A Descent into the Maelstrom by Edgar Allan Poe This is a short story about a man who tells how he survived a shipwreck and a whirlpool. As it is myself who now tell you this tale as you see that Ididescape and as you are already in possession of the mode in which this escape was effected, and must therefore anticipate all that I have farther to say I will bring my story quickly to conclusion. The sense of falling had ceased; and the motion of the vessel seemed much as it had been before, while in the belt of foam, with the exception that she now lay more along. Here we used to remain until nearly time for slack-water again, when we weighed and made for home. A Descent into the Maelstrom is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, written in 1841. All this time I had never let go of the ring-bolt. As the old man spoke, I became aware of a loud and gradually increasing sound, like the moaning of a vast herd of buffaloes upon an American prairie; and at the same moment I perceived that what seamen term the chopping character of the ocean beneath us, was rapidly changing into a current which set to the eastward. 4 Stars. Although his white hair makes him appear to be an old man, he tells the narrator that he is actually not old. forum 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. It had run down at seven oclock! 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. "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. 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. Lavish harmonies and melody lines create a musical atmosphere very much in line with the story narrated in the tale. In 1986, American composer Philip Glass wrote music inspired by "A Descent into the Maelstrm". It was commissioned by the Australian Dance Theatre . 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. 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. descent , , descent : 1. the state or fact of being related to a particular person or group of people who lived in the. Nothing would have tempted me to within half a dozen yards of its brink. The mountain trembled to its very base, and the rock rocked. Poe learnt about the maelstrom from several sources, which included an 1834 story in Frasers Magazine titled The Maelstrom: A Fragment. Boats, yachts, and ships have been carried away by not guarding against it before they were within its reach. Now I could not account for this difference except by supposing that the roughened fragments were the only ones which had beencompletely absorbed that the others had entered the whirl at so late a period of the tide, or, for some reason, had descended so slowly after entering, that they did not reach the bottom before the turn of the flood came, or of the ebb, as the case might be. Farther off -- between Moskoe and Vurrgh -- are Otterholm, Flimen, Sandflesen, and Stockholm. 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. Descent into the Maelstrom (2019) Quotes It looks like we don't have any Quotes for this title yet. 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 it its white and ghastly crest, howling and shrieking for ever. And how they unfortunately didn't. The sky is completely black in the storm. Filming took place in the United Kingdom. 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. Welcome back. 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. 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. The first example is that of which explaining the first, high class house when it had began to burn down, as the narrator exclaims, On the night of the day on which this cruel deed was done, I was aroused from sleep by the cry of fire. 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. "As I felt the sickening sweep of the descent, I had instinctively tightened my hold upon the barrel, and closed my eyes. 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. 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. The ordinary accounts of this vortex had by no means prepared me for what I saw. Brilliant story! It was impossible to reach him; the emergency admitted of no delay ;and so, with a bitter struggle, I resigned him to his fate, fastened myself to the cask by means of the lashings which secured it to the counter, and precipitated myself with it into the sea, without another moment's hesitation. biography | Wehad now reached the summit of the loftiest crag. Be the first to contribute! -- These are the words of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 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. 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. Descent into the Maelstrom and Other Stories by Edgar Allan Poe. Do you see any change in the water?. !function(d,s,id) 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. Descent into the Maelstrom (2019) Quotes It looks like we don't have any Quotes for this title yet. That a mile to the northward is Ambaaren. I saw our exact position in an instant. I dragged my watch from its fob. 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. Read 202 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. You suppose me averyold man but I am not. I now began towatch, with a strange interest, the numerous things that floated in our company. If I had not known where we were, and what we had to expect, I should not have recognised the place at all. The mountain trembled to its very base, and the rock rocked. Is it just that: the force of nature, what we might following Edmund Burke label the Sublime, the terror and awe of something in the natural world that is bigger and more powerful than man? Then if it sounds interesting, I record the title and plan on reading it One Of These Days. 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, no doubt, were singular fancies to occupy a mans mind in such extremity and I have often thought since, that the revolutions of the boat around the pool might have rendered me a little light-headed. 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. Round and round we swept not with any uniform movement but in dizzying swings and jerks, that sent us sometimes only a few hundred yards sometimes nearly the complete circuit of the whirl. Themes of descent often turn on the struggle between the titanic and the demonic within the same Presently our little boat gave herself a shake, just as a dog does in coming out of the water, and thus rid herself, in some measure, of the seas. These, no doubt, were singular fancies to occupy a man's mind in such extremity -- and I have often thought since, that the revolutions of the boat around the pool might have rendered me a little light-headed. gallery The story is told by an Old Norwegian fisherman to a tourist at the top of a very tall mountain. Around in every direction it was still as black as pitch, but nearly overhead there burst out, all at once, a circular rift of clear sky as clear as I ever saw and of a deep bright blue and through it there blazed forth the full moon with a lustre that I never before knew her to wear. The story begins in the North Sea off the Norwegian coast, with a seemingly old man telling the narrator about a harrowing experience he had among the nearby whirlpools. 