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"Erlkönig" is apoem byJohann Wolfgang von Goethe. It depicts the death of a child assailed by a supernatural being, theErlking, a king of thefairies. It was originally written by Goethe as part of a 1782Singspiel,Die Fischerin.
"Erlkönig" has been called Goethe's "most famous ballad".[1] The poem has been set to music by several composers, most notablyby Franz Schubert.
An anxious young boy is being carried at night by his father on horseback. To where is not spelled out; GermanHof has a rather broad meaning of "yard", "courtyard", "farm", or "(royal) court". The opening line tells that the time is late and that it is windy.
As the poem unfolds, the son claims to see and hear the "Erlkönig" (Erl-King). His father claims to not see or hear the creature, and he attempts to comfort his son, asserting natural explanations for what the child sees – a wisp of fog, rustling leaves, shimmering willows.
The Erl-King attempts to lure the child into joining him, promising amusement, rich clothes, and the attentions of his daughters. Finally, the Erl-King declares that he will take the child by force. The boy shrieks that he has been attacked, spurring the father to ride faster to theHof. Upon reaching the destination, the child is already dead.
| Literal translation | Edgar Alfred Bowring's translation[2] | |
|---|---|---|
Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind? | Who rides, so late, through night and wind? | Who rides there so late through the night dark and drear? |
The story of the Erlkönig derives from the traditional Danish balladElveskud: Goethe's poem was inspired byJohann Gottfried Herder's translation of a variant of the ballad (Danmarks gamle Folkeviser 47B, from Peter Syv's 1695 edition) into German asErlkönigs Tochter ("The Erl-King's Daughter") in his collection of folk songs,Stimmen der Völker in Liedern (published 1778). Goethe's poem then took on a life of its own, inspiring the Romantic concept of the Erlking.Niels Gade's cantataElverskud, Op. 30 (1854, text byChr. K. F. Molbech [da]) was published in translation asErlkönigs Tochter.
The Erlkönig's nature has been the subject of some debate. The name translates literally from the German as "Alder King" rather than its common English translation, "Elf King" (which would be rendered asElfenkönig in German). It has often been suggested thatErlkönig is a mistranslation from the original Danishelverkonge, which does mean "king of the elves".[citation needed] In the original Scandinavian version of the tale, the antagonist was the Erlkönig's daughter rather than the Erlkönig himself.
The poem has often been set to music, with Franz Schubert's rendition, his Opus 1 (D. 328), being the best known.[3][4] Probably the next-best known is that ofCarl Loewe (1818). Other notable settings are by members of Goethe's circle, including actressCorona Schröter (1782),Andreas Romberg (1793),Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1794), andCarl Friedrich Zelter (1797).Ludwig van Beethoven attempted to set it to music, but abandoned the effort; his sketch, however, was full enough to be published in a completion by Reinhold Becker (1897). A few other 19th-century versions are those byVáclav Tomášek (1815),Carl Borromäus von Miltitz (1835),[5] andLouis Spohr (1856, withobbligato violin; Op. 154 No. 4) andHeinrich Wilhelm Ernst (Polyphonic Studies for Solo Violin), though his was essentially a transcription of Schubert's version for solo violin. Twenty-first-century examples are pianistMarc-André Hamelin's "Etude No. 8 (after Goethe)" for solo piano, based on "Erlkönig".[6]Neue Deutsche Härte bandRammstein, inspired by the motifs in this poem created their songDalai Lama for their albumReise, Reise (2004). The poem has also been depicted byIndustrial Metal bandKMFDM in their songErlkönig from the albumLet Go (2024).
Franz Schubert composed hisLied "Erlkönig" for solo voice and piano at the age of 17 or 18 in 1815, setting text from Goethe's poem. The work was first performed in concert on 1 December 1820 at a private gathering in Vienna. The public premiere on 7 March 1821 at theTheater am Kärntnertor was a great success, and he quickly rose to fame among the composers in Vienna.[7] It is one of Schubert's most famous works, with enduring popularity and acclaim since its premiere in 1821.[8]
Carl Loewe's setting was published as Op. 1, No. 3 and composed in 1817–18, in the lifetime of the poem's author and also of Schubert, whose version Loewe did not then know. Collected with it were Op. 1, No. 1, "Edward" (1818; a translation ofthe Scottish ballad), and No. 2, "Der Wirthin Töchterlein" (1823; "The Innkeeper's Daughter"), a poem ofLudwig Uhland. Inspired by a German translation of Scottish border ballads, Loewe set several poems with anelvish theme; but although all three of Op. 1 are concerned with untimely death, in this set only the "Erlkönig" has the supernatural element.
Loewe's accompaniment is in semiquaver groups of six in9
8 time and markedGeschwind (fast). The vocal line evokes the galloping effect by repeated figures ofcrotchet andquaver, or sometimes three quavers, overlying the binarytremolo of thesemiquavers in the piano. In addition to an unusual sense of motion, this creates a flexible template for the stresses in the words to fall correctly within the rhythmic structure.
Loewe's version is less melodic than Schubert's, with an insistent, repetitive harmonic structure between the opening minor key and answering phrases in the major key of thedominant, which have a stark quality owing to their unusual relationship to the home key. The narrator's phrases are echoed by the voices of father and son, the father taking up the deeper, rising phrase, and the son a lightly undulating, answering theme around the dominant fifth. These two themes also evoke the rising and moaning of the wind.[citation needed]
The Erl-King, who is always heardpianissimo, does not sing melodies, but instead delivers insubstantial rising arpeggios that outline a single major chord (that of the home key) which sounds simultaneously on the piano inuna cordatremolo. Only with his final threatening word, "Gewalt", does he depart from this chord. Loewe's implication is that the Erlking has no substance but merely exists in the child's feverish imagination. As the piece progresses, the first in the groups of three quavers is dotted to create a breathless pace, which then forms a bass figure in the piano driving through to the final crisis. The last words,war tot, leap from the lower dominant to the sharpened third of the home key; this time not to the major but to adiminished chord, which settles chromatically through the home key in the major and then to the minor.
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