The wood held more than people. Oberon and Titania, king and queen of the fairies, had been quarrelling there a long time. The quarrel had run on so long that the seasons tangled, frost fell in summer, and the corn rotted.
They were quarrelling over one boy. Oberon wanted the changeling child Titania was raising, and asked her to hand him over. The queen refused, saying she had loved the boy’s mother. Nobody on either side asked the boy where he wanted to be.
Oberon decided to end the quarrel that night. The way he chose was not to persuade his queen, and not to take the boy by force. It was to change what she loved.