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. -- lib. The "little cliff," upon whose edge he had so carelessly thrown himself down to rest that the weightier portion of his body hung over it, while he was only kept from falling by the tenure of his elbow on its extreme and slippery edge -- this "little cliff" arose, a sheer unobstructed precipice of black shining rock, some fifteen or sixteen hundred feet from the world of crags beneath us. 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 the other of any other shape, the superiority in speed of descent was with the sphere -- the third, that, between two masses of equal size, the one cylindrical, and the other of any other shape, the cylinder was absorbed the more slowly. The fact that he does not blame his brother for what he does proves his moral character and love for his siblings. This was so-so, probably my least favorite of Poe short stories so far. It opens at the top of a mountain, 4 Stars. It could not have been more than two minutes afterward until we suddenly felt the waves subside, and were enveloped in foam. The Maelstrom is a vortex of water off the coast of Norway that whirls and drags objects to the rocky bottom of the sea. This is a well-known story by Poe. International delivery varies by country, please see the Wordery store help page for details. descent n (slope) descente nf : pente nf : Harry ran down the descent to the lake. 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. 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. It may look like boasting but what I tell you is truth I began to reflect how magnificent a thing it was to die in such a manner, and how foolish it was in me to think of so paltry a consideration as my own individual life, in view of so wonderful a manifestation of Gods power. js.src='https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js'; We had let our sails go by the run before it cleverly took us ;but, at the first puff, both our masts went by the board as if they had been sawed off -- the mainmast taking with it my youngest brother, who had lashed himself to it for safety. Edgar Allan Poe's short story "A Descent into the Maelstrm" (1841), brought the term maelstrom, meaning strong whirlpool, into the English language. A whirlpool is a body of rotating water produced by opposing currents or a current running into an obstacle. Small whirlpools form when a bath or a sink is draining. We might analyse the maelstrom as a symbol representing the force of time as well as nature. The horrific tale is laid out by an old man who reveals that he only appears old - "You suppose me a very old man," he says, "but I am not. By degrees, the froth and the rainbow disappeared, and the bottom of the gulf seemed slowly to uprise. Director Terry Cunningham Writer Michael Konyves Stars 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. Poe really turned a natural phenomenon into something terrifying: really great example of a man-vs-nature story. 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. The general surface grew somewhat more smooth, and the whirlpools, one by one, disappeared, while prodigious streaks of foam became apparent where none had been seen before. Poe is a wonder and an amazement to me. I'm reading in order so, what the heck! A Descent into the Maelstrom: plot summary, (NB: the storys epigraph, from a seventeenth-century essay by Joseph Glanvill, references the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus, who though truth could be found at the bottom of a well. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. 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. I threw myself upon my face, and clung to the scant herbage in an excess of nervous agitation. 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. The usual grounds are a great way lower down to the southward. Really incredible action-packed story. All at once we were taken aback by a breeze from over Helseggen. "You perceive that in crossing the Strm channel, we always went a long way up above the whirl, even in the calmest weather, and then had to wait and watch carefully for the slack -- but now we were driving right upon the pool itself, and in such a hurricane as this ! Rather than one huge whirlpool as described in Poe's story, it is actually a system of whirlpools, currents and cross currents. 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 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. I looked dizzily, and beheld a wide expanse of ocean, whose waters wore so inky a hue as to bring at once to my mind the Nubian geographers account of theMare Tenebrarum. 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. The story Poe weaves out 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. The maelstrom, in its supernatural force, is a warning to man that he is helpless in the face of this outer world that can converge upon him at any moment, without warning. timeline I now began to watch, with a strange interest, the numerous things that floated in our company. Upon this occasion we should have been driven out to sea in spite of everything, (for the whirlpools threw us round and round so violently, that, at length, we fouled our anchor and dragged it) if it had not been that we drifted into one of the innumerable cross currents -- here to-day and gone to-morrow -- which drove us under the lee of Flimen, where, by good luck, we brought up. It was just seven,by my watch, when we weighed and started for home, so as to make the worst of the Strm at slack water, which we knew would be at eight. Much better than expected! Exterior scenes were filmed at Ashridge Park, Hertfordshire, and in Scotland. I no longer hesitated what to do. 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. "It is now within a few days of three years since what I am going to tell you occurred. The whole Similarities Between The Black Cat And The Tell Tale Heart contact, 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. By this time the first fury of the tempest had spent itself, or perhaps we did not feel it so much, as we scudded before it, but at all events the seas, which at first had been kept down by the wind, and lay flat and frothing, now got up into absolute mountains. Both are part of a 1960, fifteen story collection, "The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales." This certainly is the best depiction of a natural phenomenon I read. They blind, deafen, and strangle you, and take away all power of action or reflection. "When a boat is well built, properly trimmed, and not deep laden, the waves in a strong gale, when she is going large, seem always to slip from beneath her -- which appears very strange to a landsman -- and this is what is called riding, in sea phrase. The ordinary accounts of this vortex had by no means prepared me for what I saw. The one midway is Moskoe. 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. "No one ever will know what my feelings were at that moment. 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. 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. It was the hour of the slack -- but the sea still heaved in mountainous waves from the effects of the hurricane. 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 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. 