There are several interpretations of Goethe's poem from 1782. One of them is that the boy is very sick and has feverish fantasies. His father tries to calm him down. Other explanations are sexual abuse of the child and his father does not believe him.
The main interpretation that I've seen and thought myself is that the boy was on the brink of death and the Erlknönig is basically death as a character. Erlkönig is trying to entice the child to embrace death and the boy is trying to tell the father what the Erlkönig is saying, the father can't see or hear the Erlkönig because he isn't on the brink of death so he doesn't believe the child.
The poem is great, but Schubert's musical rendition of it is amazing. There is a clear theme that plays whenever the Elf King is near. The piece modulates between different keys as the story progresses. But the amazing part is that the tonic of the keys that it modulates through make up the notes of the Elf King theme. So that it is like they were bound to fall victim to the Elf King no matter what the entire time.
Erlking is a The Erlking's DaughterEdit Johann Gottfried von Herder introduced this character into German literature in "Erlkönigs Tochter", a ballad published in his 1778 volume Stimmen der Völker in Liedern. It was based on the Danish folk ballad "Hr. Oluf han rider" "Sir Oluf he rides" published in the 1739 Danske Kæmpeviser.[4] Herder undertook a free translation where he translated the Danish elvermø ("elf maid") as Erlkönigs Tochter; according to Danish legend old burial mounds are the residence of the elverkonge, dialectically elle(r)konge, the latter has later been misunderstood in Denmark by some antiquarians as "alder king", cf Danish elletræ "alder tree". It has generally been assumed that the mistranslation was the result of error, but it has also been suggested (Herder does actually also refer to elves in his translation) that he was imaginatively trying to identify the malevolent sprite of the original tale with a woodland old man (hence the alder king).[9] The story portrays Sir Oluf riding to his marriage but being entranced by the music of the elves. An elf maiden, in Herder's translation the Elverkonge's daughter, appears and invites him to dance with her. He refuses and spurns her offers of gifts and gold. Angered, she strikes him and sends him on his way, deathly pale. The following morning, on the day of his wedding, his bride finds him lying dead under his scarlet cloak.[4] Goethe's ErlkönigEdit Although inspired by Herder's ballad, Goethe departed significantly from both Herder's rendering of the Erlking and the Scandinavian original. The antagonist in Goethe's "Der Erlkönig" is the Erlking himself rather than his daughter. Goethe's Erlking differs in other ways as well: his version preys on children, rather than adults of the opposite sex, and the Erlking's motives are never made clear. Goethe's Erlking is much more akin to the Germanic portrayal of elves and valkyries - a force of death rather than simply a magical spirit.[4] Basically he is a grim reaper of sort so the he is trying to tempt the boy to follow him into the afterlife but the boy refuses so he enters the world of the living to take the boy physical into the world of the dead.According to Jacob Grimm, the term originates with a Scandinavian (Danish) word, ellekonge "king of the elves",[3] or for a female spirit elverkongens datter "the elven king's daughter", who is responsible for ensnaring human beings to satisfy her desire, jealousy or lust for revenge.[4][5] The New Oxford American Dictionary follows this explanation, describing the Erlking as "a bearded giant or goblin who lures little children to the land of death", mistranslated by Herder as Erlkönig in the late 18th century from ellerkonge.[6] The correct German word would have been Elbkönig or Elbenkönig, afterwards used under the modified form of Elfenkönig by Christoph Martin Wieland in his 1780 poem Oberon.[7] Alternative suggestions have also been made; in 1836, Halling suggested a connection with a Turkic and Mongolian god of death or psychopomp, known as Erlik Chan.[8]
Schubert wrote this when he was 17 years old. The genre of art song is so synonymous with the era of German romanticism that in many countries this type of music is referred to as "Lied" which is German for "song". Schubert went on to write over 400 Lieder including the impactful Lied cycles "Die Schöne Müllerin", "Schwanengesang" and "Winterreise". Even within the classic community this genre takes a niche role compared to opera or orchestral music.
During my school years, the "Erkönig" was a compulsory topic in class. The students had to learn it by heart, classify it historically, interpret it, and so on. There are several interpretations of the poem, even that it is about child abuse and that the Erlkönig is a rapist.
