The Black Spider by Jeremias Gotthelf (translated by Susan Bernofsky).
Title: The Black Spider.
Author: Jeremias Gotthelf (translated by Susan Bernofsky).
Genre: Literature, fiction, horror, allegory.
Country: Switzerland.
Language: German.
Publication Date: 1842.
Summary: It is a sunny summer Sunday in a remote Swiss village, and a christening is being celebrated at a lovely old farmhouse. One of the guests notices something bizarre: an ancient blackened post, carefully built into a trim new window frame. Thereby hangs a tale that the wise old grandfather, who has lived all his life in the house, proceeds to tell, with one dreadful turn after another, while his audience listens in appalled silence. Featuring a cruelly overbearing lord of the manor and the oppressed villagers who must render him an impossible service, a mysterious stranger with a red beard and a green hat that promises everything for a very particular payment, and an irreverent young woman who makes a pact with the devil, sealed by a single kiss, that brings generations of terror in the shape of a horrible black spider to her community.
My rating: 8/10
My review:
♥ All about the house lay a Sunday gleam such as cannot be produced within just a few strokes of the broom applied of a Saturday evening between day and night; such gleaming splendor bears witness to a precious inheritance-inborn purity-that like family honor must be upheld day after day, for a single unguarded moment can besmirch it for generations with stains as indelible as bloodstains, which are impervious to whitewash.
It was no wonder that both the earth made by the hand of God and the house built by human hands now shone out in their purest resplendence; a star shone about them in the blue heavens on this day, a blessed day of celebration. It was the day on which the Son returned to the Father as a sign that Jacob's ladder still stands, the stairway to heaven that angels climb and descend, as do the souls of human beings once they have disentangled themselves from their mortal husks, assuming they sought their salvation in the realm of the Father and not here on earth; it was the day on which all the world's vegetation burgeons heavenwards, opulently blooming and providing a symbol, renewed each year, of human destiny. There was a glorious ringing from beyond the hills without it being possible to tell where it was coming from, a general tintinnabulation. It came from the churches down the broad valleys, where the bells proclaimed God's temple open to all whose hearts are open to the voice of their God.
♥ But she had tarried too long over her handiwork, and now she offered to relieve the godmother of the child; but the godmother would have none of it and could not be swayed. This was too fine an opportunity to demonstrate to the handsome, single godfather how strong her arms were, and what exertions they could withstand. Strong arms on a woman suit a proper farmer far better than delicate ones, flimsy little sticks that can be blown in all directions by any passing nor'easter; and strong maternal arms have proved the salvation of many a child after a father's death, when the mother is left alone to wield the rod and hoist the household's wheels out of whatever potholes and ditches they might encounter.
♥ The godmother was suffering from the most dreadful fear wand was forced to conceal it. No one had told her what name the child was to be given-and according to custom, it was the godmother's duty to whisper this name to the pastor when she handed him the child, since he might otherwise easily confuse all the names entered in his register when there were many children to be baptized.
♥ Hard by the church stood the public house; so often the two are closely conjoined, honorably sharing both joys and sorrows.
In the general haste of the preparations and their feat of arriving at the church too late, no one had remembered to tell her what name had been chosen for the child; and she had been strictly, peremptorily forbidden by her aunt, her father's sister, to ask the name unless she meant to ensure the child's unhappiness; for if a godmother asks a child's name, the child will suffer from curiosity as long as it lives.
And so she did not know the name, was not allowed to ask, and if the pastor too had forgotten it and asked her the name loudly in front of everyone, or else accidentally baptized the boy Magdalena or Barbara, how people would laugh, and what disgrace would follow her the rest of her days. This prospect appeared to her even more frightful, and the legs of this sturdy girl shook like beanstalks in the wind, and perspiration ran in rivulets down her pale cheeks.
♥ Conversation flowed slowly in front of the house, and yet it didn't dry up; before eating, the stomach's thoughts disturb the thoughts of the soul, but no one enjoys this state of mind, and often it is cloaked in languorous discussion of indifferent topics.
♥ Sinlge lads nowadays, she explained, had quite other things on their minds than marrying, and most of them weren't up to it anyway. "Well certainly," Hans Uli said, declaring himself to be in full agreement. Most girls these days, he went on, were such namby-pamby creatures-what kind of wife would they make! They seemed to think that all it took to be a proper wife was to wear a blue silk scarf about one's head, dainty little gloves in summer, and delicate embroidered slippers in winter. "If a fellow has no cows in his stable, that's certainly a misfortune, but it's possible to change; but if he marries a wife who costs him house and home, he is truly done for since he has to keep it." It was better, he concluded, for a young man to think of other things than marriage and to let the girls be.
♥ The poor men pricked up their ears at this unexpected offer. If they could agree on the terms, it would be their salvation, for they could cart the beeches to Kilchstalden, the hill upon which the church stood, without neglecting their own fields to their ruin. And so the old man said, "Tell us, then, what you would ask of us, that we might come to an agreement." Here the green man's face took on a sly expression; there was a crackling in his beard, his eyes began to flicker like the eyes of a snake, and a ghastly smile played about the two corners of his lips as they parted to speak the words: "As I said, it is not much; all I ask is an unbaptized child."