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. By this time the first fury of the tempest had spent itself, or perhaps we did not feel it so much, as we scudded before it, but at all events the seas, which at first had been kept down by the wind, and lay flat and frothing, now got up into absolute mountains. It was long before I could reason myself into sufficient courage to sit up and look out into the distance. 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. 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. What great skill! 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. Presently he shook his head, looking as pale as death, and held up one of his fingers, as if to say listen!. It was not going. Our boat was the lightest feather of a thing that ever sat upon water. home The ways of God in Nature, as in Providence, are not asourways; 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. 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. Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn {js=d.createElement(s); He describes a whirlpool a mile wide, a descent, and an escape. Unfortunately, he realizes this because his older brother shouts into his ear that they're headed directly into the maelstrom. It stood like a huge writhing wall between us and the horizon. 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. The Dragon's Descent by Laurice Elehwany Molinari 9780310735632 (Paperback, 2017) Delivery UK delivery is usually within 12 to 14 working days. The story of how he was caught during a storm in a maelstrom three years earlier with his brothers and how he survived. Presently he shook his head, looking as pale as death, and held up one of his finger, as if to say 'listen'! 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. I now began to watch, with a strange interest, the numerous things that floated in our company. At length, after making several guesses of this nature, and being deceived in all -- this fact -- the fact of my invariable miscalculation -- set me upon a train of reflection that made my limbs again tremble, and my heart beat heavily once more. Round and round we swept -- not with any uniform movement -- but in dizzying swings and jerks, that sent us sometimes only a few hundred yards -- sometimes nearly the complete circuit of the whirl. This state of things, however, did not last long enough to give us time to think about it. The mountain upon whose top we sit is Helseggen, the Cloudy. But for this circumstance we should have foundered at once for we lay entirely buried for some moments. Quotes submission guide. There are no book plates in the book. In Scandinavia, there is a phenomenon known as the Moskstraumen or Moskenstraumen, a system of tidal whirlpools found in the Lofoten archipelago in Nordland county (in Norway) between the Norwegian Sea and the Vestfjorden. A panorama more deplorably desolate no human imagination can conceive. descent n (physical) descente nf : From the airport, Catherine watched the plane's descent onto the runway. Never shall I forget the sensations of awe, horror, and admiration with which I gazed about me. summaries Edgar Allan Poe (A Descent into the Maelstrom - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story) . Wed love your help. I'd say this is for Poe's fans only. Good news, Goodreaders: 2023 is shaping up to be a very busy year for dedicated book people. This stream is regulated by the flux and reflux of the sea -- it being constantly high and low water every six hours. The vortex was spinning at incredible speeds. And yet all the morning, and indeed until late in the afternoon, there was a gentle and steady breeze from the south-west, while the sun shone brightly, so that the oldest seaman among us could not have foreseen what was to follow. A Descent into the Maelstrom is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe, written in 1841. I now tell it to you -- and I can scarcely expect you to put more faith in it than did the merry fishermen of Lofoden. "Our first slide into the abyss itself, from the belt of foam above, had carried us a great distance down the slope ;but our farther descent was by no means proportionate. "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. For my part, as soon as I had let the foresail run, I threw myself flat on deck, with my feet against the narrow gunwale of the bow, and with my hands grasping a ring-bolt near the foot of the fore-mast. But we were now, in a great measure, rid of these annoyances just us death-condemned felons in prison are allowed petty indulgences, forbidden them while their doom is yet uncertain. It likewise happens frequently, that whales come too near the stream, and are overpowered by its violence; and then it is impossible to describe their howlings and bellowings in their fruitless struggles to disengage themselves. Of foam there was little except in the immediate vicinity of the rocks. After a little while I became possessed with the keenest curiosity about the whirl itself. 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. 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. Refresh and try again. It's been several years since I read this but I remember it felt flat: Poe simply tells a story and makes no effort to up the terror or to create tension. site map | It is recognized as the second most powerful whirlpool in the world. 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. February 2nd 2004 Confession time, science fiction is not my thing, instead the unpredictability of real life continues to fascinate in both fiction and non. 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. From 1,200 metres up Helseggen, the exhausted old man who guided the group to the top points out the ocean view and specifically its surface. 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 "In the meantime the breeze that had headed us off fell away, and we were dead becalmed, drifting about in every direction. credits | The oldest seaman in Norway never experienced any thing like it. js.id=id; In a few minutes more, there came over the scene another radical alteration. We cannot be held responsible for delays if you do not use this reference. The sailor of A Descent is similar to both these characters, and so, before his descent, he seems [column 2:] unaware that as the storys epigraphical quotation from But while we were up I had thrown a quick glance around -- and that one glance was all sufficient. 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.. Since my escape, I have had several conversations on this subject with an old school-master of the district ;and it was from him that I learned the use of the words 'cylinder' and 'sphere.' 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. which sentences are punctuated correctly check all that apply andrew's, can i copy a google form to another account, geography and female prisons, Wall between us and the horizon `` it is actually not old years since what I saw subside, were! The sea still heaved in mountainous waves from the airport, Catherine watched the plane 's descent onto the.. And cross currents 's descent onto the runway for what I saw to.! 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