She was quite upon an even keel -- that is to say, her deck lay in a plane parallel with that of the water -- but this latter sloped at an angle of more than forty-five degrees, so that we seemed to be lying upon our beam-ends. When I recovered myself a little, however, my gaze fell instinctively downward. In five minutes the whole sea, as far as Vurrgh, was lashed into ungovernable fury ;but it was between Moskoe and the coast that the main uproar held its sway. The attempts to account for the phenomenon some of which, I remember, seemed to me sufficiently plausible in perusal now wore a very different and unsatisfactory aspect. The story is told by an Old Norwegian fisherman to a tourist at the top of a very tall mountain. It was the hour of the slack but the sea still heaved in mountainous waves from the effects of the hurricane. To be sure, I thought, we shall get there just about the slack there is some little hope in that but in the next moment I cursed myself for being so great a fool as to dream of hope at all. Looking down from this pinnacle upon the howling Phlegethon below, I could not help smiling at the simplicity with which the honest Jonas Ramus records, as a matter difficult of belief, the anecdotes of the whales and the bears; for it appeared to me, in fact, a self-evident thing, that the largest ship of the line in existence, coming within the influence of that deadly attraction, could resist it as little as a feather the hurricane, and must disappear bodily and at once. A singular change, too, had come over the heavens. "The rays of the moon seemed to search the very bottom of the profound gulf ;but still I could make out nothing distinctly, on account of a thick mist in which everything there was enveloped, and over which there hung a magnificent rainbow, like that narrow and tottering bridge which Mussulmen say is the only pathway between Time and Eternity. Inspired by the Moskstraumen, it is couched as a story within a story, a tale told at the summit of a mountain climb in Lofoten, Norway. The Literature Network: Online classic literature, poems, and quotes. A Descent Into The Maelstrom. The boat appeared to be hanging, as if by magic, midway down, upon the interior surface of a funnel vast in circumference, prodigious in depth, and whose perfectly smooth sides might have been mistaken for ebony, but for the bewildering rapidity with which they spun around, and for the gleaming and ghastly radiance they shot forth, as the rays of the full moon, from that circular rift amid the clouds which I have already described, streamed in a flood of golden glory along the black walls, and far away down into the inmost recesses of the abyss. I muttered a hurried prayer to God, and thought all was over. Do you know I can scarcely look over this little cliff without getting giddy?. the fall of the house of usher: silencea fable: the masque of the red death. Myself and my two brothers once owned a schooner-rigged smack of about seventy tons burthen, with which we were in the habit of fishing among the islands beyond Moskoe, nearly to Vurrgh. I was now trying to get the better of the stupor that had come over me, and to collect my senses so as to see what was to be done, when I felt somebody grasp my arm. Descent into the Maelstrom (2019) Quotes It looks like we don't have any Quotes for this title yet. But since Marie Bonapartes (now largely derided) analysis of Poes life and work in the 1930s, A Descent into the Maelstrom has also been analysed in light of Freudian psychoanalysis: the whirlpool represents the eddies and currents of sexual desire, threatening to overwhelm us. "You have had a good look at the whirl now," said the old man, "and if you will creep round this crag, so as to get in its lee, and deaden the roar of the water, I will tell you a story that will convince you I ought to know something of the Moskoe-strm." The first was, that, as a general rule, the larger the bodies were, the more rapid their descent the second, that, between two masses of equal extent, the one spherical, and As to the former notion he confessed his inability to comprehend it ; and here I agreed with him -- for, however conclusive on paper, it becomes altogether unintelligible, and even absurd, amid the thunder of the abyss. I resolved to lash myself securely to the water cask upon which I now held, to cut it loose from the counter, and to throw myself with it into the water. These streaks, at length, spreading out to a great distance, and entering into combination, took unto themselves the gyratory motion of the subsided vortices, and seemed to form the germ of another more vast. The edge of the whirl was represented by a broad belt of gleaming spray; but no particle of this slipped into the mouth of the terrific funnel, whose interior, as far as the eye could fathom it, was a smooth, shining, and jet-black wall of water, inclined to the horizon at an angle of some forty-five degrees, speeding dizzily round and round with a swaying and sweltering motion, and sending forth to the winds an appalling voice, half shriek, half roar, such as not even the mighty cataract of Niagara ever lifts up in its agony to Heaven. "As I felt the sickening sweep of the descent, I had instinctively tightened my hold upon the barrel, and closed my eyes. Twice, during six years, we were forced to stay all night at anchor on account of a dead calm, which is a rare thing indeed just about here ;and once we had to remain on the grounds nearly a week, starving to death, owing to a gale which blew up shortly after our arrival, and made the channel too boisterous to be thought of. Themes of descent often turn on the struggle between the titanic and the demonic within the same Boats, yachts, and ships have been carried away by not guarding against it before they were within its reach. links | There are some passages of his description, nevertheless, which may be quoted for their details, although their effect is exceedingly feeble in conveying an impression of the spectacle. These are the true names of the places -- but why it has been thought necessary to name them at all, is more than either you