Yeah as a teenager i hated it to have to interpret that, all this can be right, what do you think. don't forget the author what it could have meant to him. For me, Goethe was simply mentally disturbed - finished. I was just too young. today I would have fun interpreting that in a group. For me it's also very clearly about sexual abuse and a child who keeps going back to his father who doesn't believe him until it's too late. In fact, I see the poem as a missed opportunity, with one or the other clue, one could bring a very important topic into the classroom.
@@xsezz ja...I know...I like my mothers tongue but learning Goethe's poems by heart was a torture for me...🤣...German was not my favourite subject, but it's interesting to watch your reaction to it 👍..it won't be long and you will be "completely germanized" , Xsezz :D
Interesting ^^ It gives me flashback to the german lessons, when we analyzed this poem ^^ I guess the boy was dying, that's why the father was going so fast and the Erlkönig represents the Grim Reaper and he imagines him in his fever dreams
In Angela Carter's short story "The Erl-King", contained within the 1979 collection The Bloody Chamber, the female protagonist encounters a male forest spirit. Though she becomes aware of his malicious intentions, she is torn between her desire for him and her desire for freedom. In the end, she forms a plan to kill him in order to escape his power. Charles Kinbote, the narrator of Vladimir Nabokov's 1962 novel, Pale Fire, alludes to "alderkings". One allusion is in his commentary to line 275 of fellow character John Shade's eponymous poem. In the case of this commentary, the word invokes homosexual ancestors of the last king of Zembla, Kinbote's ostensible homeland. The novel contains at least one other reference by Kinbote to alderkings. In Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files, there is a character called the Erlking, modeled after the leader of the Wild Hunt, Herne the Hunter. In the author John Connolly's short story collection Nocturnes (2004), there is a character known as the Erlking who attempts to abduct the protagonist. J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them lists a creature named an Erkling, very similar to the Erlking, as one of the many that inhabit the Wizarding World. Erklings are also present in the videogame Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, set in the same universe. The New Yorker's "20 Under 40" issue of July 5, 2010 included the short story "The Erlking" by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum.
The original poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that this is based on has A LOT of sinister undertones and suggestive texts on what the elf king is doing to the boy. I can't say the words due to RUclips censorship but if you look it up you'll see. Seems a case of "boy who cried wolf" as you said but more seedy. You can take things like that as literal or you can apply them to any scenario of someone needing help but they dont get it till it is too late
First: It is a shame how much of this ballad is lost in translation. My interpretation: It descripes a boy and his puberty / growing up. At first the Erlkönig promises mother love and later it has become sexual intention. So the Erlkönig is his changing point of view. The death is not a real death - it is the end of his childhood (like Pink Floyd in Comfortably Numb which reminds me of the Erlkönig:"The child has grown, the dream is gone" - check the Pulse live version (!) ).
Im not an expert, i just understand that theres are two realities, two Worlds. Steps by step, life is coming away for the child, and the father can't protect him anymore, he has tried and he looses again the dead. You say, its old school !!!! Not at all, let open your sensibility, your heart, it is just about humanity ! Ever true....
There are more beautiful versions, to my taste. For instance this one, Erlkönig starts at 24.40. Hope you enjoy! ruclips.net/video/OTyrFGyxihE/видео.html
![🇩🇪 GERMAN Baritone: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Schubert - Der Erlkönig [魔王] (complete version)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/GaEMs8lMA2M/mqdefault.jpg)
![🇩🇪 GERMAN Baritone: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Schubert - Der Erlkönig [魔王] (complete version)](/img/tr.png)
There are several interpretations of Goethe's poem from 1782. One of them is that the boy is very sick and has feverish fantasies. His father tries to calm him down. Other explanations are sexual abuse of the child and his father does not believe him.
Wow, that's darker than I thought. I does make sense though. Thank you for the explanation.
Goethe is our national poet, he is also called the poet prince. We Germans all learned the Erlkönig at school and discussed its action.
The main interpretation that I've seen and thought myself is that the boy was on the brink of death and the Erlknönig is basically death as a character. Erlkönig is trying to entice the child to embrace death and the boy is trying to tell the father what the Erlkönig is saying, the father can't see or hear the Erlkönig because he isn't on the brink of death so he doesn't believe the child.
