The Mysterious Harlequin -From Mysterious Universe

I have recently found this website, and find it quite fascinating. One article that I have read that is a 3 part article (up to part 2) is about Harlequin's or more commonly - Clowns.

It only visited at night. As five-year-old Dan Mitchell lay in his bed in southern Wisconsin, his parents down the hall, a thin, androgynous creature with large, wide-open eyes appeared, bringing with it a damp, fresh smell, like summer rain. The entity pranced around Mitchell’s room telling him stories through dance, theatrics, and sometimes through its always open, round mouth. “Its face looked like it was in a perpetual state of shock,” Mitchell, now 35 and married with children, said. “I would tell my mom about this and she always thought it was just my imagination getting the best of me.” But it was real. With its motley, strange clothing, the entity looked “like a harlequin,” but it called itself the Tooth Fairy. “For whatever reason I was never afraid of it,” Mitchell said. “My overall feeling toward this being was one of total familiarity. Looking back now, I can also say that there was something very potent about this being, like a strength of presence.” What was this thing visiting young Dan Mitchell in the night, this thing that visits him still? It now relegates itself to the periphery of Mitchell’s life, shuffling along the edges of reality, popping into existence just to let Mitchell know it’s still around – watching him

mysteriousuniverse.org...

I am so very fascinated by this subject and have done some research but to no avail and am hoping that someone out there may be able to provide me with more material to read.

Thanks in advance.

I just read part one and two... all I can say is wow... I don't know if it's real or not but my oh my it was intertaining

Fascinating. I know Goethe's poem "Der Erlkoenig" that's mentioned in the article from school -- we had to memorize it, at least partially. Goethe, in case you don't know, is one of the greatest German poets and writers -- he also wrote the infamous "Faust."

I found an English translation that actually rhymes (otherwise the poem loses a lot of its charm). Here it is:

The Erlking
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Who's riding so late where winds blow wild
It is the father grasping his child;
He holds the boy embraced in his arm,
He clasps him snugly, he keeps him warm.

"My son, why cover your face in such fear?"
"You see the elf-king, father? He's near!
The king of the elves with crown and train!"
"My son, the mist is on the plain."

'Sweet lad, o come and join me, do!
Such pretty games I will play with you;
On the shore gay flowers their color unfold,
My mother has many garments of gold.'

"My father, my father, and can you not hear
The promise the elf-king breathes in my ear?"
"Be calm, stay calm, my child, lie low:
In withered leaves the night-winds blow."

'Will you, sweet lad, come along with me?
My daughters shall care for you tenderly;
In the night my daughters their revelry keep,
They'll rock you and dance you and sing you to sleep.'

"My father, my father, o can you not trace
The elf-king's daughters in that gloomy place?"
"My son, my son, I see it clear
How grey the ancient willows appear."

'I love you, your comeliness charms me, my boy!
And if you're not willing, my force I'll employ.'
"Now father, now father, he's seizing my arm.
Elf-king has done me a cruel harm."

The father shudders, his ride is wild,
In his arms he's holding the groaning child,
Reaches the court with toil and dread. -
The child he held in his arms was dead.

[ 1782, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]

translation by Edwin Zeydel, 1955

The Harlequin is a recurring figure in Grant Morrison's "The Invisibles" series from the late 90s. It appears here and there to different characters, but is never totally explained. It's been said that only if you "get" the Harlequin character then can you fully understand the series. Although I'm not in that number, I still recommend the Invisibles and many of Morrison's other works.