Midnight Thoughts: A Queer Faery King?

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Hi, pornies! I hope you are well. These days have been… intense, to say in a way. I’ve been reading and thinking about many things, mostly male spirituality and gay sex (blame me,) and there’s something I’ve been wondering about since I read Morgan Daimler’s New Dictionary of Fairies, and it’s about the Erl King.

There was something in his short description that got my attention, something in his interest in a young, beautiful boy, which resonated A LOT with me. I had my suspicions that he may be gay, or bi or any shade of queer. I made a quick internet search, but I lost interest all of a sudden. However, I recently remembered him, and thought, “well, it may not be a coincidence.”

I recently started honoring the Fae, just because I was curious, and things have changed a bit. I won’t say much because they hate people showing off, even more if it’s because of them, but there have been pleasant surprises. Maybe that’s why I became interested again, maybe he was calling me, I don’t know for sure just yet but I’m happy nonetheless.

Let’s begin saying he’s of German origin, made famous by Goethe’s poem Erlkönig, in which he takes a man’s beautiful young son. This has been interpreted as the Erl King taking the boy’s life, just like the Fae do in many myths. However, there are several remarks on the boy’s beauty which made me wonder if this isn’t a poem about a gay king? So I got again into the internet to see what I could find.

I want to say at this point that I may be drawing early conclusions on the matter, so this is just an idea in development and any feedback will be welcomed.

Starting with this name, it turns out that it translates as “Alder King,” a sacred tree to the Celts because of his connections with divination and because he was thought to “bleed” when cut, since his wood becomes red when in contact with the air (Monaghan, 2004, pp: 13). It would certainly freak anyone to see a tree with red shining, humanlike blood, so it makes sense it would be a highly respected tree. Fairies are also well-known for stealing human babies and leaving changelings in their place for finding human babies more attractive than their own. (Monaghan, 2004, pp: 86).

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Alder also grows near to bodies of water, water being the element of emotions and psychic development. This makes me think that it’s possible for this King to be related to such abilities. Maybe he saw something in the future of the boy? To be sure, I tried to get a look into the Romantic era, the time in which the poem was written.

So far, it seems men-to-men love was encouraged and even accepted in some level (Essays, 2018), and this period has given us some interesting Gay literature classics, like Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, a favorite of mine, (possibly Wilde’s) Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal, and Jack Saul’s The Sins of the Cities of the Plain.

Also, it wasn’t uncommon on that time for adult men to marry young boys, since 14 and 13 were legal ages of marriage during the 10s’, and in 1884 Goethe even said: "I like boys a lot, but the girls are even nicer. If I tire of her as a girl, she'll play the boy for me as well". (Feierman, 1990, pp: 72) Pedophilia: Biosocial Dimensions, In this time, although many did not do it, it wasn’t frowned upon or seen as a bad thing to marry a child, and even Goethe seems to have slightly bisexual inclinations.

Another queer aspect of this tree is that it can have male and female catkins in its branches, making him sexually fluid. It may not be impossible for the Alder King to be different. Also, as far as I could find, he has no Queen, which doesn’t make him queer or straight right away, but open the door to the former. He may not have any restrictive, definite inclination, but be open to all forms of beauty.

Again, this is a work in progress, but I’m happy with this starting point and that he may be queer. I will be meditating with him and report my results (as much as he allows, of course,) here next week, but feel free to do the same so we can compare! Besides, I’m happy to have a Faery King to work with; not that I have anything against the Queens, mind you, for I find Nicnevin really appealing.

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