or
ea
; and is it not also plainly the Midgard of the Edda?
[396] The origin of Mab is very uncertain; it may be a contraction of Habundia, see below [France]. "Mab," says Voss, one of the German translators of Shakspeare, "is not the Fairy-queen, the same with Titania, as some, misled by the word queen, have thought. That word in old English, as in Danish, designates the female sex." He might have added the Ang.-Sax. cþen woman, whence both queen and quean. Voss is perhaps right and elf-queen may have been used in the same manner as the Danish Elle-quinde, Elle-kone for the female Elf. We find Phaer (see above, p. [11]) using Fairy-queen, as a translation for Nympha.
[397] i. e., Night-mare. "Many times," says Gull the fairy, "I get on men and women, and so lie on their stomachs, that I cause them great pain; for which they call me by the name of Hagge or Night-mare." Merry Pranks, etc. p. 42.
Auræque et venti, montesque, amnesque, lacusque,
Dîque omnes nemorum, dîque omnes noctis, adeste.
Ovid, Met. l. vii. 198.