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Kenneth D. Perkins

“Der Erlkönig”By: Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1782)

&

“Saturn Devouring his Son”By: Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes

(1819 - 1823)

Word Count: 1,783

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Romanticism surfaced during the late 18th and early 19th centuries throughout most parts

of Europe. Various forms of art including literature, painting or other visual mediums, and music

were approached in a different light to combat the oppressive prior movements of Classicalism

and the social norms that constituted its subjugating nature. Authors, musicians, and visual artist

alike, utilized different buried emotions which in turn warranted a strong response from its

audience. One of these highly effective emotionally charged tools was the use of folklore and its

supernatural qualities. By utilizing a combination of folklore and mythology, the artist is able to

channel a certain desired emotion and elicit that particular response from its audience. This

would open the imagination and unleash a plethora of endless sensationalized thoughts in which

the targeted reader or observer can attempt to rationalize or even disorganize its contents. This

particular notion of folklore emerged in Europe around the height of Romanticism in the mid

19th century. Dan Ben-Amos, professor of Folklore at the University of Pennsylvania, argues

that “[folklore] transcend[s] the boundaries that language and space impose”(Ben-Amos 11). If

this holds true, then it can be said that Romantic Era artists used the notion of the infinite and

abstract grandeur in scale to encapsulate its subject’s attention. Romanticism endeavors to grasp

the intangible, however the irony lies in the fact that folklore attempts to “transcend the

boundaries of language” through the medium of language. Both Johann Wolfgang Goethe and

Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes, though from different German and Spanish backgrounds

and cultures, utilized folklore in a profound and effective way to rise above the norm in art and

poetry and draw Romantic responses from within.

Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832) was born in Frankfurt Germany and throughout

the years meddled in many different facets of life from lawyer to politician to writer. Once such

piece he wrote was a poem entitled “Der Erlkönig” written in 1782 when Goethe was 33 years

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old. Essentially, the poem is about a boy held in his father’s arms in a late night carriage ride.

The two bounce dialogue back and forth between one another while the father, frantic in voice, is

rushing to get his (what we assume is a sick) son to an undisclosed place. “The poet never says

that the child is ill. Readers generally assume that the child’s visions are attributable to delirium,

but Goethe’s silence on the subject is the source of a certain poetic ambiguity that gives the poem

an air of mystery” (Chapman Jr. 450). The boy pleads with his father over and over that the

‘Erlking’ or ‘Elf King’ is beckoning and seducing him to leave with him, however the father

attributes the boy’s hallucinations to nature’s surrounding night imagery. In the end, the boy lies

lifeless in his father’s arms. The reader is left in confusion as to whether the Erlking has actually

seized the boy or he has simply fallen dead to an illness. “By the end of the poem, however, [the

father] too is in a state of panic; the Erlking has gained a hold on his psyche as well as on that of

his son” (Krebs 54). Goethe uses the folklore of the Erlking to elicit a strong response from his

reader outside the realm of a natural ill-trodden death.

Goethe takes the supernatural and existential questions provoked in the spiritual realm of

folklore and coincides them alongside another Romantic Era trait, nature. Karl Vietor seconds

this by saying “[Erlking] was in motif and style still inspired by folk poetry. [It is the story] of

the forces of nature, of mythical spirits of the elements which seize upon men, of elf-kings”

(Vietor 137). The boy desperately conveys a spiritual situation to his father while, he in return,

attempts to reassure the boy that nature is the deceiving culprit. Frederick Ungar states that “For

Goethe God and nature were one, and he could conceive of nothing that did not have its origin in

the same divine source” (Ungar 9). By comparing and contrasting the two arguments between the

boy and the father, one might conclude that Goethe was arguing for one and the same. Both sides

were conceived correctly, just in different perspective, a product of differentiation between the