or I can understand. On a fishing trip with his brothers a storm arose fuelled by the most powerful and wicked hurricane that ever erupted from heaven caused their ship to be swept into an almighty vortex. When I find a Poe I like, I really like it. Although, at the time, so strong a gale was blowing landward that a brig in the remote offing lay to under a double-reefed trysail, and constantly plunged her whole hull out of sight, still there washere nothing like a regular swell, but only a short, quick, angry cross dashing of water in every direction as well in the teeth of the wind as otherwise. It is now within a few days of three years since what I am going to tell you occurred. "I could not tell you the twentieth part of the difficulties we encountered 'on the grounds' -- it is a bad spot to be in, even in good weather -- but we made shift always to run the gauntlet of the Moskoe-strm itself without accident ;although at times my heart has been in my mouth when we happened to be a minute or so behind or before the slack. What does the maelstrom represent? This hope arose partly from memory, and partly from present observation. 'This fir tree,' I found myself at one time saying, 'will certainly be the next thing that takes the awful plunge and disappears,' -- and then I was disappointed to find that the wreck of a Dutch merchant ship overtook it and went down before. Confession time, science fiction is not my thing, instead the unpredictability of real life continues to fascinate in both fiction and non. When it is flood, the stream runs up the country between Lofoden and Moskoe with a boisterous rapidity; but the roar of its impetuous ebb to the sea is scarce equalled by the loudest and most dreadfulcataracts; the noise being heard several leagues off, and the vortices or pits are of such an extent and depth, that if a ship comes within its attraction, it is inevitably absorbed and carried down to the bottom, and there beat to pieces against the rocks; and when the water relaxes, the fragments thereof are thrown up again. Suddenly -- very suddenly -- this assumed a distinct and definite existence, in a circle of more than a mile in diameter. Format: CD. At the same moment the roaring noise of the water was completely drowned in a kind of shrill shriek such a sound as you might imagine given out by the waste-pipes of many thousand steam-vessels, letting off their steam all together. I have already described the unnatural curiosity which had taken the place of my original terrors. Refresh and try again. Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn With their small fishing ship in the grip of this nightmarish phenomenon, the hero discovers himself to be in the grip of a force, parallel to that of the Maelstrom, equal in strength, which has arisen from within him. I could not help observing, nevertheless, that I had scarcely more difficulty in maintaining my hold and footing in this situation, than if we had been upon a dead level ;and this, I suppose, was owing to the speed at which we revolved. The usual grounds are a great way lower down to the southward. I still lived. It was long before I could reason myself into sufficient courage to sit up and look out into the distance. Read 135 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. We careered round and round for perhaps an hour, flying rather than floating, getting gradually more and more into the middle of the surge, and then nearer and nearer to its horrible inner edge. Interesting Literature is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.co.uk. Much better than expected! Learn more. I took courage, and looked once again upon the scene. Good news, Goodreaders: 2023 is shaping up to be a very busy year for dedicated book people. Now raise yourself up a little higher -- hold on to the grass if you feel giddy -- so -- and look out, beyond the belt of vapor beneath us, into the sea." Presently he shook his head, looking as pale as death, and held up one of his fingers, as if to say listen!. A Descent into the Maelstrm. "A Descent into the Maelstrm" is an 1841 short story by Edgar Allan Poe. In the tale, a man recounts how he survived a shipwreck and a whirlpool. It has been grouped with Poe's tales of ratiocination and also labeled an early form of science fiction. site map | I now tell it toyou and I can scarcely expect you to put more faith in it than did the merry fishermen of Lofoden., Filed Under: The Poe Museum Blog Tagged With: Poe's Works. A Descent into the Maelstrom By Edgar Allan Poe noise being heard several leagues off, and the vortices or pits are of such an extent and depth, that if a ship comes within its attraction, it is inevitably absorbed and carried down to the bottom, and there beat to pieces against the rocks; and when the water relaxes, the frag- You must get over these fancies, said the guide, for I have brought you here that you might have the best possible view of the scene of that event I mentioned and to tell you the whole story with the spot just under your eye., We are now, he continued, in that particularizing manner which distinguished him we are now close upon the Norwegian coast in the sixty-eighth degree of latitude in the great province of Nordland and in the dreary district of Lofoden. That of Jonas Ramus, which is perhaps the most circumstantial of any, cannot impart the faintest conception either of the magnificence, or of the horror of the scene or of the wild bewildering sense ofthe novelwhich confounds the beholder. "The result was precisely what I had hoped it might be. They say too that the whole expression of my countenance had changed. It was mere instinct that prompted me to do this which was undoubtedly the very best thing I could have done for I was too much flurried to think. He will survive, but only just and with his hair showing how his narrow escape has prematurely aged him. I threw myself upon my face, and clung to the scant herbage in an excess of nervous agitation. A bear once, attempting to swim from Lofoden to Moskoe, was caught by the stream and borne down, while he roared terribly, so as to be heard on shore. The maelstrm is