A Descent into the Maelström

"A Descent into the Maelström" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. It has been grouped with Poe's tales of ratiocination along with "The Murders in the Rue Morgue."

Plot summary

Inspired by the Moskstraumen, it is couched as a story within a story, a tale told at the summit of a mountain climb. The story is told by an old man who reveals that he only appears old - "You suppose me a very old man," he says, "but I am not. 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 narrator, convinced by the power of the whirlpools he sees in the ocean beyond, is then told of the "old" man's fishing trip with his two brothers a few years ago.

Driven by "the most terrible hurricane that ever came out of the heavens", their ship was caught in the vortex. One brother was pulled into the waves; the other was driven mad by the horror of the spectacle, and drowned as the ship was pulled under. At first the narrator only saw hideous terror in the spectacle. In a moment of revelation, he saw that the Maelström is a beautiful and awesome creation. Observing how objects around him are pulled into it, he deduced that "the larger the bodies, the more rapid their descent" and that spherical-shaped objects were pulled in the fastest. Unlike his brother, he abandoned ship and held on to a cylindrical barrel until he was saved several hours later. The old man tells the story to the narrator without any hope that the narrator will believe it.

Major themes

• Ratiocination (see also "The Mystery of Marie Roget," "The Purloined Letter," C. Auguste Dupin)
• Sea tale (see also The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, "MS. Found in a Bottle," "The Oblong Box")
• Story within a story (see also "The Oval Portrait")

Allusions

The story mentions Jonas Danilssønn Ramus, a man from Norway who wrote about a famous maelström at Saltstraumen. The opening epigraph is quoted from the work of Joseph Glanvill.

Publication history

The story first appeared in the April 1841 edition of Graham's Magazine. Poe rushed to complete the story in time and later admitted that the conclusion was imperfect. Like his other sea adventure works The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket and The Journal of Julius Rodman, "A Descent into the Maelström" was believed to be true and one passage was reprinted in the ninth edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica – ironically, it was based on a passage that Poe had lifted from an earlier edition of that same encyclopedia.

Adaptation

In 1986, Academy Award-nominated American composer Philip Glass wrote music inspired by "A Descent into the Maelström." It was commissioned by the Australian Dance Theatre.

References in literary works

In 1970, Czechoslovakian writer Ludvík Vaculík made many references to "A Descent into the Maelström" as well as "The Black Cat" in his novel The Guinea Pigs.

References

External links

• Information about Philip Glass's musical interpretation.