Erlking


In European folklore and myth, the Erlking is a sinister elf who lingers in the woods. He stalks children who stay in the woods for too long, and kills them with a single touch.
The name "Erlking" is a name used in German Romanticism for the figure of a spirit or "king of the fairies". It is usually assumed that the name is a derivation from the ellekonge in Danish folklore. The name is first used by Johann Gottfried Herder in his ballad "Erlkönigs Tochter", an adaptation of the Danish Hr. Oluf han rider, and was taken up by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in his poem "Erlkönig", which was set to music by Schubert, among others. Goethe added a new meaning, as "Erl" does not mean "elf", but "black alder" – the poem about the Erlenkönig is set in the area of an alder quarry in the Saale valley in Thuringia. In English translations of Goethe's poem, the name is sometimes rendered as Erl-king.

Origin

According to early linguist Jacob Grimm, the term originates with a Scandinavian word, ellekonge "king of the elves", 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. 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. 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.
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 Khan.

In German romantic literature

''The Erlking's Daughter''

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. Herder undertook a free translation where he translated the Danish elvermø as Erlkönigs Tochter; according to Danish legend old burial mounds are the residence of the elverkonge, dialectically ellekonge, 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 that he was imaginatively trying to identify the malevolent sprite of the original tale with a woodland old man.
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.

Goethe's ''Erlkönig''

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. The Erlkönig appears to a young boy seeing a spirit – his father, however, sees the apparition as a simple streak of fog. 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 and a magical spirit. There is a modern misconception in which they say the boy is fevered, yet, there is no evidence to support this. The boy is capable of rational conversation with his father, which someone in such a grave fever would not be capable of. Additionally, the so-called “hallucinations” are far too coherent for fevered hallucinations. Furthermore, The Erlkönig kills the boy suddenly and grievously. Fevers do not cause sudden death. Finally, German and other folklores often state that children are more attuned to the supernatural, which would explain why they boy sees it and the father does not.