Had to memorise the whole poem in 7 grade. I can still recite it -.- For anyone who wants to make sense of this: It's basically about a father who is rushing his son to a doctor (by horse) and he keeps telling his feverish son that he is just imagining/dreaming to calm him down. The son has halucinations because of his severe fever and he sees death lurking in the shadows.
Oh I thought it was about a father not listening to his son and paying the price for it from the video but that doesn't even have a lesson it's just sad
@@JacksonC62 In the poem, death (the shadow figure) wants to lure the sick child to his side. In every verse he tells him about soemthing, that would await him if he follows him. 1. Fun Games, beaches, clothing made of gold. 2. His daughters will dance and sing for him. In the last verse he tells the boy that if he won't come to him on his own then he will just use force to get him. Next the boy dies in his fathers arms as they reached the house of the doctor.
The song in background is called Erlkönig (same name as the poem) by Franz Schubert. It was composed to accompany the poem after it was written. Basically, the classical version of adding music to that one scene in a show for a tiktok
@@fariesz6786 There were usally more than 5 children in each family. It sounds hard, but they didn't care about one child dying the way we would nowadays
The translation of the whole poem: Who rides, so late, through night and wind? It is the father with his child. He has the boy well in his arm He holds him safely, he keeps him warm. 'My son, why do you hide your face in fear?' 'Father, do you not see the Erl-king? The Erl-king with crown and cape?' 'My son, it is a streak of fog.' 'You dear child, come, go with me! Very beautiful games I play with you; Many colorful flowers are on the beach, My mother has many a golden robe.' 'My father, my father, and do you not hear What the Erl-king quietly promises me?' 'Be calm, stay calm, my child; Through dry leaves the wind is sighing.' 'Do you, fine boy, want to go with me? My daughters shall wait on you finely; My daughters lead the nightly dance, And rock and dance and sing to bring you in.' 'My father, my father, and don't you see there The Erl-king's daughters in the gloomy place?' 'My son, my son, I see it clearly: There shimmer the old willows so grey.' 'I love you, your beautiful form excites me; And if you're not willing, then I will use force.' 'My father, my father, he's touching me now! The Erl-king has done me harm!' It horrifies the father; he swiftly rides on, He holds the moaning child in his arms, Reaches the farm with toil and with dread; In his arms, the child was dead.
@@samybreitler176 if the father was already sincere for his son's death... The end would be less tragic... Same allegory meaning could applied poetically to every human being... Earlkonig is not a recount story... The meaning of this poetic narration for the audience is "accept the fate to ease the inevitable tragedy"
No but the Erlkonig is the shadow of death and his offerings are the stages of life the little boy will never be able to reach. They ride through the night through winter as the son is very sick, so he hallucinates this because of the fever, and his father tries to reason with him not understanding his son's warnings, and it references fairy tales in this aspect too since the father cannot see what the son sees. So it could be hallucinations or something that adults cannot see or something people in the verge of death see. I think it's a sad yet well written story, because of all the ways you can interpret it. Even though it's true at first glance it's so weird and the Erlkonig is creepy.
I’ve taken a music theory class in which we attempted to analyze Erlkönig and I can 100% agree with the fascination of this poetry for all the ways you can possibly interpret it.
It was a way for people in earlier times to work through the worries they had. Children dying of consumption/phtisis or similar was horrifying and people searched for other explanations. But yeah totally scary poem, especially when you read this in school at a relatively Young age 😅
@@abirbhattacharji9345 And one of the most ironic things? The following is part of many spambot comments: “RU-vid: this is fine Somebody: says ‘heck’ RU-vid: Begone” It’s like they’re mocking us…
Lowkey love this poem, I interpreted it in class, it has different meanings and is so much fun in general (the style of writing, the vibe it carries, like all)
This is one of my favourite pieces for single violin. Its also one of the most difficult and almost not playable, but when done correctly, sounds amazing.
This poem is referenced in the song Murders. The first verse: _He was in the forest,_ _Looking to see the trees_ _But none were there_ _He found a girl_ _She found the Erlking (the lover)_
my dad used to listen to the song version of this poem from franz schubert all the time when i was younger, it got me so confused bc at that time i could only understand some parts of the lyrics... the last verse is still stuck in my headT-T
As a pianist who plays and knows erklonig’s lyrics, this is pretty accurate. I mean I know they’re German but they did put a bit of humour in this, maybe leaving some people who never heard of erklonig confused but still pretty humourous
Actually, this was composed in the late 1700 and there was also a sung version of the poem along with the music. And since it was Goethes poem, many people knew about it.
@@ratsalad178 Also in german the line is "Es ist der Vater mit seinem Kind". Since "father" and "Vater" sound so similar, it really makes you (or at least me 😅) follow it up with "Kind" instead of "child", since that sentence is so engraved into my brain...
Knüppel aus dem Sack: There is this guy who has a magic sack. Everyone who opens it will be striked by a big wooden club that comes out of it. One day the protagonist and their brothers come to a tawern and get robbed. When the robber gets to the protags sack he gets beaten and leaves the stolen goods behind. It doesn't end in death but a beating gor the thief.
Or how about Froschkönig? A Prince/King gets enchanted by a witch and turned into a frog. He helps a daughter of another king to retrieve a ball she dropped in a well. The condition was that he can eat with their family and sleep in their beds for the night. The daughter was so disgusted with the frog sharing meals with them that she cried to her father when the time came. The father said: "You made a promise now you'll have to keep it!" Later that day the daughter climbed into the bed. She had forgotten that the frog also wanted to sleep in a bed. He jumped onto the bed and was thrown around by a disgusted prinzess. The frog turned into a prince again and the princess felt pretty dumb for throwing a prince around and feeling disgusted. Somehow the consequences for yeeting a prince or king in disguise is marriage. I don't get it but maybe someone else will.
