List of works based on Erlkönig

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This is a list of works based on the poem Erlkönig by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Works[]

Film[]

• 1931 film directed by  [fr], Le Roi des aulnes^[1] and Der Erlkönig^[2]
• Experimental filmmaker Raymond Salvatore Harmon created an 8-minute puppet animation titled Der Erlkönig using a remixed version of the Schubert composition as the score and based on the original text of the poem.
• In the 1988 film Burning Secret, Baron Alexander recites the final lines of Goethe's poem while holding the boy Edmund in a swimming pool (water itself being a symbol of birth and death). This moment represents the high point of their affection, whereafter the baron turns his attentions elsewhere. Here the quote also suggests the death of a child as such, on the way to maturity.
• The 2020 short film The Erl King is a modern re-imagining of Goethe's poem and features a reading of the original text in its conclusion.^[3]

Prose fiction[]

• The fictional annotator of Vladimir Nabokov's novel Pale Fire offers a translation into the fictional language of Zembla of the opening lines: Ret woren ok spoz on natt ut vett?/ Eto est votchez ut mid ik dett. (note on line 662)
• In 1918 a Yiddish adaption titled Der valdkeyzer was published by  [de].
• In the novel Le Roi des Aulnes (1970), Michel Tournier identified the Erlkönig with his protagonist, and in turn with the German people during World War II, in the deliberate appeal the Nazis made to youth, ultimately sending them to their deaths in battle. The Volker Schlöndorff film The Ogre is an adaptation of Tournier's story.
• British author Angela Carter retells the legend in a short story called "The Erl-King", first published in her short-story collection The Bloody Chamber (1979).
• A short story entitled "The Erl-King" written by Elizabeth Hand is inspired by the Goethe poem but is set in modern day. It first appeared in the anthology Full Spectrum 4 in 1993.
• In the Japanese visual novel G Senjō no Maō, "Der Erlkönig", and the Schubert piece it inspired, play a prominent role as a recurring theme.
• In Frank Tallis's 2008^[4] crime novel Fatal Lies, the psychoanalyst Max Liebermann and police inspector Oskar Rheinhardt perform first Loewe's treatment of the text, then Schubert's. A discussion between the characters about the relative quality of Schubert's and Loewe's respective settings becomes an early pivot-point in the novel's plot.
• American novelist Kevin Flinn's 2009 novel, Through the Night and Wind, takes its name from the first line of the poem and features the first two lines as part of an elaborate dream sequence.
• Sarah Shun-lien Bynum's short story "The Erlking" appeared in the 5 July 2010 issue of The New Yorker as part of the magazine's showcasing of twenty significant American fiction writers under the age of forty. In the story, a mother and her small daughter visit a fairy-themed fundraiser at a Waldorf School. There, the girl (whose name Ondine also stems from European folklore) becomes fixated on a mysterious man whom she perceives to be hiding a surprise for her under his cape. Bynum, in an interview on The New Yorker's website, stated that the inspiration for her story came in part from Goethe's "The Erlking".
• The 2012 Icelandic novel Töfrahöllin has been argued to have modelled one of its main characters, Kormákur Cooltran, on the King in "Der Erlkönig".^[5]

Music[]

• The Rammstein song "Dalai Lama" from the album Reise, Reise is a modernized version of the poem, taking place on an airplane.^[6]
• Sequester released "The Erlking," a metal rendition of Schubert's piece with English lyrics inspired by Goethe's poem. The track would be the namesake for the demo "Visions of the Erlking," and would later appear on the studio album Winter Shadows.
• The heavy metal band Pagan Altar's song "The Erl-King" was inspired by the Goethe poem.
• The neofolk band Forseti has a song called Erlkönig that uses the poem as lyrics.
• Polish metal band Oberschlesien recorded a music video Król Olch based on Goethe's ballad. The lyrics are in the Silesian dialect.
• The band Carolina Chocolate Drops has a song called "Earl King" based on the poem.
• The British classical crossover singer Sarah Brightman released the song "Figlio Perduto" ("Lost Son") in 2000 on her album La Luna. The song is an Italian translation of Goethe's poem by Chiara Ferrau.^[7]
• Singer/songwriter Josh Ritter translated and set the poem to music under the name "The Oak Tree King" for his concert series with violinist Hilary Hahn
• The E Nomine song "Die Schwarzen Reiter" begins with the line "Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind? (Who rides, so late, through night and wind?)", a reference to the poem.
• The poem is used by the German Gothic band Dracul in their song "Erlkönig".
• Norwegian experimental black metal-industrial band Sturmgeist uses shortened and slightly modified version of the poem as lyrics in a song with the same title.
• German industrial-EBM band Kash uses the poem in the song "Erlkönig".
• Norwegian band Jackman also uses the poem "Der Erlkönig" in a modern alternative treatment.
• In the song "Tier in Dir", by the German punk band Jennifer Rostock, parts of the lyrics are the same as the words in the poem.
• The song "Incarnated" from the album Cosmogenesis by Progressive Melodic death metal band Obscura is based on this poem.
• Chapter 20 and Episode 10 of Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto depicts him singing a song made out of this poem.
• The Dutch symphonic metal band Epica released "Once Upon a Nightmare" as part of their 2016 album, The Holographic Principle. The song contains quotes from the poem among its lyrics.
• The Romanian rock band Compact has a song "Jocul ielelor". The song is inspired by the poem.
• Catalan singer-songwriter Roger Mas adapted the poem in his song "El rei dels verns" (the alder king), featured in the 2015 album Irredempt.^[8]

Games[]

• The PlayStation Portable game Work Time Fun features a mini-game based on the poem, which plays the Schubert composition with a Japanese translation of the lyrics as background music. In 1988, an interactive video was displayed at The Kitchen in New York City, which used a video of this song.^[9]

Theatre[]

• British theatre company Théâtre de Complicité use the poem in The Street of Crocodiles, a piece of theatre based on the stories of Bruno Schulz.

References[]