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The Sea Fit
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About the author
Algernon Blackwood
1,394 books1,193 followersAlgernon Henry Blackwood (1869–1951) was an English broadcasting narrator, journalist, novelist and short story writer, and among the most prolific ghost story writers in the history of the genre. The literary critic S. T. Joshi stated, "His work is more consistently meritorious than any weird writer's except Dunsany's" and that his short story collection Incredible Adventures (1914) "may be the premier weird collection of this or any other century".
Blackwood was born in Shooter's Hill (today part of south-east London, but then part of northwest Kent) and educated at Wellington College. His father was a Post Office administrator who, according to Peter Penzoldt, "though not devoid of genuine good-heartedness, had appallingly narrow religious ideas." Blackwood had a varied career, farming in Canada, operating a hotel, as a newspaper reporter in New York City, and, throughout his adult life, an occasional essayist for various periodicals. In his late thirties, he moved back to England and started to write stories of the supernatural. He was very successful, writing at least ten original collections of short stories and eventually appearing on both radio and television to tell them. He also wrote fourteen novels, several children's books, and a number of plays, most of which were produced but not published. He was an avid lover of nature and the outdoors, and many of his stories reflect this.
H.P. Lovecraft wrote of Blackwood: "He is the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere." His powerful story "The Willows," which effectively describes another dimension impinging upon our own, was reckoned by Lovecraft to be not only "foremost of all" Blackwood's tales but the best "weird tale" of all time.
Among his thirty-odd books, Blackwood wrote a series of stories and short novels published as John Silence, Physician Extraordinary (1908), which featured a "psychic detective" who combined the skills of a Sherlock Holmes and a psychic medium. Blackwood also wrote light fantasy and juvenile books.
Blackwood was born in Shooter's Hill (today part of south-east London, but then part of northwest Kent) and educated at Wellington College. His father was a Post Office administrator who, according to Peter Penzoldt, "though not devoid of genuine good-heartedness, had appallingly narrow religious ideas." Blackwood had a varied career, farming in Canada, operating a hotel, as a newspaper reporter in New York City, and, throughout his adult life, an occasional essayist for various periodicals. In his late thirties, he moved back to England and started to write stories of the supernatural. He was very successful, writing at least ten original collections of short stories and eventually appearing on both radio and television to tell them. He also wrote fourteen novels, several children's books, and a number of plays, most of which were produced but not published. He was an avid lover of nature and the outdoors, and many of his stories reflect this.
H.P. Lovecraft wrote of Blackwood: "He is the one absolute and unquestioned master of weird atmosphere." His powerful story "The Willows," which effectively describes another dimension impinging upon our own, was reckoned by Lovecraft to be not only "foremost of all" Blackwood's tales but the best "weird tale" of all time.
Among his thirty-odd books, Blackwood wrote a series of stories and short novels published as John Silence, Physician Extraordinary (1908), which featured a "psychic detective" who combined the skills of a Sherlock Holmes and a psychic medium. Blackwood also wrote light fantasy and juvenile books.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 21, 2018
An evocative tale of the events witnessed by the sea by a group of friends. Concerns the power of the unseen world and the sea. The captain who is an ardent worshipper of the deep, is claimed by the sea on the event of his death and merges with the divine. Very Lovecraftian.
April 13, 2023
Perhaps not one of Blackwood's best stories. It is very good--just not great.
It is an expertly crafted work of supernatural fiction concerning ideas of ancient gods and powers unknown in the world. What is most impressive is the means by which our author conveys his ideas. Blackwood was a wordsmith, and this story--especially, the Easter moon--is quite evocative.
The positioning of the characters is also quite good. Norden, the brother to Ericcson (a pagan), is a Christian--a Jesuit, in fact. Initially, the strong pagan elements of the story--the striking polytheistic tendency of the narrative--serves in some way to suggest to the reader that Norden is nothing more than a silent critique. He, above all, is the separate religious person, and his monotheistic beliefs cannot help but be harmed by the multifold and self-chosen deities which our author suggests exist. Unlike the Major and the Doctor, who view the story from the perspective of the layman and of the professional of science (not theology), he is someone pinpointed as (if not intelligent) at least quite religious in nature; he is exactly the one we need to see to show the contrast of the narrative's religious ideas with our own. However, he is not simply the religious man refuted, for by the end of the story, Norden is the one most calm. He is fully aware of what is happening, seems to think that the god which took Ericcson into himself (the Sea itself) is nothing more than another thing under the One God, and--in this sense--we see that framework of the story, far from being a critique of Christianity, cannot help but be an addendum thereto.
It is an expertly crafted work of supernatural fiction concerning ideas of ancient gods and powers unknown in the world. What is most impressive is the means by which our author conveys his ideas. Blackwood was a wordsmith, and this story--especially, the Easter moon--is quite evocative.
The positioning of the characters is also quite good. Norden, the brother to Ericcson (a pagan), is a Christian--a Jesuit, in fact. Initially, the strong pagan elements of the story--the striking polytheistic tendency of the narrative--serves in some way to suggest to the reader that Norden is nothing more than a silent critique. He, above all, is the separate religious person, and his monotheistic beliefs cannot help but be harmed by the multifold and self-chosen deities which our author suggests exist. Unlike the Major and the Doctor, who view the story from the perspective of the layman and of the professional of science (not theology), he is someone pinpointed as (if not intelligent) at least quite religious in nature; he is exactly the one we need to see to show the contrast of the narrative's religious ideas with our own. However, he is not simply the religious man refuted, for by the end of the story, Norden is the one most calm. He is fully aware of what is happening, seems to think that the god which took Ericcson into himself (the Sea itself) is nothing more than another thing under the One God, and--in this sense--we see that framework of the story, far from being a critique of Christianity, cannot help but be an addendum thereto.
November 3, 2024
Erircson, a Viking reincarnated sea captain is visited by a group of friends including a nephew who is a monotheistic cleric, a materialistic soldier and a medical doctor in his cabin by the seashore. These friends are concerned about his mental health. Erricson of Norwegian descent is a primitive man that has a romantic obsession about the sea that manifests as a personal religion to which he is more than willing to be a human sacrifice. His theory is that the old gods manifest themselves only where there is deep emotion, and that worship must end with self-sacrifice. For Erricson, who envisions himself a modern Viking, the sea is a god. As the night progresses, the little party gather on the porch of his seaside cabin and watch the breakers crashing on the moonlit shore. To the amazement of the friends Erricson releases himself from all of his inhibitions as he rushes into the embrace of the sea, sacrificing himself to his pagan beliefs, and morphing into sea water in the process his body never to be recovered. The combined violence, beauty, and power of the scene is a beautiful haunting description of allowing individuality to be literally engulfed and consumed by the collective soul and nature of the sea. 
June 8, 2024
“The gods were not dead, but merely withdrawn.”
A spooky mariner’s tale that happens to actually take place on land—a concept that is mildly disturbing in itself as one is never truly safe from the sea.
What would you give of yourself to your God?
A spooky mariner’s tale that happens to actually take place on land—a concept that is mildly disturbing in itself as one is never truly safe from the sea.
What would you give of yourself to your God?
December 31, 2022
I feel like this gave inspiration to the Lighthouse, which is one of my favourite films of the last few years. Obvi, this was written in 1912, so ymmv
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews