The Erlking

The Erlking Summary | Detailed Summary

The Erlking begins with a detailed description of the forest. Through the author's words, the reader can almost see the light peaking through the tall tress to reach the forest floor. It is autumn and the trees are bare of most of their leaves. The ground is wet, a testament to the fact that it has rained recently.

The author is describing how the woods completely enclose you as soon as you step in. As the author walks through the forest, she explains the sights, sounds and smells of her surroundings in detail. It grows colder and it is explained that there is now ice forming on the small stream.

The author travels deeper and deeper into the forest and she hears a bird's song. It reminds her of her childhood as a young girl, the author first identifying herself as a female. She tells of the tree's branches that are now surrounding her, like a cage.
It is then that the call of the title bird, the Erlking, is heard. The author explains that this bird will harm you.

She keeps walking deeper into the forest. She comes upon a clearing, a garden filled with flowers, and a variety of creatures. A green-eyed goat smiles at her. He has been smoking a pipe. Across the clearing the Erlking sits. A fox is resting its head on the bird's knee. The Erlking lives by himself in a house he built deep in the woods. At the word house, and the proceeding description the reader is first introduced to the fact that the Erlking is human, not bird.

The author describes the Erlking life in these woods. In the morning, he goes out and gathers his supplies. During the day, he makes salads and gives them mischievous names. He milks the goat he keeps for milk and makes cheese out of its offerings. He traps animals for meat and fur. The author explains that she knows these things because the Erlking has spoken to her. She further explains that the Erlking keeps caged songbirds. She has told him that this practice is cruel but he only laughs at her. He stacks the collected cages in his kitchen.

The author explains that the Erlking does very well for himself in the forest. He is quite handy in his home. He has a fully stocked kitchen including saucepan and skillets. He picks and dries herbs to hang around his home.

She explains that she visits the Erlking often, whenever she walks into the woods. When she does so he commands her to lie on his bed and take off her clothes. She complies. She was a virgin before she met him. She is not afraid of his big hands or sharp teeth. Her only fear is heights and of falling. When they are finished, he calls to the birds in the forest and they come to him and rest on his shoulders.

The author is again in the clearing. It begins to rain so goes with the Erlking to his cottage. She lies on his bed. She can feel his sharp teeth in his kiss. Then instantly they are on her throat, piercing her skin. She lets out a scream of pain. His caged birds are singing now and she thinks that they should have real music. He lays on top of her while she compares there meeting to two halves of a seed. Despite his bite to her neck, she is not afraid. She is engulfed in the feeling of him; she wishes that she could somehow shrink so that he may surround her.

Afterward they lay on the mattress with the moon bathing their nakedness. He is stroking her, comforting her. She explains that she always comes back to the Erlking, to feel like this.

Suddenly it is winter. It has grown much colder. He calls out to the birds and once again, they engulf him. She catches her lover's eyes as birds surround his body. It is if he is looking through her. She feels she might "fall" into his eyes. All at once, she is the one who sees. He has been weaving a new cage, meant for her. He means to keep her, like the innocent songbirds he keeps caged. Although the author had loved him, she did not wish to be kept as he keeps those birds, no matter how well he takes care of them. She realizes now that the caged birds are not singing, rather crying and wishing to be freed. He did not want to harm her, but she recalls that she knew he would be dangerous upon their first meeting.

She explains that sometimes while they are lying still he lets her comb through his long hair with her fingers, removing the leaves of the forest. She plans to take his hair tonight, in his sleep wind two ropes of it, and strangle him. She will then free all of the birds and they will again turn into young virgin women, all with identical bite marks on their necks.