links | 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. I must have been delirious -- for I even sought amusement in speculating upon the relative velocities of their several descents toward the foam below. 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 otherof 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. 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. 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. This book is in near mint condition with a bump on the side of the back cover. 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. 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. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. 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 weresomeof them which were not disfigured at all. Excellent descriptive writing so much so I could almost taste, smell and hear the sounds of the sea. A Descent into the Maelstrom (1986) Quotes It looks like we don't have any Quotes for this title yet. Wow. 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. 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. I now began to watch, with a strange interest, the numerous things that floated in our company. Brilliant story! "How often we made the circuit of the belt it is impossible to say. 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. a descent into the maelstrm, edgar allan poes vertiginous short story of being swept into a huge and terrible whirlpool by a raging hurricane that the oldest seaman in norway never experienced was transformed into a musical dance/theatre piece by philip glass and collaborators, dancer/choreographer molissa fenley, set designer eamon darcy 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. This hope arose partly from memory, and partly from present observation. How my elder brother escaped destruction I cannot say, for I never had an opportunity of ascertaining. wordlist descent noun (ARRIVAL) [ C usually sing ] the arrival of something or someone, esp. We might analyse the maelstrom as a symbol representing the force of time as well as nature. 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. Descent: Directed by Nays Baghai. descent (dsnt) n. 1. the act, process, or fact of descending. 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. 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. The fact that he does not blame his brother for what he does proves his moral character and love for his siblings. {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; 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. 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 what he meant by that one word well enough -- I knew what he wished to make me understand. He will survive, but only just and with his hair showing how his narrow escape has prematurely aged him. 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. What does the maelstrom represent? You suppose me a very old man -- but I am not. This was most unusual -- something that had never happened to us before -- and I began to feel a little uneasy, without exactly knowing why. Even while I gazed, this current acquired a monstrous velocity. I glanced at its face by the moonlight, and then burst into tears as I flung it far away into the ocean. "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. It appeared to grow upon me as I drew nearer and nearer to my dreadful doom. Britannica Dictionary definition of DESCENT formal 1 [count] : the act or process of descending: such as a : the act or process of going from a higher to a lower place or level usually singular The climbers were faced with a dangerous descent in bad weather. 2. a downward inclination or slope. "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 God's power. In 1841, "Graham's Magazine" was the first to publish "Maelstrom." The theme, as in Moby Dick, is that a vast and pitiless natural force symbolises the that being said, whereas the narrator of "ms. found in a bottle" overcomes his fear of death by realizing that death can be worth the price of increased knowledge, the main character of "a Learn more. 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. 'A Descent Into the Maelstrom' tells the story of a brave fisherman and his brother who take the risk of fishing near a gigantic maelstrom in the Norwegian sea, taking home considerably more fish than their fellow fishermen who remain on safer fishing grounds. By degrees, the froth and the rainbow disappeared, and the bottom of the gulf seemed slowly to uprise. Edgar Allan Poe (A Descent into the Maelstrom - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story) . You can read A Descent into the Maelstrom here before proceeding to our summary and analysis below. A Descent into the Maelstrm. The one midway is Moskoe. I suppose it was despair that strung my nerves. 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. I suppose it was despair that strung my nerves. 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. 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. 3.5 stars. The forty fathoms must have reference only to portions of the channel close upon the shore either of Moskoe or Lofoden. "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 gyrations of the whirl grew, gradually, less and less violent. 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. I must have been delirious, for I even sought amusement in speculating upon the relative velocities of their several descents toward the foam below. Scarcely had I secured myself in my new position, when we gave a wild lurch to starboard, and rushed headlong into the abyss. 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 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. 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. [ [n]] [ [v]] The Descent 2005 R 1 h 39 m IMDb RATING 7.2 /10 228K YOUR RATING Rate POPULARITY 812 812 Play trailer 2:04 1 Video 99+ Photos Adventure Horror Thriller A caving expedition goes horribly wrong, as the explorers become trapped and ultimately pursued by a strange breed of predators. When the stream is most boisterous, and its fury heightened by a storm, it is dangerous to come within a Norway mile of it. 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.' Really incredible action-packed story. '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 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. The force has arisen, presumably, 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. 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. Exterior scenes were filmed at Ashridge Park, Hertfordshire, and in Scotland. 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-strm had been. She lit up every thing about us with the greatest distinctness -- but, oh God, what a scene it was to light up! It appeared to grow upon me as I drew nearer and nearer to my dreadful doom. By degrees, the froth and the rainbow disappeared, and the bottom of the gulf seemed slowly to uprise. Each moment added to its speed to its headlong impetuosity. It might have been an hour, or thereabout, after myquitting the smack, when, having descended to a vast distance beneath me, it made three or four wild gyrations in rapid succession, and, bearing my loved brother with it, plunged headlong, at once and forever, into the chaos of foam below. 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. 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. As we approached the brink of the pit he let go his hold upon this, and made for the ring, from which, in the agony of his terror, he endeavored to force my hands, as it was not large enough to afford us both a secure grasp. 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.. We Norwegians call it the Moskoe-strm, from the island of Moskoe in the midway.. 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 descent n (physical) descente nf : From the airport, Catherine watched the plane's descent onto the runway. "As I felt the sickening sweep of the descent, I had instinctively tightened my hold upon the barrel, and closed my eyes. Very descriptive but the story within a story doesnt quite work. 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 was here 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. 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 island in the distance, resumed the old man, is called by the Norwegians Vurrgh. 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