase of the gargoyles, seemed to be channeling his darker, Unseelie side. Further more, Avalon stays true to the belief that time passes differently in the Realms of the Fae than in the mortal world. The Avalon Clan has spent a thousand years on its shores and has aged perhaps forty years. Also, one should avoid eating or drinking anything while guests of the Faerie Court--once you've eaten there, you are bound by their laws. I'd suggest avoiding dancing, too. Just a friendly warning.

There are three major tricksters on Avalon: Puck, Raven, and Coyote. They usually refer to one another as "brother" or "cousin" and seem to get along best out of all the other folk on Avalon. They also were among the few who wished to stay among the mortal realm, but unlike the Banshee, who wanted to stay for power and ambition, the Tricksters have other, possibly more benign reasons for remaining on Earth. Or because mortals are so much more fun to torment than other Fae.

Puck-Another creation of Shakespeare's, Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, is one of the most known and loved faerie out there. Although this Puck comes from A Midsummer Night's Dream, Puck has been around for centuries in various forms. Still, Puck's primary job in Oberon's court was to play the merry fool and keep the king and queen amused, usually by playing pranks on the humans in surrounding villages, or, as we have seen, playing jokes on Titania herself. A consummate shape-changer (as most of the Fae are) Puck has no difficulty in portraying a horse, a stool, a child, or even a straight-laced, humorless major-domo.

As Owen, Puck works for Xanatos as his right hand man, valet, butler, and personal assistant. Copying his persona from Preston Vogul, Puck-as-Owen originally began working for Halcyon Reynard out of curiosity--just what was Titania (in her guise as Anastasia) doing with a man like that? Through his contacts with the Reynards, Owen came in contact with Xanatos, and soon after Halcyon and Anastasia divorced, he left Cyberbiotics to work for Xanacorp. There, he discovered Xanatos' desire for immortality, and revealed his true nature to the fledgling millionaire: a wish, or a lifetime of service. Xanatos, however, surprised the pants off our little elf by forgoing the immediate pleasure and choosing the lifetime of service. After all, Xanatos felt he could discover the secret of immortality on his own.

In "The Gathering" episodes, Puck defies Oberon's will twice: first by refusing to return to Avalon, and second by actively fighting against them as they came to take Alex away. In punishment, Puck is bound to Owen's form, exiled from Avalon, and stripped of his magic save in the protection and teaching of Alex. It looks as though the Fae have not learned as much about forgiveness in their journeys as one would like.

Coyote- Coyote is the Native American version of Puck. Like his Shakespearean brother, he is mischievous, powerful, devious, and fairly inscrutable. What may seem to be a blessing can resolve in a curse, and what seems to be unnecessary hardship can turn into the salvation of one's tribe. There are many legends about him, as a lot of the Midwestern tribes worshipped him as a god, including the Hopi, the Pima, and the Cheyenne.

He has as many facets as he does faces. Coyote takes a number of forms: a handsome young man, the creature that bears his name, a wise elder, even just emanations of power or elements of nature, like fog or rain. He is also described in many ways: sometimes he is a Promethean trickster, using his powers to benefit mankind. Other times he is wicked and cruel, delighting in torment and mischief. He is sometimes seen as the Creator, and in other tales serves as a messenger for the Creator, running hither and yon at his master's behest. Even in the tales where he is not the ultimate Creator, he is still considered the father of all mankind. The Navajo considered him evil, a bringer of witchcraft, and thought of each coyote as a possible "skin-changer" in disguise, come to do them harm. As a trickster, Coyote was capable of all these and more. Like his brother Raven, Coyote is greedy, but where Raven is constantly greedy for food, Coyote focuses on more carnal pleasures.

Coyote is really only seen in a few episodes, specifically Cloud Fathers during the Avalon World Tour. He is properly depicted as a trickster, this time trying to save a precious sand carving from Xanatos (who is just trying to lure Coyote out in yet another bid for immortality). Later it is revealed that he is another of Oberon's Children. There are also hints that he is related to the Mazas, an ancestor of one kind or another, as seen in his human guise's similarity to Peter Maza.

Raven- One would assume that as they are both Native American trickster gods, Coyote and Raven would be close; either similar gods under the same name, or allies who work together to sow confusion and dissent amongst gods and men alike. Not at all. In fact, they are rivals, so much so that they had to divide the continent between themselves, Coyote taking the Midwest, while Raven flew up to the North, most associated with the Canadian tribes, like the Inuit and the Haida.

Again like Coyote, Raven makes only a single appearance, during the Avalon World Tour. His feature episode is "Heritage" where he and a sorceress named Grandmother battle for supremacy of the small Queen Florence Island. Both he and Grandmother are Oberon's Children, but Grandmother wants nothing more than to protect the human's and their stewardship of the isle. Raven, acting true to mythological form, wants power simply because it is power. He uses his shapeshifting form to appear as a gargoyle and a young man, as well as creating a small clan to lure Elisa, Goliath, and Angela to his own side. Neither Grandmother nor Raven are shown during the Gathering episodes.

One last literary reference. Elisa paraphrases Hamlet at one point in the episode. "These gargoyles should prove there are more things in heaven and earth, Natsilane, than are dreamed of in your philosophy. For example, Raven." The proper Shakespearean line is as follows, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy". Of course, he is talking about his father's ghost, and Elisa is talking about gargoyles and Oberon's children, but the point is the same, no?

Looks like Puck is heading home. To head back with him, click the pic or you can travel to these other places: Avalon Xanatos Links