It is considered by some critics to be a science fiction tale based upon an actual maelstrom off the coast of Norway in the Lofoten Islands. It was the hour of the slack -- but the sea still heaved in mountainous waves from the effects of the hurricane. 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 appearedto 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 Descent into the Maelstrom is a classic example of Poes incorporation of real-life, non-fiction accounts of phenomena into fiction. In fact, we made it a matter of desperate speculation -- the risk of life standing instead of labor, and courage answering for capital. "It could not have been more than two minutes afterward until we suddenly felt the waves subside, and were enveloped in foam. 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. I'd say this is for Poe's fans only. I am not sure from what point of view the writer in question surveyed it, nor at what time ;but it could neither have been from the summit of Helseggen, nor during a storm. A panorama more deplorably desolate no human imagination can conceive. But for this circumstance we should have foundered at once for we lay entirely buried for some moments. This opinion, idle in itself, was the one to which, as I gazed, my imagination most readily assented ;and, mentioning it to the guide, I was rather surprised to hear him say that, although it was the view almost universally entertained of the subject by the Norwegians, it nevertheless was not his own. Indeed, critics including Jules Zanger have highlighted that there are other symbols in A Descent into the Maelstrom which support such an idea: along with the mans white hair, we might seize upon his watch: At first I could not make out what he meant but soon a hideous thought flashed upon me. I woke up this morning eager to do nothing but to celebrate the birthday of a man who loved with a love that was more than love. Depuis l'aroport, Catherine assista la descente de l'avion sur le tarmac. Which is how I came across. We Norwegians call it the Moskoe-strm, from the island of Moskoe in the midway.. "Our boat was the lightest feather of a thing that ever sat upon water. About two miles nearer the land, arose another of smaller size, hideously craggy and barren, and encompassed at various intervals by a cluster of dark rocks. 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. In regard to the depth of the water, I could not see how this could have been ascertained at all in the immediate vicinity of the vortex. 2. a downward inclination or slope. 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. And how he survived with an application of science. For some moments we were completely deluged, as I say, and all this time I held my breath, and clung to the bolt. I glanced at its face by the moonlight, and then burst into tears as I flung it far away into the ocean. I dragged my watch from its fob. I conceived it possible, in either instance, that they might thus be whirled up again to the level of the ocean, without undergoing the fate of those which had been drawn in more early, or absorbed more rapidly. By degrees, the froth and the rainbow disappeared, and the bottom of the gulf seemed slowly to uprise. In all violent eddies at sea there is good fishing, at proper opportunities, if one has only the courage to attempt it;but among the whole of the Lofoden coastmen, we three were the only ones who made a regular business of going out to the islands, as I tell you. 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. Do you see any change in the water?. scent di-sent 1 : the act or process of descending from a higher to a lower location descent of the testes into the scrotum 2 a : derivation from an ancestor b : the fact or process of originating by generation from an ancestral stock (as a species or genus) 3 The idea generally received is that this, as well as three smaller vortices among the Ferroe islands, have no other cause than the collision of waves rising and falling, at flux and reflux, against a ridge of rocks and shelves, which confines the water so that it precipitates itself like a cataract; and thus the higher the flood rises, the deeper must the fall be, and the natural result of all is a whirlpool or vortex, the prodigious suction of which is sufficiently known by lesser experiments. These are the words of the Encyclopdia Britannica. The Moskoe-Strm whirlpool was about a quarter of a mile dead ahead -- but no more like the every-day Moskoe-Strm, than the whirl as you now see it is like a mill-race. But this 17 page short story is just before Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," which I am eager to read! I told them my story -- they did not believe it. Boats, yachts, and ships have been carried away by not guarding against it before they were within its reach. 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 Joseph Glanville. When I find a Poe I like, I really like it. Even while I gazed, this current acquired a monstrous velocity. "We set out with a fresh wind on our starboard quarter, and for some time spanked along at a great rate, never dreaming of danger, for indeed we saw not the slightest reason to apprehend it. links That a mile to the northward is Ambaaren. In this direction I was able to obtain an unobstructed view, from the manner in which the smack hung on the inclined surface of the pool. In a few minutes more, there came over the scene another radical alteration. 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." Her starboard side was next the whirl, and on the larboard arose the world of ocean we had left. If you have never been at sea in a heavy gale, you can form no idea of the confusion of mind occasioned by the wind and spray together. "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." It could not have been more than two minutes afterward until we suddenly felt the waves subside, and were enveloped in foam. Nothing would have tempted me to within half a dozen yards of its brink. This opinion, idle in itself, was the one to which, as I gazed, my imagination most readily assented; and, mentioning it to the guide, I was rather surprised to hear him say that, although it was the view almost universally entertained of the subject by the Norwegians, it nevertheless was not his own. fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs); 4. derivation from an ancestor; lineage; extraction. I knew what he meant by that one word well enough -- I knew what he wished to make me understand. "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. I now began to watch, with a strange interest, the numerous things that floated in our company. 