Essays & Summaries Quiz for Edgar Allan Poe's short story A Descent into the Maelstrom Tweet Further Reading Related Author Info Related Quizzes Quiz: Edgar Allan Poe 10 Questions Quiz: Edgar Allen Poe: Life and Works Quiz: Edgar Allan Poe's short story The Gold Bug Do you hear any thing? Just click the "Edit page" button at the bottom of the page or learn 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. ", home | It was not going. Descent into the Maelstrom and Other Stories by Edgar Allan Poe. A panorama more deplorably desolate no human imagination can conceive. A Descent into the Maelstrom (1986) Quotes It looks like we don't have any Quotes for this title yet. I suppose it was despair that strung my nerves. }}(document,'script','twitter-wjs'); "It is now within a few days of three years since what I am going to tell you occurred. Taking the narrator to a cliff, from whose top they can view the whirlpools and the great Maelstrom (or major whirlpool), this white-haired man relates how he and his two brothers were caught in the Maelstrom while in their fishing boat, and how his two brothers were both sucked into its current. 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 dreadful cataracts ;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. js.src='https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js'; I must have been delirious, for I even sought amusement in speculating upon the relative velocities of their several descents toward the foam below. It was not a new terror that thus affected me, but the dawn of a more excitinghope. 3. a passage or stairway leading down. 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 thechoppingcharacter of the ocean beneath us, was rapidly changing into a current which set to the eastward. It was long before I could reason myself into sufficient courage to sit up and look out into the distance. It is recognized as the second most powerful whirlpool in the world. '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. 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. 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. 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. Overall, I thought this was one of Poe's best stories. "No one ever will know what my feelings were at that moment. Exterior scenes were filmed at Ashridge Park, Hertfordshire, and in Scotland. 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 really dug (yeah, I'm using that word) Poe's inclusion of physics near the end of the story. 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. I glanced at its face by the moonlight, and then burst into tears as I flung it far away into the ocean. When a fishing boat encounters a hurricane it gets thrown off course into the area of the Maelstrom. With the wind that now drove us on, we were bound for the whirl of the Strm, and nothing could save us! 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 wore borne along. The barrel to which I was attached sunk very little farther than half the distance between the bottom of the gulf and the spot at which I leaped overboard, before a great change took place in the character of the whirlpool. The white-haired man managed to prevent his own descent into the Maelstrom by observing how the various objects from the boat were sucked into the whirlpool and eventually grabbing onto a water cask, and escaping the force of the Maelstrom. Now I could not account for this difference except by supposing that the roughened fragments were the only ones which had been completely 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. 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. The narrator, seeing the power of the whirlpool in the ocean visible from the mountain top, is then told of the man's fishing trip with his two brothers a few years ago in which they encountered the whirlpool. I positively felt a wish to explore its depths, even at the sacrifice I was going to make ;and my principal grief was that I should never be able to tell my old companions on shore about the mysteries I should see. The general burst of terrific grandeur was all that I beheld. 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. forum, gallery | We were behind the time of the slack, and the whirl of the Strm was in full fury! Poe is a wonder and an amazement to me. Director Neil Marshall Writer Neil Marshall Stars Shauna Macdonald We had now been about ten minutes upon the top of Helseggen, to which we had ascended from the interior of Lofoden, so that we had caught no glimpse of the sea until it had burst upon us from the summit. When the stream is most boisterous, and its fury heightened by a storm, it is dangerous to come within a Norway mile of it. 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. Enter your email address to subscribe to this site and receive notifications of new posts by email. It could not have been more than two minutes afterward until we suddenly felt the waves subside, and were enveloped in foam. I glanced at its face by the moonlight, and then burst into tears as I flung it far away into the ocean. 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. Good news, Goodreaders: 2023 is shaping up to be a very busy year for dedicated book people. 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. The appearance of the ocean, in the space between the more distant island and the shore, had something very unusual about it. The film follows six women who enter a cave system and struggle to survive against the humanoid creatures inside. 65% of this edition is the story; the last 35% displays the covers of, as they disrespectfully call it, "Other Stuff By Poe.". I would not have believed that any wave could rise so high. Be the first to contribute! 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. The mountain upon whose top we sit is Helseggen, the Cloudy. 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.. Tim Johnston's newest novel is THE CURRENT (2019, Algonquin). 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. 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. Having made up my mind to hope no more, I got rid of a great deal of that terror which unmanned me at first. poetry 6. a sudden raid or hostile attack. This book is in near mint condition with a bump on the side of the back cover. She lit up every thing about us with the greatest distinctness but, oh God, what a scene it was to light up! 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. The old man also states that he is broken in body and spirit, but proves that he is not completely broken by the carefree way he sits on the edge of the cliff. if(!d.getElementById(id)) descent n (slope) descente nf : pente nf : Harry ran down the descent to the lake. the cask of amontillado. 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. 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. guestbook by BookSurge Classics. After a little while I became possessed with the keenest curiosity about the whirl itself. 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. 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, It stood like a huge writhing wall between us and the horizon. 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. 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. 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. They say too that the whole expression of my countenance had changed. 5. any passing from higher to lower in degree or state; decline. As I felt the sickening sweep of the descent, I had instinctively tightened my hold upon the barrel, and closed my eyes. 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. A singular change, too, had come over the heavens. 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. 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. 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. Between Lofoden and Moskoe, he says, the depth of the water is between thirty-six and forty fathoms; but on the other side, toward Ver (Vurrgh) this depth decreases so as not to afford a convenient passage for a vessel, without the risk of splitting on the rocks, which happens even in the calmest weather. A fascinating tale of a man's near-death experience in a giant maelstrom or whirlpool at sea. summaries The "forty fathoms" must have reference only to portions of the channel close upon the shore either of Moskoe or Lofoden. 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." 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 boat made a sharp half turn to larboard, and then shot off in its new direction like a thunderbolt. A singular change, too, had come over the heavens. It took less than a single day to change these. "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 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. Its name in Norse is Moskstraumen or Moske-stroom. The story is told by an Old Norwegian fisherman to a tourist at the top of a very tall mountain. quotes | It was not going. We might analyse the maelstrom as a symbol representing the force of time as well as nature. 2. a downward inclination or slope. Here, the simultaneous attraction and repulsion that is a central dynamic of the maelstrom the brothers are drawn towards it but must try to resist its pull stands for mans often conflicted attitude to God and the divine. The gyrations of the whirl grew, gradually, less and less violent. The mans fob watch a testament to mans ability to measure and regulate time mysteriously stops during his encounter with this unstoppable force of nature. This state of things, however, did not last long enough to give us time to think about it. site map | 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. The Dragon's Descent by Laurice Elehwany Molinari 9780310735632 (Paperback, 2017) Delivery UK delivery is usually within 12 to 14 working days. 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. 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. But these intervals of tranquility are only at the turn of the ebb and flood, and in calm weather, and last but a quarter of an hour, its violence gradually returning. 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. 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. guestbook | But while we were up I had thrown a quick glance around and that one glance was all sufficient. 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. But this 17 page short story is just before Poe's "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," which I am eager to read! Of foam there was little except in the immediate vicinity of the rocks. bookstore | Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. It was not going. Everything was in its place but my own mind as it tried hard to wander the streets of Boston in its desperate attempt to figure out a way to celebrate this man's literary genius. Thank you very much for reminding me, Poe. 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. 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. Actions that would make C. Auguste Dupin and Mr Spock proud. 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. Into tears as I flung it far away into the ocean course into the.! And closed my eyes | Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read struggle survive... 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