A Descent into the Maelström
A Descent into the Maelstrom (German title and a. .: A trip into the Maelstrom , the vortex of the maelstrom or A fall in the maelstrom ) is a short story by the American writer Edgar Allan Poe in 1841 (published in Graham's Magazine ), in which a old man tells how he escaped from a shipwreck and a whirlpool. The work is considered an early form of science fiction . A translation into German by Alfred Mürenberg appeared under the title Eine Fahrt in den Maelstrom, presumably for the first time in 1881 in the collection Strange Stories published by Spemann Verlag in Stuttgart .
content
The narrator learns on a tour through the mountains along the coast of Norway in the province of Nordland , more precisely in the district of Lofoten , got the history of his native Guide, an old man who three years earlier with his brothers on their boat in the Maelstrom .
The first-person narrator, frightened by the thick fog that surrounds them and the roaring sea, hardly dares to look along the cliffs down to the small islands the old man is pointing to. The spectacle of the water is unique: if the sea gets rougher and rougher within minutes, it can just as easily become calm again. But the stillness of the water is only an appearance: the initially small eddies combine to form an enormous eddy, the circle of which finally takes on a diameter of a mile. A wide belt of foam surrounds this funnel, the inner wall of which consists of a smooth, coal-black water wall. From the whirlpool, the narrator perceives screeching and howling sounds emitted by the water. This strudel is the great strudel of Maelström, also called Moskenstraumen . When the narrator sees this natural spectacle, he remembers a description of it by the Norwegian writer Jonas Ramus, which, however, hardly reproduces what actually happens in the sea. He also remembers that there were assumptions that in the middle of the vortex there was a breakthrough that pierces the earth and that ends at another point (presumably the Gulf of Bothnia ).
The old man tells his companion about the tremendous strength the Maelström developed and the fears he felt when his boat and crew got into the funnel. Amazing for him, he felt calmer in the funnel than before. He eagerly perceived all events in the funnel, for example fragments of other crashed ships. Then he remembered flotsam that the Maelstrom had washed up on the coast, and he reports that he was hoping to escape the dangerous current alive. Through further observations, he noticed that larger objects reached the bottom of the funnel faster than others. In addition, spherical objects and barrels did the same. So he decided to sit in a barrel to which he was clinging and to tear it loose from all fastenings. So he actually escaped the Maelstrom alive, but his brothers found their deaths in the depths.
The old man explains to the actual first-person narrator that his hair, which was previously pitch black, turned white as a result of the accident in the Maelström. Nobody believes his story and he assumes that the narrator does not believe him either.
Themes and motifs
Power of nature
The power of nature is evident not only in the old man's story, but also in the framework story, the mountain tour. The sea develops incredible powers and takes everything it acquires with it. The unpredictability of nature is also expressed here: a tremendous storm can approach within minutes, although nothing previously appeared. Man is the inferior part in the fight between man and nature.
Struggle for survival
When the old man and his brothers are already in the funnel, the real struggle for survival begins for them: the deeper they get into the funnel, the more hopes of survival dwindle. The old man, clinging to a ring on the boat, is pushed away by his brother, who was previously clutching a barrel, because he believed he had a better chance of survival there. The old man gave in and was basically able to save his own life. In such fearful moments, love for one another is forgotten and everyone struggles for their own survival.
religion
Religious aspects can also be found in Poe's Down in the Maelström : for example, the roar of the sea can be understood as an expression of God's anger at the fact that people are careless with their lives and place themselves in great danger.
References in literary works
In 1970, the Czech writer Ludvík Vaculík referred to Down in the Maelström in his novel The Guinea Pigs (in the original Morčata ) , as well as to another short story by Poe entitled The Black Cat . In Kurt Vonnegut's Player Piano , Paul Proteus says to himself “Down into the Maelström” when he succumbs to his wife's will.
In the book S. (original edition 2014, German edition 2015) by Doug Dorst and JJ Abrams , a character named "Mahlstrom" is associated with this story (p. 42 of the German edition).
