The Eco-Horror Stories of Algernon Blackwood
19th Century Tales of a Malevolent Mother Nature's Revenge
Sep 7, 2009
There's something spooky about the rushing of leaves on an autumn night; English writer Algernon Blackwood, author of numerous supernatural tales, capitalizes on that sense of dread in these three odes to the power of nature.
Unlike his haunted house tales, where psychic phenomena do one no harm, Blackwood's works of eco-horror offer little escape from the brooding fury of the elements, which continually plot against the protagonists.
“The Willows”
Somewhere between Vienna and Budapest, the Danube spreads out into a treacherous and unpredictable swamp, home to legions of stunted willow trees. The narrator and his Swedish friend have been tracing the course of the river since its beginnings, and come to view it as a friend; but this marsh, with the wind sailing rapidly overhead, and the islands of sand rapidly crumbling and re-forming, feels chillingly unfamiliar.
They are forced to camp one evening on one such crumbling island. The narrator has a restless night; he cannot sleep for the strange pattering sounds he feels are growing closer and closer to the tent. The two men awake to find their rudder missing, and a tear in the bottom of the canoe. What’s more, the night has worked a curious change in the Swede…
The elements must sate their hunger with the life of a human being before this tale of dread and estrangement is through.
“The Wendigo”
Dr. Cathcart and his nephew, accompanied by their guides, are all off on a hunting expedition together in the Canadian wilderness. When they split into two parties, the nephew, Simpson, finds himself affected by “the indifference to human life, the merciless spirit of desolation” of the woods. And later on, his guide Defago seems deeply disturbed by some current in the air, some nameless apparition… Simpson can only wonder.
The next morning, Defago runs out of their tent, yelling in answer to a strange windy voice that calls to him through the trees. Simpson, left alone, searches about, only to find Defago’s tracks - paired with the tracks of some enormous beast.
Simpson finds his way back to his uncle’s company and discovers, along their search, what the Algonquin mean when they say that a man has “seen the Wendigo”.
“Ancient Lights”
A surveyor’s clerk sallies forth across windy fields to the house of a client, a man who wants some of his woods cut down to improve the view from one of his windows. Curious about the woods in question, the surveyor jumps a fence and enters the wooded property before presenting himself at the client’s house.
He quickly loses his way, falling prey to a hallucination–a vision of a man who, in answer to the clerk’s query as to the way, merely points to a sign, “Trespassers will be persecuted,” then disappears. Increasingly dismayed, the clerk begins to run, but cannot escape from the woods that seem to follow him, and slowly close in…
The secret of to whom the woods really belong is revealed at the end of this elegy to the spirits of oldest England.
Further Reading
A sense of pervasive dread permeates these slow and haunting tales, each of them perfect for a night at the cottage or an evening in front of the fire. And for an even deeper and more chilling exploration of the ruthless power of nature in Blackwood’s work, his novella “The Man Whom the Trees Loved” is highly recommended. But be forewarned: any avid reader of these tales may find it hard to look at Mother Nature the same way again…
Reference
Algernon Blackwood at The Literary Gothic
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