The Erlkönig (Erlking) is depicted in a number of German poems and ballads as a malevolent creature who haunts forests and carries off travellers to their deaths. The name may be an 18th-century mistranslation of the original Danish word elverkonge, "elf-king". The character is most famous as the antagonist in Goethe's poem Der Erlkönig and Schubert's musical adaptation of the same name.