Like a lightning bolt these words shot through the men, the scales fell from their eyes, and like chaff in a whirlwind they flew in all directions.
The green man howled with laughter until the fish in the brook hid themselves and the birds sought their thicket; gruesomely the feather swayed to and fro atop his hat, and the little beard bobbed up and down. "Consider," he cried shrilly after the fugitives, "and take council with your wives. Three nights from now you will find me here again!" The words stuck in their ears like barbed arrows in flesh.
♥ The green man was saying he couldn't understand why he was so feared, he meant well by humankind, and if people received him uncharitably, why should they be surprised if he didn't always treat them the way they wanted. Christine summoned her courage and said that he had only himself to blame if he frightened people so atrociously. Why did he demand an unbaptized child, he might have spoken of some other form of payment, talk like that aroused suspicion, a child was human, after all, and no Christian would hand over a child before its baptism. "This is my customary payment, and I will accept nothing else; who cares about an infant that no one even knows yet? It's best to give them away early when no one has taken pleasure in or cared for them. For me, the younger the better; the earlier I begin raising a child in my own way, the further I can bring it. Baptism is unnecessary for my purposes. I don't want it." Now Christine understood that he would not be satisfied with any other payment; but the thoughts continued to grow within her. Why should this be the only man who couldn't be tricked?
♥ Quaking, the company listened to the men's report, emerging from the room's darkest reaches to gather around the fire where the men sat, and when the wind wailed in the rafters or a thunderclap crashed above the house, the whole assembly cried out in terror, convinced that the green man was breaking through the roof to appear in their midst. But he did not come, and their fear subsided, and as the old misery persisted and the laments of the suffering increased, thoughts began to rise within them of the sort that can easily cost a man his soul.
♥ The morning was beautiful and clear, all traces of storm and wizardry gone, their axes hewed twice as sharp as before, the ground was loose, and each of the beeches fell just as they wished it to, not a single cart broke down, the animals were willing and strong, and the men protected from every mishap as if by an invisible hand.
There was just one strange thing. Down below Sumiswald in those days there was not yet a road leading to the far end of the valley, it was still marshland there, fed by the unbridled stream called Grüne, and so one drove up the Stalden by the village road that went past the church. Just as in the days before, they drove three carts at once so that they could give each other aid, be it with word, deed, or beasts, and now they had only to pass through Sumiswald and descend Kilchstalden, beside which a small chapel stood; below it, on the level road, they were to unload the beeches. But as soon as they had driven up Stalden and approached the church on the level road, the weight of their carts grew not lighter but heavier and heavier; they had to hitch up additional animals, as many as they had, and then whip them cruelly and seize hold of the wheel's spokes, and all the while even the gentlest nags balked as though something invisible had come from the churchyard and was blocking their path; and the faint tolling of a bell, almost like the errant echo of a distant death knell, came from the church, so that a peculiar horror seized the strongest men, and both men and beasts trembled as they approached the church. Once they had passed it, the way became smooth again, and they could easily unload their carts, easily return for a new load.
♥ Sober-minded elders voiced words of caution, bidding them cease, but defiant hearts pay no heed to their elders' warnings, saying that any misfortune is the fault of the elders with all their warnings and fearfulness. The time is still to come when it will be recognized that defiance itself can summon misfortune out of nowhere.
♥ The closer the day of the birth approached, the more terrible the burning in her cheek became, and the more the black spot swelled, stretching distinct legs out from its center and sprouting little hairs; shiny points and stripes appeared on its back, the bump became a head, and from it flashed glinting, venomous glances, as if from two eyes. Everyone shrieked at the sight of this venomous spider upon Christine's face, rooted in her face, growing there, and they fled in fear and horror. There was much talk, all sorts of different advice, but whatever this affliction might be, no one was sorry for Christine, whom they shunned, fleeing her presence at every turn. And the more they fled, then more she pursued them, hurrying from one house to the next; the devil was reminding her of the promised child, she knew, and she tried to prevail on the others to make this sacrifice, hounding them in her infernal terror. But the others hardly paid attention: Christine's torments caused them no pain, she herself was to blame for her sufferings..
..But the pain did not cease, each leg was like hellfire, the spider's body like hell itself, and when the woman's time came, Christine felt a sea of flame surrounding her, it was as if fiery knives were gouging at her marrow, and fiery whirlwinds howling through her brain. And the spider swelled and reared, and its venomous eyes bulged amid the short bristles.
♥ ..outside, Christine lay struck down by indescribable torments, and in her face labor pains began such as no woman on earth has ever known. The spider in her face swelled up higher than ever, sending fiery barbs through her very bones.
