Erlking
A woodland elf that lures children to their death.
The Erlking is a sinister elf from European folklore who haunts woodlands and preys on children, killing them with a single touch. Its name is believed to derive from the Danish term for 'king of the elves.'
Quick Facts
- Introduced by
- Johann Gottfried Herder
- Notable literary adaptation
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's poem 'Erlkönig' (1782)
- Musical setting
- Schubert
Facts from the source article.
Origin
The term's origin is traced by linguist Jacob Grimm to a Scandinavian word, ellekonge, meaning 'king of the elves,' or to a female spirit called elverkongens datter. The New Oxford American Dictionary describes the Erlking as a bearded giant or goblin who lures children to the land of death, noting that Johann Gottfried Herder mistranslated the Danish ellerkonge as Erlkönig. An alternative suggestion from 1836 connects the figure to a Turkic and Mongolian god of death or psychopomp known as Erlik Khan.
In German romantic literature
Johann Gottfried von Herder introduced the Erlking into German literature with his ballad 'Erlkönigs Tochter,' published in his 1778 volume Stimmen der Völker in Liedern. This work was based on the Danish folk ballad 'Hr. Oluf han rider,' which appeared in the 1739 collection Danske Kæmpeviser. Herder freely translated the Danish elvermø ('elf maid') as Erlkönigs Tochter. In the original Danish legend, old burial mounds are the residence of the elverkonge, a term later misunderstood by some antiquarians as 'alder king.' Herder's translation may have been an error, or he may have imaginatively identified the malevolent sprite with a woodland old man. The story tells of Sir Oluf riding to his marriage, entranced by elf music. An elf maiden, Herder's Erlkönigs Tochter, invites him to dance; he refuses her gifts, and she strikes him, sending him deathly pale to his wedding, where his bride finds him dead. Goethe's later poem 'Der Erlkönig' departed from Herder's version: the antagonist is the Erlking himself, not his daughter. The Erlking appears to a young boy, while his father sees only fog. Goethe's Erlking preys on children rather than adults, and his motives remain unclear.
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