Or the Story Of One Who Went Out To Learn To Be Afraid. There was his boy, quite simple-minded, but content. But he knew not what fear was, and no one could quite teach him at home - so he went out to learn it. He ends up staying in a haunted castle for three days, breaking curses left and right by playing bowling, playing cards and trapping an evil spirit's beard in an anvil. All without missing a beat or being afraid. So in the end, his reward is being married to the king's daughter. The lad is still sad because he doesn't know what fear is. His newly-wed wife is a smartie, though. In the first night, when he's asleep, she goes to get a bucket full of cold water and tiny fish - which she all empties over his head. And this is how the lad learnt to be afraid. :D
There's actually 3 very popular german movies called 'fack ju Göhte', which are about a teacher who's actually a criminal that grows close to his students, who are not interested in education at all. It is pretty funny if you know that.
Liszt actually rearranged the Schubert original and by doing upped the difficulty level. Not write a entire new piece. Beethoven did write his own Erlkonig (must admit, no where as good as Schubert)
Ahhh.... once I was at a party where every group was supposed to present something from their country (~10 nationalities present). We unironically decided to present the Erlkönig, with translation and acting. I don't think I really need to mention that firstly: we killed the mood and secondly: we confirmed a few stereotypes.
I get to know about this poem from your channel. Everytime i read the poem, it makes me cry. Reminds me of my mother story about his little brother who passed away when he was 7 yrs old.
A friend of mine interpreted it as a child processing sexual abuse by his father through disassociation. I mean the line "Ich liebe dich, mich reizt deine schöne Gestalt. Und bist du nicht willig so brauch ich Gewalt./ I love you, i'm tempted by your beautiful figure. And if you aren't willing I'll need violence" could be interpreted that way. He got a good grade and a terrified teacher.
@@Jojojjojojojo well interpretations are just that. I don't think one is right or wrong unless it's confirmed by the author but some seem more probable than others. I always saw the abuse interpretation as a stretch but that's personal. There's also another interpretation that sees this story as a metaphor for growing up and loosing your childhood innocence in that case the death of the child being far less literal. More like the death of childhood and the boy becoming a man. All interpretations are quite interesting tbh
and not to forget the beautiful meme after the Lasagna scandal in Germany: „Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind? Es ist die Lasagna getarnt als Rind.“
@@simonhulsmann4055 ich hab so gehofft das niemand den Joe-Olli-Spruch macht maaaaaaaaann Wer torkelt so spät durch Nacht und Wind? Es ist ein Student, vom Rausch fast blind. Er hält es sicher, er hält es warm, das letzte Bier auf seinem Arm.
Ahh Goethe! The poem is beautiful, we just had it in literature - can be found as King of Shadows or King of Ghosts. The poem is beautifuly written and the death implication is really well written, even in the translations.
@@mateuszkoprowski1313 possible, in our translation it was King of Shadows or Ghosts, maybe even spirits. Very hard to translate through language to language. Still a very nice poem!
I remember when my older cousin had to memorise it for school and recited it to me. I was so captivated, her performance didn't even need to be good for me to remember it for the rest of my life.
"Wer reitet so spät durch Wind und Nacht Es ist der Vater, es ist gleich acht Im Arm den Knaben er wohl hält Er hält ihn warm, denn er ist erkält Halb drei, halb fünf, es wird gleich hell Noch immer reitet der Vater schnell Erreicht den Hof mit Müh und Not Der Knabe lebt, das Pferd ist tot" - Heinz Erhardt (Frei nach Johann Wolfgang von Frankfurt)
I might be a music nerd, BUT this is one of my favorite pieces! Like ever! Just because it tells so much of the story through the music alone.Someone who described it well was sideways on youtube in his video about "der erl-Kong"
Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind? Es ist der Vater mit seinem Kind. Er hat den Knaben fest im Arm. Er hält ihn sicher, er hält ihn warm. That's about all I can actually remember. So if anyone's wondering if it's some niche poem: No, pretty much everyone learns it in school, I think, and it's very well known. I even had to hold a presentation about it, or something like that, once and one of my friends kept saying Erlenmeierkönig instead of Erlkönig, because there's a Erlenmeierkolben in chemistry, which he was way more interested in. This has absolutely nothing to do with the poem or the video but I had to think of it and now you're blessed with the burden of knowing or something, idk.
@@carmenplangger9417 Das klingt nach ner falsch zitierte stelle von nem Comedian. "Erreicht den Hof mit Müh und Not, der Knabe lebt, das Pferd ist tot." Die echte Stelle geht: "Erreicht den Hof mit Müh und Not, in seinen Armen, das Kind war tot.
to be exact, they're talking about Goethe's poem. Schubert composed music inspired by that poem, then Ernst arranged it for solo violin and THAT is what Hilary Hahn played
One of the best pieces i've ever read, I studied 2 years of foreign literature in high school and german was my favourite, also the hardest, way too hard
We were introduced to this in about 6th grade or so, and I remember very clearly that it made me feel sick physically, and ever since then i am terrified of my mortality
Hahaha! Spent literally a YEAR learning to sing this song in 9th grade (cos I was doing it for a national competition, which I came 3rd in)! Love hearing this joking take on the lyrics!