3.5 stars. js.src='https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js'; Read 135 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. wordlist It had a complete flush deck, with only a small hatch near the bow, and this hatch it had always been our custom to batten down when about to cross the Strm, by way of precaution against the chopping seas. We never set out upon this expedition without a steady side wind for going and coming -- one that we felt sure would not fail us before our return -- and we seldom made a mis-calculation upon this point. After a little while I became possessed with the keenest curiosity about the whirl itself. Poe learnt about the maelstrom from several sources, which included an 1834 story in Frasers Magazine titled The Maelstrom: A Fragment. 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. But moment after moment elapsed. 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. 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." If I had not known where we were, and what we had to expect, I should not have recognised the place at all. But while we were up I had thrown a quick glance around and that one glance was all sufficient. A supposedly old man tells his story of getting into the whirlpool of the Moskoe-stroem while on a fishing trip with his brothers. 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. "No one ever will know what my feelings were at that moment. biography For some seconds I dared not open them while I expected instant destruction, and wondered that I was not already in my death-struggles with the water. I saw our exact position in an instant. 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. With Kiki Bosch, Stefan Andrews, Mikael Koski, Wim Hof. The vortex was spinning at incredible speeds. Well, so far we had ridden the swells very cleverly ;but presently a gigantic sea happened to take us right under the counter, and bore us with it as it rose -- up -- up -- as if into the sky. This book is in near mint condition with a bump on the side of the back cover. Excellent descriptive writing so much so I could almost taste, smell and hear the sounds of the sea. Our boat was the lightest feather of a thing that ever sat upon water. I attracted my brother's attention by signs, pointed to the floating barrels that came near us, and did everything in my power to make him understand what I was about to do. The name Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. 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 choice spots over here among the rocks, however, not only yield the finest variety, but in far greater abundance ;so that we often got in a single day, what the more timid of the craft could not scrape together in a week. It opens at the top of a mountain, 4 Stars. The "forty fathoms" must have reference only to portions of the channel close upon the shore either of Moskoe or Lofoden. This plainly shows the bottom to consist of craggy rocks, among which they are whirled to and fro. 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. He is also the author of the New York Time's bestselling novel DESCENT (2015, Algonquin), the story collection IRISH GIRL (2009, UNT Press), and the YA novel NEVER SO GREEN (2002, Farrar, Straus & Giroux). by BookSurge Classics. The ways of God in Nature, as in Providence, are not as our ways; nor are the models that we frame any way commensurate to the vastness, profundity, and unsearchableness of His works, which have a depth in them greater than the well of Democritus. I attracted my brothers attention by signs, pointed to the floating barrels that came near us, and did everything in my power to make him understand what I was about to do. To see what your friends thought of this book, A Descent into the Maelstrom - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story. It had run down at seven oclock! "Never shall I forget the sensations of awe, horror, and admiration with which I gazed about me. The Best Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe book. Dutch ice freediver Kiki Bosch swims in the world's coldest waters without a wetsuit as therapy for a trauma she experienced, and to inspire others. If I had not known where we were, and what we had to expect, I should not have recognised the place at all. 6. a sudden raid or hostile attack. This certainly is the best depiction of a natural phenomenon I read. They say too that the whole expression of my countenance had changed. The boat did not seem to sink into the water at all, but to skim like an air-bubble upon the surface of the surge. I threw myself upon my face, and clung to the scant herbage in an excess of nervous agitation. I took courage, and looked once again upon the scene. "It may appear strange, but now, when we were in the very jaws of the gulf, I felt more composed than when we were only approaching it. Be the first to contribute! 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. The wind sometimes was not as strong as we thought it at starting, and then we made rather less way than we could wish, while the current rendered the smack unmanageable. The forty fathoms must have reference only to portions of the channel close upon the shore either of Moskoe or Lofoden. Confession time, science fiction is not my thing, instead the unpredictability of real life continues to fascinate in both fiction and non. {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; The theme, as in Moby Dick, is that a vast and pitiless natural force symbolises the The narrator, convinced by the power of the whirlpools he sees in the ocean beyond, is t You suppose me a very old man -- but I am not. Those who drew me on board were my old mates and daily companions but they knew me no more than they would have known a traveller from the spirit-land. There fish can be got at all hours, without much risk, and therefore these places are preferred. 