THE ERLKING, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Looking at the poem itself, we also find many connections to Pale Fire. First and foremost, there is the death of a child. The father loses his son just as Shade loses his daughter. Shade alludes to 'The Erlking' just before talking about his grief (lines 653-667). In both 'The Erlking' and Pale Fire there is a person who sees things that aren't apparent to anyone else, though in the end what he sees actually is there. In Goethe's poem the son sees the erlking, but his father insists on it simply being the boy's imagination, and he gives a natural explanation for everything the boy claims to sense. It turns out that both son and father are neither entirely correct nor entirely incorrect. There is something that the son feels, hears, and sees, but it is not a person as the boy thinks it is. Likewise, the father insists that there is no person "with crown and with train" whispering in his son's ear, though it is not the wind and mist as he says it is. There is something that is there that is not human, and while it is not the wind and mist, it is, in a way nature. It is Death. The boy sees it, while his father cannot. In Pale Fire, Kinbote sees Jakob Gradus coming closer, approaching along the lines of Shade's poem (see Index entry 'Gradus, Jakob' for extensive list of notes on this, the most notable of which are the notes to lines 17 & 29, 209, 741, and 949), though no one else can see this. In a way Gradus is death itself. He represents death in Kinbote's mind, and brings about the death of not only Shade but of several other people he killed in the attempt to assassinate Charles the Beloved. Kinbote, like the boy in Goethe's poem, is the only one who can see Death coming.
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!
Full 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 hear
The 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,
Full 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.
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!
Full 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 hear
The 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,
Full 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.
Looking at the poem itself, we also find many connections to Pale Fire. First and foremost, there is the death of a child. The father loses his son just as Shade loses his daughter. Shade alludes to 'The Erlking' just before talking about his grief (lines 653-667). In both 'The Erlking' and Pale Fire there is a person who sees things that aren't apparent to anyone else, though in the end what he sees actually is there. In Goethe's poem the son sees the erlking, but his father insists on it simply being the boy's imagination, and he gives a natural explanation for everything the boy claims to sense. It turns out that both son and father are neither entirely correct nor entirely incorrect. There is something that the son feels, hears, and sees, but it is not a person as the boy thinks it is. Likewise, the father insists that there is no person "with crown and with train" whispering in his son's ear, though it is not the wind and mist as he says it is. There is something that is there that is not human, and while it is not the wind and mist, it is, in a way nature. It is Death. The boy sees it, while his father cannot. In Pale Fire, Kinbote sees Jakob Gradus coming closer, approaching along the lines of Shade's poem (see Index entry 'Gradus, Jakob' for extensive list of notes on this, the most notable of which are the notes to lines 17 & 29, 209, 741, and 949), though no one else can see this. In a way Gradus is death itself. He represents death in Kinbote's mind, and brings about the death of not only Shade but of several other people he killed in the attempt to assassinate Charles the Beloved. Kinbote, like the boy in Goethe's poem, is the only one who can see Death coming.
Gradus is also akin to the father in 'The Erlking.' Both are on a journey throughout the entirety of the text. Gradus is on a journey from some mystical place (Zembla) to New Wye to assassinate Charles the Beloved, while the father is on his way home from some unnamed place. Death spurs them both on, but for two very different reasons. Gradus is going to New Wye to take the life of someone, while the father is going home in the hopes of preserving the life of his son. In each case, Death wins.
Gradus can be seen as both the erlking (Death) and the father in Goethe's poem. Each scenario has its own flaw - the erlking is neither human (as the son sees him) nor nature (as the father sees him), and, unlike the father, Gradus seeks to kill rather than to save - but that is the spirit of mistranslation. In this series of mistranslations of 'The Erlking,' Nabokov has found his place among them with Pale Fire. It is his own written translation of events in the tale of Den Elverkongen Datter.
Gradus can be seen as both the erlking (Death) and the father in Goethe's poem. Each scenario has its own flaw - the erlking is neither human (as the son sees him) nor nature (as the father sees him), and, unlike the father, Gradus seeks to kill rather than to save - but that is the spirit of mistranslation. In this series of mistranslations of 'The Erlking,' Nabokov has found his place among them with Pale Fire. It is his own written translation of events in the tale of Den Elverkongen Datter.
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