How is the erlking related to romanticism?

Answer 1

First, to answer the original question romanticism stresses strong emotion as a source of aesthetic experience, placing new emphasis on such emotions as trepidation, Horror and awe-especially that which is experienced in confronting the sublimity of untamed nature and its picturesque qualities, both new aesthetic categories. It elevated folk art and custom to something noble, and argued for a "natural" epistemology of human activities as conditioned by nature in the form of language, custom and usage. While the Romantics looked to nature as a source of spiritual enlightenment and life, in The Erl-King, it is a source of confinement and death. Secondly, the previous answer(the last paragraph) is a result of the sheltered America. Way to answer out of ignorance. Only in the United States do stories end so happily. Folk lore was often used to scare children so that they would behave and listen to their parents. For example, in Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition they there is a reference to Baba Yaga, a witch who rides around in a mortar and pestle in the forest. Parents tell their children not to go into the forest or Baba Yaga will get them. Not because the parents believe this but it will protect their children. Most any happy or good folk lore used in Armerica today is a positive twist on the old world versions that did not end happily.

Lastly, as for why it was written, it is art. What more needs to be said. However, one story has it that Goethe was visiting a friend when, late one night, a dark figure carrying a bundle in its arms was seen riding past the gate at high speed. The next day Goethe and his friend were told that they had seen a farmer taking his sick son to the doctor. This incident, along with the legend, is said to have been the main inspiration for the poem. ............................................................................................................................................

Who would write such a sordid tale. let alone set it to music? There are morbid songs in pop and c&w but this is going too far. I can recall radio dramas dealing with terminally ill children(usually a girl) conversing with angels or spirits but these usually possiblky to please the production code ended (happily) child survived or came out of a nightmare situation. anybody seeing anything romantic in the impending death of a child-they got bats in their belfry-Pterodactyls out of Jurassic Park-WYRD! wHAT IS THE POINT OF SUCH AS SICK TALE/ Romantic, hell no!