Compare and Contrast of the Elf King

Stanley: The original dutch poem was somewhat the same as herder's poem with a few differences. Both talked about Sir Oluf riding inviting poeple to his wedding, and the elf king's daughters were the one's trying to seduce him to dance with them. Also, there were a two line format and 20 or more stanzas in both of these poems. A few differences are in the dutch version oluf, the mother, and maiden dies. In herder's verison just oluf dies, and it states house instead of castle in the dutch version. In the goethe version he takes the poem to a new perspective, were it's about a child. Instead of the elf king's daughters talking it's the elf king himself seducing a boy, and this poem has 8 stanzas. The boy tells his dad the elf king is trying to seduce him, but his dad doesn't listen he gives an explanation for his son's visions. It's said that the elf king visit poeple who are dying, so maybe the father was rushing his son home for help. This would explain why his father didn't see any of the images. Also, this poem has been interpreted as homoeroticism saying the elf king uses force (rape) if his advances didn't work. I wouldn't think this was about rape, but it depends on the person. It's said that Goethe came up with this version of the elf king while visiting a friend and seeing a farmer rushing his son to a doctor.