German translations (selection)
- approx. 1890: Alfred Mürenberg : A trip into the Maelstrom. Spemann, Stuttgart.
- 1896: unknown translator: Im Malström. Hendel, Halle / S.
- around 1900: Johanna Möllenhoff : The Maelstrom. Reclams Universal Library, Leipzig.
- 1901: Hedda Moeller and Hedwig Lachmann : In the vortex of the maelstrom. JCC Bruns, Minden.
- 1912: unknown translator: The Maelstrom. Kiepenheuer, Weimar.
- 1922: M. Bretschneider : The Malstrom. Rösl & Cie. Publishing house, Munich.
- 1922: Gisela Etzel : Down into the Maelström. Propylaea, Munich
- 1923: Wilhelm Cremer : In the depths of the Maelstrom. Verlag der Schiller-Buchhandlung, Berlin.
- approx. 1925: Bernhard Bernson : In the Maelstrom. Josef Singer Verlag, Strasbourg.
- 1925: Stefan Hofer: In the floods of the Maëlström. Interterritorial publishing house “Renaissance”, Vienna
- 1925: unknown translator: In the depths of the Maelstrom. Mieth, Berlin.
- 1930: Fanny Fitting : The fall into the maelstrom. Fikentscher, Leipzig.
- 1947: Wolf Durian : Down into the Malström. Ullstein, Vienna
- 1953: Günther Steinig : Down into the Maelström. Dietrich'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, Leipzig.
- 1955: Arthur Seiffart : The fall into the maelstrom. Tauchnitz Verlag, Stuttgart.
- 1966: Hans Wollschläger : A fall into the maelstrom. Walter Verlag, Freiburg i. Br.
- 2017: Andreas Nohl : A fall in the Malstrøm. dtv, Munich, ISBN 978-3-423-28118-8 .
radio play
The audio play series Edgar Allan Poe has been published by Lübbe Audio Verlag since 2003. The main character is haunted by nightmares based on Poe's stories. Episode 5 of the series refers to Down into the Maelstrom , published there as Fall into the Maelstrom . The radio plays are spoken by Ulrich Pleitgen and Iris Berben, among others .
literature
- Tuğba Ayas: "A Descent into the Maelström": Aesthetics of the Sublime and Edgar Allan Poe. In: İdil: Sanat Ve Dil Dergisi 1.4, 2012, pp. 14–26. MLA International Bibliography ( online ).
- Kenneth V. Egan Jr .: Descent to an Ascent: Poe's Use of Perspective In "A Descent into the Maelström". In: Studies In Short Fiction 19.2, 1982, pp. 157-162. MLA International Bibliography.
- Edgar A. Poe: Down into the Maelström . In: Master Tales. Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 1989, pp. 115-131.
- GR Thompson: Unity, Death, and Nothingness. Poe's "Romantic Skepticism". In: PMLA , Vol. 85, No. 2 (Mar., 1970), pp. 297-300. MLA International Bibliography.
- John Tresh: Extra! Extra! Poe Invents Science Fiction. In: The Cambridge Companion to Edgar Allan Poe . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 113-132.
- Kurt Vonnegut: Player Piano. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1952.
- Tracy Ware: "A Descent into the Maelström": The Status of Scientific Rhetoric in a Perverse Romance. In: Studies in Short Fiction 29.1, 1992, pp. 77-84. MLA International Bibliography.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Edgar Allan Poe - “A Descent into the Maelström” - Historical Texts for details on the publication history . On: The Edgar Allan Poe Society , accessed on February 13, 2016. WorldCat names the probable date of the first publication of the collection Strange Stories by Spemann Verlag 1881 or the following years 1882 and 1883; the Edgar Allan Poe Society , on the other hand, gives the date of the first edition of the translated and edited by Mürenberg. Collection of stories from 1890. Mürenberg's translation is available online in the Internet Archive at [1] .