Es war ein König in Thule Gar treu bis an das Grab, Dem sterbend seine Buhle Einen goldnen Becher gab. Es ging ihm nichts darüber, Er leert' ihn jeden Schmaus; Die Augen gingen ihm über, So oft er trank daraus. Und als er kam zu sterben, Zählt' er seine Städt' im Reich, Gönnt' alles seinem Erben, Den Becher nicht zugleich. Er saß beim Königsmahle, Die Ritter um ihn her, Auf hohem Vätersaale, Dort auf dem Schloß am Meer. Dort stand der alte Zecher, Trank letzte Lebensgluth, Und warf den heil'gen Becher Hinunter in die Fluth. Er sah ihn stürzen, trinken, Und sinken tief ins Meer. Die Augen täten ihm sinken; Trank nie einen Tropfen mehr.
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• W. Fritze • L. Lenz • F. Liszt • A. Radziwill • J. Rheinberger • K. ZelterAbout the headline (FAQ)
View text with all available footnotesConfirmed with Goethe's Werke, Vollständige Ausgabe letzter Hand, Erster Band, Stuttgart und Tübingen, in der J.G.Cottaschen Buchhandlung, 1827, pages 187-188; and with "Faust. Ein Fragment" in Goethe's Schriften. Siebenter Band, Leipzig, bey Georg Joachim Göschen, 1790, pages 94-95. The two versions differ in stanza 5, line 3 word 3 ("heil'gen" in the first cited work, "heiligen" in the second cited work.
Note: the text was first published in a different version in Volks- und andere Lieder, mit Begleitung des Forte piano, In Musik gesetzt von Siegmund Freyherrn von Seckendorff, Dritte Sammlung. Dessau, 1782, pages 6-9; see below.
See also "Het dartele water bruiselt", a poem by Pol de Mont written to be sung to Schumann's song "Der König von Thule".
Text Authorship:
- by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832), "Der König in Thule", written 1774, appears in Faust, in Der Tragödie erster Teil (Part I), Margarete's song, first published 1782 [author's text checked 2 times against a primary source]
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Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Sharon Krebs [Senior Associate Editor], Peter Rastl [Guest Editor] , Johann Winkler
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 120
A king there lived in Thule Was faithful till the grave, To whom his mistress, dying, A golden goblet gave. Before all things he prized it, He drained it at every bout, The tears his eyes o'erflowing Whene'er he drank thereout. And when he came to dying, His towns he reckoned up, All to his heir he left them -- But not the golden cup! He sat at the royal banquet With his knights of high degree, In the proud hall of his fathers, In his castle by the sea. There stood the old carousers! As he drank life's parting glow, He hurled the hallowed goblet Into the surf below. He watched it filling and sinking; Deep into the sea it sank; His eyelids closed and never Again a draught he drank.
About the headline (FAQ)
View text with all available footnotesConfirmed with Faust. Freely Adapted from Goethe's Dramatic Poem, by Stephen Phillips and J. Comyns Carr, Sold in His Majesty's Theatre, 1908, pages 56-57.
Text Authorship:
- by Stephen Phillips (1868 - 1915), "Song" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
- by Joseph Comyns Carr (1849 - 1916), "Song" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Based on:
- a text in German (Deutsch) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832), "Der König in Thule", written 1774, appears in Faust, in Der Tragödie erster Teil (Part I), Margarete's song, first published 1782
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2022-04-18
Line count: 24
Word count: 132