From Elf to God?

I realize that this is not a mandatory post, but I am quite intrigued by the evolution of this fable from its folk-tale origins into Rammstein's Dalai Lama.

In Elverskud, which I suspect to the be the earliest version of the myth, the plot features Sir Oluf who, on the day prior to his wedding, encounters an elf who wishes him to "dance" with her (a possible metaphor about sex) and is willing to compensate him for his time. Oluf denies the elf and in response she curses him, which not only leads to Oluf's death, but his future wife's and mother's. Thus one may assume that the story was a cautionary tale meant to instill a fear of the woods into its audience.

When Herder chose to retell these events in The Elfking's Daughter, he kept the plot primarily the same but he altered two scenes completely. In Elverskud, the elf warns Sir Oluf that if he doesn't dance with her, "Disease and sickness shall follow" him. This makes his refusal more heroic as Oluf knows that he will suffer, but he would rather suffer than become unfaithful to his fiance. The Elfking's Daughter removes this warning and instead consists of the Elf telling Sir Oluf to return to his maiden before she hits him to instill the curse (or maybe just to maximize the pain Oluf feels). The other alteration is that Oluf is the only one who dies.

These changes fail in comparison to those that Goethe makes in The Erlking. If Sir Oluf appears in the plot, he is not revealed by name. Instead his role is replaced by a father and son traveling through the woods. The Elf woman is also replaced with The Erlking (Elf King). The son warns his father about the Erlking, who is trying to tempt the boy into leaving his father. The father informs his son that it is only fog. The Erlking continues to the tempt the boy, but eventually he gives up and kills the boy in his father's arms. This transforms the fable from a propagandist warning into a parable about the importance of listening children. Although the supernatural always have played a role in these stories, this is the first in which an interpretation could involve the concept of belief.

This brings us to Rammstein who transformed the story to a modern setting and emphasized the religious component of the work. The Erlking is now the King of Heaven/Wind, a possible metaphor for the Christian God or Satan and the father and son are now traveling on a plane. The King tempts the boy through what appears as a storm, which continues to become worse throughout the song until the father accidentally suffocates his son. My question to you, the reader, is: who do you believe the King of Heaven is and why? I realize that we may discuss this on Monday, but a little pre-discussion is always good for getting the old gears moving.