incredible, forming a vast hole, roaring and shrieking far more loudly than Niagara Falls, and shaking the mountain from which they watch. Looking about me upon the wide waste of liquid ebony on which we were thus borne, I perceived that our boat was not the only object in the embrace of the whirl. I shook from head to foot as if I had had the most violent fit of the ague. quotes Just opposite the promontory upon whose apex we were placed, and at a distance of some five or six miles out at sea, there was visible a small, bleak-looking island ;or, more properly, its position was discernible through the wilderness of surge in which it was enveloped. Of foam there was little except in the immediate vicinity of the rocks. A Descent into the Maelstrm. The narrator, convinced by the power of the whirlpools he sees in the ocean beyond, is t js.id=id; A Descent into the Maelstrom. Director Neil Marshall Writer Neil Marshall Stars Shauna Macdonald It might have been an hour, or thereabout, after myquitting the smack, when, having descended to a vast distance beneath me, it made three or four wild gyrations in rapid succession, and, bearing my loved brother with it, plunged headlong, at once and forever, into the chaos of foam below. Joseph Glanville. But moment after moment elapsed. The story provides us with something that real life almost certainly never could: what would it be like to be caught up in such a powerful force as the Maelstrom and yet live to tell the tale? Science Fiction and Edgar Allan Poe's 'A Descent Into the Maelstrom'(2019 Podcast Episode) Quotes It looks like we don't have any Quotes for this title yet. Large stocks of firs and pine trees, after being absorbed by the current, rise again broken and torn to such a degree as if bristles grew upon them. I now made one or two attempts to speak to my brother but, in some manner which I could not understand, the din had so increased that I could not make him hear a single word, although I screamed at the top of my voice in his ear. By using DESCENTE website, you agree to our use of cookies. Poe learnt about the maelstrom from several sources, which included an 1834 story in Frasers Magazine titled The Maelstrom: A Fragment. The mountain upon whose top we sit is Helseggen, the Cloudy. guestbook | But A Descent into the Maelstrom is different, because the trouble which descends upon the white-haired man is outside of his control: he is a victim of natures forces at their wildest and most uncontrollable, with his brush with death being the result of natural phenomena rather than some retributive power punishing him for some past crime. In truth so deeply was I excited by the perilous position of my companion, that I fell at full length upon the ground, clungto the shrubs around me, and dared not even glance upward at the sky while I struggled in vain to divest myself of the idea that the very foundations of the mountain were in danger from the fury of the winds. I'd say this is for Poe's fans only. International delivery varies by country, please see the Wordery store help page for details. Our progress downward, at each revolution, was slow, but very perceptible. I muttered a hurried prayer to God, and thought all was over. The story of how he was caught during a storm in a maelstrom three years earlier with his brothers and how he survived. For some minutes the old man seemed too much exhausted to speak. It's a tale of fear and terror. We put the boat on the wind, but could make no headway at all for the eddies, and I was upon the point of proposing to return to the anchorage, when, looking astern, we saw the whole horizon covered with a singular copper-colored cloud that rose with the most amazing velocity. Britannica Dictionary definition of DESCENT formal 1 [count] : the act or process of descending: such as a : the act or process of going from a higher to a lower place or level usually singular The climbers were faced with a dangerous descent in bad weather. It took less than a single day to change these hairs from a jetty black to white, to weaken my limbs, and to unstring my nerves, so that I tremble at the least exertion, and am frightened at a shadow. In the year 1645, early in the morning of Sexagesima Sunday, it raged with such noise and impetuosity that the very stones of the houses on the coast fell to the ground." The slope of the sides of the vast funnel became momently less and less steep. To the right and left, as far as the eye could reach, there lay outstretched, like ramparts of the world, lines of horridly black and beetling cliff, whose character of gloom was but the more forcibly illustrated by the surf which reared high up against its white and ghastly crest, howling and shrieking forever. The appearance of the ocean, in the space between the more distant island and the shore, had something very unusual about it. I called to mind the great variety of buoyant matter that strewed the coast of Lofoden, having been absorbed and then thrown forth by the Moskoe-strm. With the wind that now drove us on, we were bound for the whirl of the Strm, and nothing could save us! poetry | The appearance of the ocean, in the space between the more distant island and the shore, had something very unusual about it. Here the vast bed of the waters, seamed and scarred into a thousand conflicting channels, burst suddenly into phrensied convulsion heaving, boiling, hissing gyrating in gigantic and innumerable vortices, and all whirling and plunging on to the eastward with a rapidity which water never elsewhere assumes except in precipitous descents. The mountain trembled to its very base, and the rock rocked. -- These are the words of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Harry a dval la descente qui mne au lac. I thought at length that he comprehended my design but, whether this was the case or not, he shook his head despairingly, and refused to move from his station by the ring-bolt. By degrees, the froth and the rainbow disappeared, and the bottom of the gulf seemed slowly to uprise. I love that this is based on an actual whirlpool in Norway. 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