A Descent into the Maelström is an 1841 short story by Edgar Allan Poe. In this tale of terror, Poe reveals the macabre nature of the ocean and its unforgiving and enormous power. The narrator's guide shares his feat of escaping a whirlpool that nothing else has ever survived. A Descent into the Maelstrom is a story of fear and terror written by Edgar Allan Poe. In this piece, the narrator and his guide ascend a high peak on the coast of Norway, which overlooks a section of the ocean where a great whirlpool is formed by the changing tide. On the peak of Helgesen, the narrator is so terrified with the height over the water that he clutches the grass around him while his guide leans over the edge with what seems like a complete lack of fear. Below the peak, when the tide comes in, the rushing water forms a maelstrom or a whirlpool. The guide's experience with the whirlpool is what practically eliminates his fear of the height from the cliff edge. Eventually, the narrator has gained enough composure to peer over the edge of the cliff to see the water below. After he does this, the guide explains that when he was sucked into the maelstrom, the six hours he spent in the whirling madness changed his hair from 'raven black' to the white that it is. The story mentions Jonas Danilssønn Ramus, a man from Norway who wrote about a famous maelström at Saltstraumen. Enjoy free online English audiobook “A Descent into the Maelström”, a breathtaking story by Edgar Allan Poe.