The poem is great, but Schubert's musical rendition of it is amazing. There is a clear theme that plays whenever the Elf King is near. The piece modulates between different keys as the story progresses. But the amazing part is that the tonic of the keys that it modulates through make up the notes of the Elf King theme. So that it is like they were bound to fall victim to the Elf King no matter what the entire time.
Erlking is a The Erlking's DaughterEdit
Johann Gottfried von Herder introduced this character into German literature in "Erlkönigs Tochter", a ballad published in his 1778 volume Stimmen der Völker in Liedern. It was based on the Danish folk ballad "Hr. Oluf han rider" "Sir Oluf he rides" published in the 1739 Danske Kæmpeviser.[4] Herder undertook a free translation where he translated the Danish elvermø ("elf maid") as Erlkönigs Tochter; according to Danish legend old burial mounds are the residence of the elverkonge, dialectically elle(r)konge, the latter has later been misunderstood in Denmark by some antiquarians as "alder king", cf Danish elletræ "alder tree". It has generally been assumed that the mistranslation was the result of error, but it has also been suggested (Herder does actually also refer to elves in his translation) that he was imaginatively trying to identify the malevolent sprite of the original tale with a woodland old man (hence the alder king).[9]
The story portrays Sir Oluf riding to his marriage but being entranced by the music of the elves. An elf maiden, in Herder's translation the Elverkonge's daughter, appears and invites him to dance with her. He refuses and spurns her offers of gifts and gold. Angered, she strikes him and sends him on his way, deathly pale. The following morning, on the day of his wedding, his bride finds him lying dead under his scarlet cloak.[4]
Goethe's ErlkönigEdit
Although inspired by Herder's ballad, Goethe departed significantly from both Herder's rendering of the Erlking and the Scandinavian original. The antagonist in Goethe's "Der Erlkönig" is the Erlking himself rather than his daughter. Goethe's Erlking differs in other ways as well: his version preys on children, rather than adults of the opposite sex, and the Erlking's motives are never made clear. Goethe's Erlking is much more akin to the Germanic portrayal of elves and valkyries - a force of death rather than simply a magical spirit.[4]
Basically he is a grim reaper of sort so the he is trying to tempt the boy to follow him into the afterlife but the boy refuses so he enters the world of the living to take the boy physical into the world of the dead.According to Jacob Grimm, the term originates with a Scandinavian (Danish) word, ellekonge "king of the elves",[3] or for a female spirit elverkongens datter "the elven king's daughter", who is responsible for ensnaring human beings to satisfy her desire, jealousy or lust for revenge.[4][5] The New Oxford American Dictionary follows this explanation, describing the Erlking as "a bearded giant or goblin who lures little children to the land of death", mistranslated by Herder as Erlkönig in the late 18th century from ellerkonge.[6] The correct German word would have been Elbkönig or Elbenkönig, afterwards used under the modified form of Elfenkönig by Christoph Martin Wieland in his 1780 poem Oberon.[7]
Alternative suggestions have also been made; in 1836, Halling suggested a connection with a Turkic and Mongolian god of death or psychopomp, known as Erlik Chan.[8]
Schubert wrote this when he was 17 years old. The genre of art song is so synonymous with the era of German romanticism that in many countries this type of music is referred to as "Lied" which is German for "song". Schubert went on to write over 400 Lieder including the impactful Lied cycles "Die Schöne Müllerin", "Schwanengesang" and "Winterreise". Even within the classic community this genre takes a niche role compared to opera or orchestral music.
During my school years, the "Erkönig" was a compulsory topic in class. The students had to learn it by heart, classify it historically, interpret it, and so on. There are several interpretations of the poem, even that it is about child abuse and that the Erlkönig is a rapist.
Yeah as a teenager i hated it to have to interpret that, all this can be right, what do you think. don't forget the author what it could have meant to him. For me, Goethe was simply mentally disturbed - finished. I was just too young. today I would have fun interpreting that in a group. For me it's also very clearly about sexual abuse and a child who keeps going back to his father who doesn't believe him until it's too late. In fact, I see the poem as a missed opportunity, with one or the other clue, one could bring a very important topic into the classroom.
@@Petra-Merlin One might think Goethe was that child and not an ab*ser. And that was his way to cope with it.
