A particular play of sounds, images, signifiers related to Nabokov’s several references, in PALE FIRE, to Goethe’s ballad “The Erlkoenig”, to the Elf King and the alders has been misleading me for years. Thanks to R.Boyle’s retake, I suddenly realized another connection (that other VN-readers may have already puzzled out) related to The peacock-herl is the body of a certain sort of artificial fly also called "alder."] Until now, alder-fly fishing and anglers in CK’s notes and index had always seemed to be a gratuitous indication towards the other Alderking references by C.Kinbote, nothing more…
Usually PF readers wonder if the Erlkoenig images follow Goethe’s suggestion (related to the hallucinations of a sick boy being taken to the doctor by his father through dark woods, or else, a story about evil spirits and a violent paedophilic rape present in a few verses by Goethe # ), Danish folklore (Erle as Elf), the Alder tree (in French, Aulnes and Roi des aulnes), insects, fishing…As in the items in CK’s notes to Line 662:
“Who rides so late in the night and the wind : This line, and indeed the whole passage (lines 653-664), allude to the well-known poem by Goethe about the erlking, hoary enchanter of the elf-haunted alderwood, who falls in love with the delicate little boy of a belated traveler.”
Or in note to line 275 (not by coincidence, on J.Shade’s marriage to Sybil):
“As in the case of some of his predecessors, rough alderkings who burned for boys, the clergy blandly ignored our young bachelor’s pagan habits, but wanted him to do what an earlier and even more reluctant Charles had done: take a night off and lawfully engender an heir. Smug alderkings looked at him from the ruby-and-amethyst windows…”
or in note to line 874: "Strange, strange," said the German visitor, who by some quirk of alderwood ancestry had been alone to catch the eerie note that had throbbed by and was gone.”
I had been tied to the visual images related to the peacock-herl, not to its sound when the “h” is mute. Now I wonder if, in his references to fishing, Nabokov hadn’t been enjoying the coincidence of the strictly verbal links of the sounds “herl/“alder”, repeated in relation to the Alder/ Erlkoenig’s “Erl”, to reverberate the alderfly bait*. In that case, the little angler boy would be another confirmation of C.K’s inclinations (outside of Zembla) and of the link between a king and a rapist (as registered in the controversial verses by Goethe #). Curiously, originally this ballad is sung by a fisherwoman.***
Btw:The alderfly insects develop from the nymph (larvae) into adults.**
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# - Da einige Verse, wie „Du liebes Kind, komm geh mit mir!“ oder „Ich liebe dich, mich reizt deine schöne Gestalt; / Und bist du nicht willig, so brauch’ ich Gewalt“, an Missbrauchsfälle von Kindern erinnern, neigen einige Interpreten zu der Auffassung, das Gedicht handele von einer Vergewaltigung. Diese Auffassung teilt auch der Soziologe Rüdiger Lautmann, der den „Erlkönig“ nicht als pädophilen Mann, sondern als „Vergewaltiger“ bewertet. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlk%C3%B6nig_%28Ballade%29
Translation: “You dear child, come along with me!” or “I love you; I'm charmed by your beautiful form; And if you're not willing, then I'll use force.” http://german.about.com/library/blerlking.htm
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* collected Google entries related to Erlkoenig, le roi des Aulnes, Alderfly, Alder…
Erlkönig ist eine Ballade von Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, die er im Jahre 1782 schrieb. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlk%C3%B6nig_%28Ballade%29 Der Stoff der Ballade stammt aus dem Dänischen, dort heißt der Erlkönig Ellerkonge, also ‚Elfenkönig‘. Die Ballade wurde ursprünglich von Johann Gottfried Herder übersetzt.[1] Dabei entstand der Begriff „Erlkönig“ angeblich aus der falschen Übersetzung des Wortes Eller als ‚Erle‘, das er dann mit „König“ kombinierte. Goethe schuf die Ballade als Einlage zu dem Singspiel Die Fischerin, in dem die Darstellerin die Ballade bei der Arbeit singt.// Zum Erlkönig inspiriert worden sein soll Goethe während seines Aufenthaltes in Jena durch eine Nachricht, nach der ein Bauer aus dem nahen Dorf Kunitz mit seinem kranken Kind zum Arzt an der Universität ritt. Zur Erinnerung daran wurde bereits im 19. Jahrhundert ein Erlkönig-Denkmal zwischen den heutigen Jenaer Stadtteilen Kunitz und Wenigenjena errichtet.
