"My father, my father, and can you not hear  The promise the elf-king breathes in my ear?"  "Be calm, stay calm, my child, lie low:  In withered leaves the night-winds blow."

The Erlkönig is a ballad by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which he wrote in 1782 and is one of his most famous works. On a stormy night, a father, his little son in his arms, rides through a dark forest. The child believes in the darkness to recognize the figure of the Erlkönigs and frightens itself ....