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innocent and experienced mind. Ungar goes on to say “Goethe viewed nature as a seamless

entity, obeying dynamic principals that could be reduced to law” (Ungar 10). Once again, nature

and entities are intertwined. In this particular instance, the Erlking is that entity. These themes

are expressed in many proponents of Goethe’s works. On the intertwining relationship between

folklore and nature, Hartman adds “Goethe’s [Erlking] evoke[s] a border-region or no-man’s-

land between natural and demonic; both are mysterious rather than mystical”(Hartman 404). He

goes on to say, “Goethe defines demonic as magic inherent in nature”(Hartman 408). Goethe

uses Folklore to invoke questions with answers beyond our understanding but full of mystery and

magical connotations. “[Erlking was] written during this decade, as were the poems exploring...a

range of ethical and existential questions on human autonomy and responsibility, on the

relationship between individual human life and fate, between mortals and gods, humans and

animals, us and the world we inhabit” (Sharpe, Williams 47).    These interrelationships help us to

better understand our human condition and make us ponder that condition’s inception and its

ultimate destination and evolution. To bring the idea full circle and argue against mutual

exclusivity between nature and the supernatural in folklore, Hartman adds “The demonic is not

ultimately distinguishable from the productive power of nature, and is called the demonic simply

because adversity and death may accompany its energetic drive”(Hartman 408). Once again, we

are confronted with Goethe’s idea of God and nature in one. Through the simple folk tale of ‘The

Erlking’, we witness the boy succumbing to death in the end, whether by nature or the Erlking

himself, it proves quite irrelevant if they are one in the same. Hartman finalizes this thought

saying “However we interpret the outcome- whether we accept the supernatural intimation or

rationalize it as the product of a fearful or feverish mind- the natural father here is not powerful

enough to save his child”(Hartman 403).

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Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) was a famous Spaniard painter born in

Fuendetodos, Aragón, Spain. Known as one of Goya’s black paintings, “Saturn Devouring his

Son” was painted directly on one his walls at his personal home with oil paints. The painting was

later transferred to canvas after his death. It was painted alongside many other murials on his

livingroom walls. Each embodied a dark theme of sorts. In this particular painting, Cronus or

Saturn, depending on whether one preferred the Greek or Romanize version, was tasked in eating

each one of his offspring at birth to prevent being usurped by one of them in the future. Once

again, we find a Romantic Era artist using folklore or mythology as a means to elicit powerful

responses. Goya does just that with each brushstroke as he illuminates the story of conflict

between predestination and fate. Saturn struggles with the hand he is dealt by eating his own

children as opposed to being dethroned by one of them. Goya creates a subtle undertone of incest

through this act of cannibalism, all the while conveying the innocence verses experience

paradigm, the relationship between a powerful corrupt father and his vulnerable innocent child.

In describing ‘Saturn Devouring his Son’, D.B. Wyndham Lewis says “Goya’s Saturn,

hoary, glaring, hollow-eyed and mad, is in the midst of his meal, with jaws at work on one of the

remaining arms of a gory remnant of the body gripped in his fists, as one wolfing asparagus”

(Lewis 171). Without having seen the painting, one’s mind already takes a dark fanciful flight.

The viewer conjures up even darker scenes beyond the pitch black oils saturating those walls.

Lewis expounds on this stating “[The Black Paintings] continue to defy all exegesis and lucid

explanation. Sadism, hallucination, grotesquerie, fantasy, mockery, comedy, terror, burlesque,

nihilism, the darkest and wildest obsessions of the subconscious, the quintessence of the

Demonology compose an olla podrida cooked, once might almost say, on the hobs of Hell”

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(Lewis 171). To expose all these different emotions and draw out various interpretations, Goya

uses the folklore or mythological backdrop of Saturn’s story. By utilizing this tale, Goya could

reach a large populous number of people from common folk to upper class, as everyone knew the

legend or at least shared a commonality amongst the unwritten but understood language the

folklore conveyed. Professor Dan Ben-Amos elaborates on this stating“All [folklore] include

stories of gods, of creation and of destruction; all tell about marvelous events, beings and places;

and all dwell upon the supernatural, the extraordinary, the absolute, and the incongruous. Their

metaphors relate to nature, beliefs, and societies, and their songs celebrate victories and lament

failures in the struggle for survival. Often, similarities are even more striking when the same

narrative episodes and verbal or visual images appear in the expressions of unrelated

peoples”(Ben-Amos 11). Goya was able to elicit powerful strong responses through his vision of

what the mythological Saturn would have looked like mid-meal. People across many cultures,

irrelevant to their understanding behind the mythology and folklore, are able to grasp the

unspoken language, “transcending that barrier” here by witnessing the gruesome, hideous, and

downright disgusting act taking place. Goya’s use of folklore in this instance embodies the very

definition of Romanticism during this era, encapsulating the idea that the supernatural

personified evil inherent in the world transcends all language barriers and worldviews.