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. The seas Scarcely had I secured myself in my new position, when we gave a wild lurch to starboard, and rushed headlong into the abyss. Director Talia Lugacy Writers Brian Priest Talia Lugacy Stars Rosario Dawson Chad Faust Marcus Patrick Click here for more information I told them my story they did not believe it. Exterior scenes were filmed at Ashridge Park, Hertfordshire, and in Scotland. In less than a minute the storm was upon us -- in less than two the sky was entirely overcast -- and what with this and the driving spray, it became suddenly so dark that we could not see each other in the smack. "This," said I at length, to the old man -- "this can be nothing else than the great whirlpool of the Maelstrm." 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. "The three of us -- my two brothers and myself -- had crossed over to the islands about two o'clock P. M., and had soon nearly loaded the smack with fine fish, which, we all remarked, were more plenty that day than we had ever known them. 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. quotes | "The island in the distance," resumed the old man, "is called by the Norwegians Vurrgh. Note the blend of terror and curiosity which the man tells the narrator he felt, even while he was in danger of being swallowed up by the maelstrom: I have already described the unnatural curiosity which had taken the place of my original terrors. This there was no great difficulty in doing ;for the smack flew round steadily enough, and upon an even keel -- only swaying to and fro, with the immense sweeps and swelters of the whirl. He explained to me -- although I have forgotten the explanation -- how what I observed was, in fact, the natural consequence of the forms of the floating fragments -- and showed me how it happened that a cylinder, swimming in a vortex, offered more resistance to its suction, and was drawn in with greater difficulty than an equally bulky body, of any form whatever. The old man recounts his ordeal that in less than a single day changed his hairs from a jetty black to white, weakened his limbs, and t unstrung his nerves. You are also entitled to have the goods repaired or replaced if the goods fail to be of acceptable quality and the failure does not amount to a major failure. 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. My eldest brother had a son eighteen years old, and I had two stout boys of my own. International delivery varies by country, please see the Wordery store help page for details. A maelstrom is a whirlpool: the word dates from at least the sixteenth century and was formed from Dutch words malen (meaning grind) and stroom (meaning stream). I have already described the unnatural curiosity which had taken the place of my original terrors. "Not long ago," said he at length, "and I could have guided you on this route as well as the youngest of my sons ;but, about three years past, there happened to me an event such as never happened to mortal man -- or at least such as no man ever survived to tell of -- and the six hours of deadly terror which I then endured have broken me up body and soul. Format: CD. When I could stand it no longer I raised myself upon my knees, still keeping hold with my hands, and thus got my head clear. The old fisherman once he calms his fear uses his observations and logic to save his own life. the fall of the house of usher: silencea fable: the masque of the red death. I love that this is based on an actual whirlpool in Norway. The appearance of the ocean, in the space between the more distant island and the shore, had something very unusual about it. I muttered a hurried prayer to God, and thought all was over. What great skill! I dragged my watch from its fob. Well, so far we had ridden the swells very cleverly; but presently a gigantic sea happened to take us right under the counter, and bore us with it as it rose up up as if into the sky. Perhaps it is significant, in this connection, that the man who tells the narrator his story had his black hair turned white by the shock of his experiences. von kempelen and his discovery: mesmeric revelation: the facts in the case of m. valdemar: the black cat. Many of Edgar Allan Poes tales focus on protagonists who find themselves in trouble because of their own behaviour: so the murderer in The Tell-Tale Heart is driven mad by his own guilt (or, depending on how you read that ambiguous story, by the supernatural beating of his victims heart beneath the floorboards), while the cat-killer in The Black Cat also brings his subsequent haunting and bad luck upon his own head through his cruelty to his pet. Enter your email address to subscribe to this site and receive notifications of new posts by email. -Joseph Glanville 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. We were now in the belt of surf that always surrounds the whirl; and I thought, of course, that another moment would plunge us into the abyss down which we could only see indistinctly on account of the amazing velocity with which we were borne along. 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. I knew it could make no difference whether either of us held on at all ;so I let him have the bolt, and went astern to the cask. What does the maelstrom represent? In regard to the depth of the water, I could not see how this could have been ascertained at all in the immediate vicinity of the vortex. Artist: DEFEATED SANITY. Here we used to remain until nearly time for slack-water again, when we weighed and made for home. The result was precisely what I had hoped it might be. That a mile to the northward is Ambaaren. It has never been read. * 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 of the novel which confounds the beholder. It was on the tenth day of July, 18__, a day which the people of this part of the world will never forget -- for it was one in which blew the most terrible hurricane that ever came out of the heavens.

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