🌜 The Erlking (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
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Goethe's famous ballad "The Erlking" is considered a prime example of Romanticism.
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The story of a father riding through a dark forest at night with his sick child is intensified by vivid linguistic imagery.
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Important linguistic images:
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- "Who rides so late through night and wind?" – begins with an image of speed and danger in the darkness.
- The figure of the Erlking is described with seductive images from nature: "It is the father with his child; He has the boy safely in his arms"
- The streaks of fog and the dark woods emphasize the threatening atmosphere.
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Effect on the mood:
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- The images convey a sense of fear, uncertainty, and hopelessness.
- The personified nature (fog and wind) gives the impression that the environment itself is against the father and child.
- The dreamlike, uncanny atmosphere is heightened as the boundary between reality and imagination becomes blurred.
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⚙ erlkonig