a descent into the maelstrom quotes

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. Be the first to contribute! Confession time, science fiction is not my thing, instead the unpredictability of real life continues to fascinate in both fiction and non. "It is now within a few days of three years since what I am going to tell you occurred. 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. The story ends with the white-haired man telling the narrator that none of the other fishermen believed his story. I muttered a hurried prayer to God, and thought all was over. I knew very well that we were doomed, had we been ten times a ninety-gun ship. 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. 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. descent , , descent : 1. the state or fact of being related to a particular person or group of people who lived in the. 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. 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 result was precisely what I had hoped it might be. Refresh and try again. 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. descent (dsnt) n. 1. the act, process, or fact of descending. Its force gradually subsided, and some fishermen rescued the white-haired man. I was borne violently into the channel of the Strm, and in a few minutes was hurried down the coast into the grounds of the fishermen. 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. 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. 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 island in the distance," resumed the old man, "is called by the Norwegians Vurrgh. Brilliant story! The first was, that, as a general rule, the larger the bodies were, the more rapid their descentthe second, that, between two masses of equal extent, the one spherical, and the When I recovered myself a little, however, my gaze fell instinctively downward. 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. By using DESCENTE website, you agree to our use of cookies. 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. 6. a sudden raid or hostile attack. When I find a Poe I like, I really like it. credits The Best Short Stories of Edgar Allan Poe book. "Such a hurricane as then blew it is folly to attempt describing. Inspired by the Moskstraumen, tidal eddies and whirlpools in northern Norway which are real, the story is couched as a story within a story, a tale told at the summit of a mountain climb. "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. I knew very well that we were doomed, had we been ten times a ninety-gun ship. 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 force has arisen, presumably, There are no book plates in the book. This plainly shows the bottom to consist of craggy rocks, among which they are whirled to and fro. 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. With the wind that now drove us on, we were bound for the whirl of the Strm, and nothing could save us! guestbook -- lib. 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 calledriding, in sea phrase. 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. "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. This was most unusual something that had never happened to us before and I began to feel a little uneasy, without exactly knowing why. forum "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. "For some moments we were completely deluged, as I say, and all this time I held my breath, and clung to the bolt. [ C] [ [n]] 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. The story is told by an Old Norwegian fisherman to a tourist at the top of a very tall mountain. All this time I had never let go of the ring-bolt. the cask of amontillado. "As I felt the sickening sweep of the descent, I had instinctively tightened my hold upon the barrel, and closed my eyes. WE had now reached the summit of the loftiest crag. 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. 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- My brother was at the stern, holding on to a small empty water-cask which had been securely lashed under the coop of the counter, and was the only thing on deck that had not been swept overboard when the gale first took us. 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. [CDATA[ 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. I have already described the unnatural curiosity which had taken the place of my original terrors. And how he survived with an application of science. 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. The mountain trembled to its very base, and the rock rocked. guestbook | 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 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. 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. 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 story of how he was caught during a storm in a maelstrom three years earlier with his brothers and how he survived. See also Trivia | Goofs | Crazy Credits | Alternate Versions | Connections | Soundtracks Did You Know? I made, also, three important observations. 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. 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. My hair which had been raven-black the day before, was as white as you see it now. His experience and brush with death, however, made his black hair turn white in the course of one day. By far the greater number of the articles were shattered in the most extraordinary way -- so chafed and roughened as to have the appearance of being stuck full of splinters -- but then I distinctly recollected that there were some of them which were not disfigured at all. The sky was clear, the winds had gone down, and the full moon was setting radiantly in the west, when I found myself on the surface of the ocean, in full view of the shores of Lofoden, and above the spot where the pool of the Moskoe-strmhad been. {js=d.createElement(s); Suddenly very suddenly this assumed a distinct and definite existence, in a circle of more than a mile in diameter. Start by marking A Descent into the Maelstrom - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story as Want to Read: Error rating book. 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. You really see and hear the fellows drawn into the eye of the storm and you feel the rage of the elements. Descent into the Maelstrom (2019) Quotes It looks like we don't have any Quotes for this title yet. Of foam there was little except in the immediate vicinity of the rocks. 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. 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. DESCENTE website uses cookies to give you a better service. js.id=id; Both are part of a 1960, fifteen story collection, "The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales." 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." A panorama more deplorably desolate no human imagination can conceive. 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. A Descent into the Maelstrom Whirlpool October 18, 1845 London Journal (vol. When a fishing boat encounters a hurricane it gets thrown off course into the area of the Maelstrom. As I felt the sickening sweep of the descent, I had instinctively tightened my hold upon the barrel, and closed my eyes. Do you know I can scarcely look over this little cliff without getting giddy ?" As it was, I involuntarily closed my eyes in horror. It was until today's afternoon that I found out that I do not only own a copy of Poe's most tales, but that I also already have started reading one of his less appreciated not-so-short-stories. The "forty fathoms" must have reference only to portions of the channel close upon the shore either of Moskoe or Lofoden. It was long before I could reason myself into sufficient courage to sit up and look out into the distance. 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. Scarcely had I secured myself in my new position, when we gave a wild lurch to starboard, and rushed headlong into the abyss. Poe's short story is exciting and suspenseful as the fisherman tries to save himself from certain death from this violent force of nature. But moment after moment elapsed. 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. We had now reached the summit of the loftiest crag. These streaks, at length, spreading out to a great distance, and entering into combination, took unto themselves thegyratory motion of the subsided vortices, and seemed to form the germ of another more vast. Of foam there was little except in the immediate vicinity of the rocks. 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 not a new terror that thus affected me, but the dawn of a more excitinghope. 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.