You frequently reference Der Erlkönig in Wintersong. When did you first encounter Goethe's poem, and how did it influence your story?

S. Jae-Jones I first encountered Goethe's poem in college, not because I was studying it, but because I was obsessed with Mozart. I was studying voice at the time, and my teacher assigned me "Das Veilchen," which is a Lieder by Mozart set to the poem of the same name by Goethe. The Ravenclaw in me loves to go down research tangents, so I actually next discovered the "Der Erlkönig" Lieder by Schubert.

The poem (nor the piece by Schubert) didn't much influence the novel in terms of story, although it did inspire the mood.

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