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L'Erlkönig (Roi des aulnes) est un personnage représenté dans un certain nombre de počmes et ballades allemands comme une créature maléfique qui hante les foręts et entraîne les voyageurs vers leur mort. La créature a été rendue populaire par le počme de Goethe Der Erlkönig (« Le Roi des aulnes »), et par le lied qu’a composé dessus Schubert.//En tant que personnage littéraire, l’Erlkönig tient ses origines dans un archétype européen commun : la fée ou la sirčne, créature séduisante mais mortelle (que l’on peut comparer ŕ La Belle Dame sans merci et ŕ la Nixe)1.Dans sa forme originale présente dans le folklore scandinave, la créature féminine légendaire est la « fille du roi des elfes » (Ellerkongens datter)[citation nécessaire]. On retrouve des histoires semblables dans de nombreuses ballades scandinaves oů une ellerkone (« femelle elfe ») a été chargée d’attraper des humains pour satisfaire leur désir, la jalousie et la soif de vengeance2. http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlk%C3%B6nig_%28cr%C3%A9ature%29
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The story of the Erlkönig derives from the traditional Danish ballad Elveskud: Goethe's poem was inspired by Johann Gottfried Herder's translation of a variant of the ballad (Danmarks gamle Folkeviser 47B, from Peter Syv's 1695 edition) into German as "Erlkönigs Tochter" ("The Erl-king's Daughter") in his collection of folk songs, Stimmen der Völker in Liedern (published 1778). Goethe's poem then took on a life of its own, inspiring the Romantic concept of the Erlking. Niels Gade's cantata Elverskud opus 30 (1854, text by Chr. K. F. Molbech) was published in translation as Erlkönigs Tochter.
The Erlkönig's nature has been the subject of some debate. The name translates literally from the German as "Alder King" rather than it
s common English translation, "Elf King" (which would be rendered as Elfenkönig in German). It has often been suggested thatErlkönig is a mistranslation from the original Danish elverkonge, which does mean "king of the elves." In the original Scandinavian version of the tale, the antagonist was the Erlkönig's daughter rather than the Erlkönig himself; the female elves or elvermřer sought to ensnare human beings to satisfy their desire, jealousy and lust for revenge.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Der_Erlk%C3%B6nig
Erlking (from Elf-king or Herla-king; German: Erlkönig, literally Elder-king) is a name from Danish and German folklore for the figure of a spirit or "king of the fairies". While early stories feature the Erlking's daughter as a malevolent figure, Goethe's poem "Der Erlkönig" and those following it have the Erlking himself prey on small children. Further information: Herla, Harlequin and Alichino (devil) Further information: Alberich, Oberon and Elegast
According to Jacob Grimm, the term originates with a Scandinavian (Danish) word, ellekonge "king of the elves",[1] or for a female spirit elverkongens datter "the elven king's daughter", who is responsible for ensnaring human beings to satisfy her desire, jealousy or lust for revenge.[2][3] The New Oxford American Dictionary follows this explanation, describing the Erlking as "a bearded giant or goblin who lures little children to the land of death", mistranslated as Erlkönig in the late 18th century from ellerkonge.[4]
Alternatively, the term may derive not from "elf-king" but from the name of Herla king, a figure in medieval English folklore, adapted as Herlequin, Hellequin in medieval French, in origin the leader of the Wild Hunt, in French known as maisnie Hellequin "household of Hellequin" (and as such ultimately identical with Woden), but re-cast as a generic "devil" in the course of the Middle Ages (and incidentally, in the 16th century also the origin of the Harlequin character). Sometimes also associated is the character of Herrequin, a 9th-century count of Boulogne of proverbial wickedness.[5]
The derivation from either eller- or herla- has not been resolved. Alternative suggestions have also been made, Halling (1836) suggested a connection with a Mongolian god of death or psychopomp, known as Erlik Chan.[6]
English Herla is cast in the role of a king of the Britons who ends up spending two centuries in the realm of the elves (and thus missing the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Britain in Walter Map's De nugis curialium (12th century).
