The Descent into the Maelstrom by Edgar Allan Poe mimics popular eyewitness accounts of exotic destinations, which were popular at the time. However, Poe’s story is a complete fabrication.
The Narrator and His Guide
The story begins with the unnamed narrator indicating that he and his party has reached the summit of the mountain. The narrator is a tourist being shown a local natural wonder by a grizzled Norwegian fisherman whose shortness of breath, white hair, and nervous demeanor seem to indicate great age. However, fisherman seeks to remove the idea of advanced age from the narrator’s mind. He claims that less than three years ago, he could have ascended the mountain as easily as one of his sons, however after six hours of the most intense fear, he is now broken in both body and soul.
The two have climbed the heights of Helseggen Mountain so that the narrator may view an immense whirlpool from the height of fifteen hundred feet.
The whirlpool forms daily at the changing of the tides. The narrator gives a detailed description of the geography of the area and the formation of the whirlpool as the tide changed, which is augmented by information shared with him by the fisherman. In addition to his detailed description of the physical characteristics of the whirlpool, the narrator shares various theories as to the cause of the maelstrom. After having personally viewed the phenomenon, the narrator is willing to believe the most outrageous account as being plausible.
The Account of a Grizzled Eyewitness
The fisherman explains to the narrator that it was the habit of him and his two brothers to fish near the maelstrom as the quantity and quality of the catch justified the danger of the job. However, while he was willing to take the risk on himself, he was unwilling to take the risk with his sons and so it was only him and his brothers who fished near the maelstrom.
The men had studied the patterns of the maelstrom and knew when the window of opportunity was open. On the day about which the fisherman shares his story, the brothers were caught near the maelstrom by an unexpected hurricane. The hurricane washed one brother overboard, disabled the ship and propelled the two remaining brothers, on board the ship, towards the maelstrom. As the disabled craft neared the maelstrom, the eye of the hurricane centered over the whirlpool.. As a result, the fisherman was able to see everything that was happening with startling clarity by the light of the moon.
Once he realized their situation, the fisherman began to observe the situation with a curious detachment that allowed him to appreciate the manifestation of God’s power as displayed in the maelstrom. However, his brother responded to the same situation with unreasoning madness and attempted to forcibly remove the fisherman from the hook, which he was hanging onto. The fisherman, recognizing the futility of holding onto anything switched places with his brother and hung onto the barrel that his brother had vacated.
As they descended down the side of the maelstrom, the fisherman noticed that while it was bright and clear, he could not see the bottom of the whirlpool because it was obscured by mist “a magnificent rainbow, like that narrow and tottering bridge which Musselmen say is the only pathway between Time and Eternity.”
The descent into the whirlpool was not rapid and it gave the fisherman time to realize that the objects trapped in the whirlpool descended at different rates. He realized that cylindrical objects descended at the slowest rate and decided that the most likely way to survive was to strap himself to the barrel and jump into the maelstrom and hope that he might descend slowly enough to outlast the lifespan of the whirlpool. His brother refuses to join him and rides the ship to his death.
The fisherman survived and was spit out of the whirlpool to be picked up by some fishermen who are his friends. However, they did not recognize him because after six hours in the maelstrom, his hair had turned from black to white and the character of his face had changed.
Disbelief
The fisherman states that his friends did not believe his story and he is certain that the narrator will not believe it either.
Find out more about Edgar Allan Poe at Suite101.
 |