To sum up, both Goethe and Goya epitomize Romanticism in these two works,

accentuating and amplifying the sensationalism of the human mind and thought process through

folklore and mythology. They both draw strong responses from their readers and viewers by

suggesting that folklore characters and the imminency of death go hand in hand. Goethe and

Goya feed on frailty and the lost of innocence. Goethe portrays a boy sick in his loving father’s

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arms who dies from the beckoning of a spiritual outsider. While Goya portrays a boy half eaten

in his father’s jaws, clenched in his fists, the spiritual battle taking place internally in Saturn’s

disposition. Either way one looks at it, without the communal language in the folklore and

mythology used, such strong emotions and connections to the pieces by outsiders may have been

lost altogether.     

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“Der Erlkönig”Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1782)

Who rides there so late through the night dark and drear?The father it is, with his infant so dear;He holdeth the boy tightly clasp'd in his arm,He holdeth him safely, he keepeth him warm.

"My son, wherefore seek'st thou thy face thus to hide?""Look, father, the Erl-King is close by our side!Dost see not the Erl-King, with crown and with train?""My son, 'tis the mist rising over the plain."

"Oh, come, thou dear infant! oh come thou with me!For many a game I will play there with thee;On my strand, lovely flowers their blossoms unfold,My mother shall grace thee with garments of gold."

"My father, my father, and dost thou not hearThe words that the Erl-King now breathes in mine ear?""Be calm, dearest child, 'tis thy fancy deceives;'Tis the sad wind that sighs through the withering leaves."

"Wilt go, then, dear infant, wilt go with me there?My daughters shall tend thee with sisterly care;My daughters by night their glad festival keep,They'll dance thee, and rock thee, and sing thee to sleep."

"My father, my father, and dost thou not see,How the Erl-King his daughters has brought here for me?""My darling, my darling, I see it aright,'Tis the aged grey willows deceiving thy sight."

"I love thee, I'm charm'd by thy beauty, dear boy!And if thou'rt unwilling, then force I'll employ.""My father, my father, he seizes me fast,For sorely the Erl-King has hurt me at last."

The father now gallops, with terror half wild,He grasps in his arms the poor shuddering child;He reaches his courtyard with toil and with dread, –The child in his arms finds he motionless, dead.

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Works Cited:

Ben-Amos, Dan. "The Idea of Folklore: An Essay." Studies in Aggadah and Jewish Folklore. Folklore Research Center Studies VII. Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, 1983, pp. 11-17.

Sharpe, Lesley et al. The Cambridge Companion to Goethe. Cambridge University Press 2002. Print.

Vietor, Karl. Goethe The Poet. New York: Russell & Russell 1970. Print.

Ungar, Frederick. Goethe’s World View. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Company, 1963. Print.

Hartman, Geoffrey H.“Wordsworth and Goethe in Literary History""" “ New Literary HistoryVol. 6, No. 2, On Narrative and Narratives (Winter, 1975), pp. 393-413

Chapman Jr., Hugh H.“Two Poetic Techniques: Lorca's "Romance de la luna, luna"” and Goethe's "Erlkönig"” Hispania Vol. 39, No. 4 (Dec., 1956), pp. 450-455

Lewis, D. B. Wyndham. The World of Goya. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, INC. 1968. Print. Krebs, Harald. Music Analysis: Some Addenda to McNamee's Remarks on 'Erlkönig' , Vol 4, Nos 1-2 (March-July 1985), pp 95-106