The origin of the name Herla would be erilaz ("earl", Old Saxon erl), also found in the name of the Heruli (so that German erl-könig would literally correspond to earl-king)
In German, the name was re-interpreted and associated with Erle, the name of the alder-tree (suggesting a spirit haunting the forest). This form is now primarily known due to the 1782 ballad by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (and Schubert's musical adaptation), "Der Erlkönig". In this context, the term is also sometimes rendered in English as Erl-king.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erlking
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Alder is the common name of a genus of flowering plants (Alnus) belonging to the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 30 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few species extending into Central America and the northern Andes.[1] The common name "alder" evolved from Old English "alor", which in turn is derived from Proto-Germanic root [1] aliso. The generic name Alnus is the equivalent Latin name. Both the Latin and the Germanic words derive from the Proto-Indo-European root el-, meaning "red" or "brown", which is also a root for the English words "elk" and another tree: "elm", a tree distantly related to the alders.[2]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alder
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**Alderflies are megalopteran insects of the family Sialidae. They are closely related to the dobsonflies and fishflies as well as to the prehistoric Euchauliodidae. All living alderflies - about 66 species altogether[1] - are part of thesubfamily Sialinae, which contains between one and seven extant genera according to different scientists' views. But in most classifications, all or almost all of these are treated as subgenera of Sialis.Sialinae have a body length of less than 25 mm (1 inch), long filamentous antennae and four large dark wings of which the anterior pair is slightly longer than the posterior. They lack ocelli and their fourth tarsal segment is dilated and deeply bilobed. Dead alderfly larvae are used as bait in fishing. The females lay a vast number of eggs upon grass stems near water. The larvae are aquatic, active, armed with strong sharp mandibles, and breathe by means of seven pairs of abdominal branchial filaments. When full sized, which takes between one and two years, they leave the water and spend a quiescent pupal stage on the land before metamorphosis into the sexually mature insect. Adult alderflies stay near to the water, in which they had lived in when they were younger. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alderfly
Alderflies Scientific Name: order Megaloptera, family Sialidae “Your first impression of an adult alderfly may be, "Wow! That's one big black caddis!" Look a little closer, though, and you'll become aware that something is missing: there are no hairs on the wings. And that absence is the only reason this bug is important to fly anglers. You see, it's the hairy wings that make caddis float, and the lack of them makes alderflies imitate the Titanic. When an alderfly falls onto the water from an overhanging tree, it slowly sinks. And because alderflies are large enough to make a good snack for a hungry trout, they usually don't sink very far before they're eaten. It's a happy coincidence of favorable events: first, alderflies are a spring hatch; second, it's a time of year when the water is high and into the trees; third, trout are especially hungry after a winter menu of midges and blue-winged olives.So a good spring strategy is to look for overhanging trees (such as alders) either on a lake or a very slow part of a stream. Then cast a large black Soft Hackle into the water below the tree; let the fly make a loud "plop" when it hits the water. And sit there quietly, maybe giving your fly an occasional small twitch. Hang on tight, because strikes can be aggressive! Also, you might want to bump up your tippet size since you'll have to manhandle your fish out from under all those branches. Alderfly larvae prefer slow water or lakes. They crawl around in plant debris and eat other insects. When ready to pupate, they larvae leave the water; pupation and adult happen out of the water. The adults then hang around in the trees looking for mates. Thus the only stage worth imitating is the adults. Dobsonflies are similar to alderflies, except they are bigger. They are more common east of the Rockies, where larval imitations can be productive. However, their significance to western fly anglers is very limited.” http://www.west-fly-fishing.com/entomology/others/alderflies.shtml
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***- Goethe's ‘Erlkönig’ was always intended to be sung, and it occurs in his play Die Fischerin (The Fisherwoman, 1782). The stage direction reads:
Scattered under tall alder trees at the edge of the river are several fishermen's huts. It is a quiet night. Round a small fire are pots, nets and fishing-tackle. Dortchen sings at her work: ‘Wer reitet so spat … ‘
(Quoted in Fischer-Dieskau, 1976, pp. 48–9)Goethe's ‘Erlkönig’ was always intended to be sung, and it occurs in his play Die Fischerin (The Fisherwoman, 1782). The stage direction reads:Scattered under tall alder trees at the edge of the river are several fishermen's huts. It is a quiet night. Round a small fire are pots, nets and fishing-tackle. Dortchen sings at her work: ‘Wer reitet so spat … ‘(Quoted in Fischer-Dieskau, 1976, pp. 48–9) http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/history/history-art/schuberts-lieder-settings-goethes-poems/content-section-4.4
Erlkönig (The Erl-King). Ballad by Goethe, the Erl-King being a King of all the spirits who appears to a child and entices him to death. Poem comes from Goethe's ballad-opera Die Fischerin (1782) and first mus. setting was an 8-bar melody written by Corona Schröter, actress who played the fisherwoman at the f.p. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O76-Erlknig.html
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