The Alder King
(J.W.Goethe)
The ballad is based on folk beliefs. According to which a mighty and mysterious Alder King truly existed. His power is to kidnap people. One night he captures a child who stands in front of two worlds: the land of the living and the land of the dead. It is not a coincidence that the Alder King captures a small boy. In this manner, Goethe illustrates that only a child possesses the ability to see what the eyes can't see. That is why, his father is frightened. He cannot see the things his sick and feverish son tells him about. The metaphysical world is open to the boy. Romantics claimed that the mad were closest of all to the spiritual world. The father is a personification of our tangible reality. The land of the living. He cannot see the deathly spectre as his seeing is limited. Although he comforts his son, he can only see a regular forest, mist and willows. Thus, the ballad depicts the clash between the two worlds: rational and irrational.It talks about the world of early Romantics and folk tales...
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