The Erl-King
The story of The Erl-King follows a young woman as she wonders through very deep and mysterious woods. The woods in fact are very spooky as she is warned of the Erl-King. The Erl-King lives alone in the woods. He only eats what he can catch out in the woods and funny enough, the animals all seem to follow him willingly. A while later, the woman meets the Erl-King. He shows her the forest and they end up having sex together. Obediently returning to the birdcall, she arrives only to make love with him again. This time though, he bites her on the neck making her completely powerless to his will. In doing this, she will be like the other birds in the cages who are really other women that he has captured and caged. Of realizing this, she schemes a plot to kill the Erl-King in order to save herself and all the other birds as well which will transform them back to women. The fiddle throughout the story symbolizes power. Since it is stringless only its master can play it. But in the end, the woman is able to play it with the hair of the Erl-King.
