Es war ein König in Thule
Gar treu bis an [das]1 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']2 alles [seinem]3 Erben,
Den Becher nicht zugleich.

Er saß beim Königsmahle,
Die Ritter um ihn her,
[Auf hohem]4 Vätersaale,
Dort auf dem Schloß am Meer.

Dort stand der alte Zecher,
Trank letzte Lebensgluth,
Und warf den [heil'gen]5 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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View original text (without footnotes)

Confirmed 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.

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".

¹ Lenz, Liszt: "sein"
² Zelter: "Lies"
³ Fritze, Lenz, Liszt: "seinen"
³ Schubert (Neue Gesamtausgabe): "seinen"
⁴ Zelter: "In hohen"
⁵ Goethe (Faust): "heiligen"

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

See other settings of this text.

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• CAT Catalan (Català) (Salvador Pila) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• CZE Czech (Čeština) (Jan Evangelista Nečas) , "Král v Thule"
• CZE Czech (Čeština) (Otokar Fischer) , "Král v Thule"
• DUT Dutch (Nederlands) [singable] (Lau Kanen) , "De koning van Thule", copyright © 2005, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ENG English (Emily Ezust) , "There was a King of Thule", copyright ©
• ENG English [singable] (Arthur Westbrook) , "The King of Thule"
• IRI Irish (Gaelic) [singable] (Gabriel Rosenstock) , "Bhí rí ann fadó in Thule", copyright © 2014, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• ITA Italian (Italiano) (Amelia Maria Imbarrato) , "Il re in Tule", copyright © 2006, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• NOR Norwegian (Bokmål) (Marianne Beate Kielland) , copyright © 2024, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• POR Portuguese (Português) (Margarida Moreno) , "O rei em Thule", copyright © 2011, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• SPA Spanish (Español) (Diego Gonzales) , copyright © 2020, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Sharon Krebs [Guest 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 carouser 
  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.