👩🏻🦰 now I remember my school days....we had to learn it by heart as a homework for the german lessons at the age of 12 or 13, long time ago.....
Welcome back to school. :D
@@xsezz no more boring German lessons, please....Goethe and Schiller and stuff....not for me..😉😁
@@dianafromgermany1513 It's all new for me. :D
@@xsezz ja...I know...I like my mothers tongue but learning Goethe's poems by heart was a torture for me...🤣...German was not my favourite subject, but it's interesting to watch your reaction to it 👍..it won't be long and you will be "completely germanized" , Xsezz :D
@@dianafromgermany1513 LoL! Ja! :D
Interesting ^^ It gives me flashback to the german lessons, when we analyzed this poem ^^
I guess the boy was dying, that's why the father was going so fast and the Erlkönig represents the Grim Reaper and he imagines him in his fever dreams
Yeah, I figured something like that, as well.
@@xsezz just go for some more opera music, in a different style. ruclips.net/video/Rvr_ZG8P9pM/видео.html
Nina Hagen - Habanera (Tokyo 1986)
@@bauhausweimar595 I'll add it to the list. Thank you.
This is the best video on RUclips
In Angela Carter's short story "The Erl-King", contained within the 1979 collection The Bloody Chamber, the female protagonist encounters a male forest spirit. Though she becomes aware of his malicious intentions, she is torn between her desire for him and her desire for freedom. In the end, she forms a plan to kill him in order to escape his power.
Charles Kinbote, the narrator of Vladimir Nabokov's 1962 novel, Pale Fire, alludes to "alderkings". One allusion is in his commentary to line 275 of fellow character John Shade's eponymous poem. In the case of this commentary, the word invokes homosexual ancestors of the last king of Zembla, Kinbote's ostensible homeland. The novel contains at least one other reference by Kinbote to alderkings.
In Jim Butcher's The Dresden Files, there is a character called the Erlking, modeled after the leader of the Wild Hunt, Herne the Hunter.
In the author John Connolly's short story collection Nocturnes (2004), there is a character known as the Erlking who attempts to abduct the protagonist.
J.K. Rowling's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them lists a creature named an Erkling, very similar to the Erlking, as one of the many that inhabit the Wizarding World. Erklings are also present in the videogame Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, set in the same universe.
The New Yorker's "20 Under 40" issue of July 5, 2010 included the short story "The Erlking" by Sarah Shun-lien Bynum.
The original poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe that this is based on has A LOT of sinister undertones and suggestive texts on what the elf king is doing to the boy. I can't say the words due to RUclips censorship but if you look it up you'll see. Seems a case of "boy who cried wolf" as you said but more seedy.
You can take things like that as literal or you can apply them to any scenario of someone needing help but they dont get it till it is too late
Well, that's creepy.
First: It is a shame how much of this ballad is lost in translation.
My interpretation: It descripes a boy and his puberty / growing up. At first the Erlkönig promises mother love and later it has become sexual intention. So the Erlkönig is his changing point of view. The death is not a real death - it is the end of his childhood (like Pink Floyd in Comfortably Numb which reminds me of the Erlkönig:"The child has grown, the dream is gone" - check the Pulse live version (!) ).
Ah, interesting. Thank you for the explanation.
the elf king is also a legend from germany in the black forest. He kills(?) people that stay in the forest for too long or something
Im not an expert, i just understand that theres are two realities, two Worlds. Steps by step, life is coming away for the child, and the father can't protect him anymore, he has tried and he looses again the dead. You say, its old school !!!! Not at all, let open your sensibility, your heart, it is just about humanity ! Ever true....
There are more beautiful versions, to my taste. For instance this one, Erlkönig starts at 24.40. Hope you enjoy! ruclips.net/video/OTyrFGyxihE/видео.html
You need a funny Version of the Elfking "Erlkönig"! Sorry one Version no subtitles.
On RUclips: Marco Rima - Erlkönig! 😂😂
Yeah there are many interpretations. But it was written far before tolkien invented elves etc. Its an quite old work.
The Elfking well maybe they translate it that way. Not really fitting but funny. :) It is much more sinister.
I was trying to find the version used in this reaction but I can no longer find it in YT, was it taken down or smth?
It annoys me to all hell that some words are missing and weren't translated for the sake of more concise meaning it seems. FFFFF