And now Christine felt as if her face was busting open and glowing coals were being birthed from it, quickening into life and swarming across her face and all her limbs, and everything within her face had sprung to life, a fiery swarming all across her body. In the lightning's pallid glow she saw, long-legged and venomous, innumerable black spiderlings scurrying down her limbs and out into the night, and as they vanished they were followed, long-legged and venomous, by innumerable others. Finally there were no more left to swarm after the others, the burning in her face subsided, and the spider settled back into her flesh, becoming an almost invisible dot again, its dying eyes gazing after the infernal brood it had given birth to as a sign of how the green huntsman likes being toyed with.
..Finally they heard and were startled; a few went to look, and returned deathly pale with the news that the finest cow lay dead, and the rest of the beasts were thrashing and flailing in ways they had never seen. Something was not right, they said, strange forces were at work. All celebration ceased, and everyone ran outside to look to the animals, whose bellowing resounded over mountain and valley, but they did not know what to do. They tried both worldly and spiritual arts against this curse, but in vain; before the day dawned, all the animals in the stable had died. And as silence set in at the house, they began to hear bellowing here and bellowing there. The affliction was spreading from stable to stable where, in their terror, the beasts piteously cried out to their masters for succor.
They sped home as if flames were shooting from the roods, but they brought no succor; in stable after stable, death laid low their livestock, and the wails of man and beast filled mountains and valleys, and the sun that when it last departed had left behind so gay a valley now looked down upon a scene of abject misery. When the sun rose, the peasants saw that the stables where their livestock had fallen swarmed with innumerable black spiders. They crept over the animals, the fodder, and everything they touched was poisoned, and every living thing began to thrash about and was soon struck down. The spiders could not be cleared from the stables they infested. They seemed to have sprung up out of the ground, and no stable they had not yet beset could be shielded from them, for suddenly they would creep out of the walls or else scores of them would drop from the rafters. The peasants drove their livestock out into the fields, but they were only driving their beasts into the jaws of death. For as soon as a cow set foot in a meadow, the ground began to teem with life: black, long-legged spiders sprouted from the earth, horrific Alpine flowers that crept up the animals' legs, and dreadful cries of anguish resounded from mountain to valley. And all these spiders resembled the spider upon Christine's face as children resemble their mother, and no one had ever seen spiders like these before.
♥ And in broken phrases, with no man speaking out clearly but each stammering a few chosen words that said very little, they resolved to sacrifice the next child, but no one volunteered to perform this deed, none was willing to bear the child to Kilchstalden, where they had laid the beeches. None had hesitated to take advantage of the devil, it seemed, for the general weal, and yet none was eager to make his personal acquaintance. And here Christine willingly offered her services, for one who had already kept company with the devil could scarcely suffer further harm from a second meeting. They all knew to whom the next child would be born, but no one spoke of it, and the child's father was not among them. Having come both to spoken and unspoken agreement, they parted.
♥ And so this stalwart woman had been sold, but not knowing this, she still anxiously hoped for rescue, and yet it had been decided in the council of men that the dagger would pierce her heart; but what the Lord above had decided was still concealed by the clouds that lie between us and the future.
♥ No priest came and no one else they could trust as the moment usually anticipated with such joy came ever closer, so it can be imagined what fear engulfed these poor women like boiling oil-without help and without hope.
♥ Fear and horror seized the men when Christine emerged with the stolen child. Premonitions of a dreadful future rose before them, but not one had the courage to put a stop to things; they fear of the devil's plagues was stronger than their fear of God. Only Christine felt no fear. Her face glowed, radiant as the face of a victor after successful battle, and it seemed to her the spider stirred, caressing her, the gentlest itch; the lighting bolts that flickered about her as she made her way to Kilchstalden seemed like festive lanterns to her, the thunder an affectionate grumble, and the bloodthirsty storm a sweet rustling of leaves.
♥ Then he walked more slowly again, slowly as a man walking his last road to the gallows. And perhaps he really was walking toward the place where his life would end; many walk their last roads without knowing it, and if they did, how differently they might walk there.
♥ This sight filled the priest with the holy battle lust that seizes warriors whose hearts are consecratedf to God when they sense the presence of the Evil One, just as a seed is seized by the urge to grow when life enters it, or a flower by the need to unfurl; the will to take action seizes the hero when his enemy raises his sword. And like a parched man plunging into a river's cool waters, or a hero into battle, the priest sprang down the slopes of the Stalden, plunging into the fierce battle, thrusting himself between the green huntsman and Christine, who had been just about to place the child in his arms, plunged right between them, hurling before him the three highest holy names as he raised the sacred host to the green man's face, sprinkling holy water on the child and striking Christine at the same time. With a dreadful cry of pain the green man bolted off, shooting into the distance like a streak of fiery red until the earth devoured him; struck by the holy water, Christine crumpled with a horrific hissing sound like wool in fire, like lime in water, shrinking into a ball, hissing and spitting fire, every part of her shrinking but the bloated black terrifying spider in her face, and she shrank and shriveled into it until only the spider was left sitting venomous and defiant atop the child, its eyes shooting thunderbolts of fury in the priest's direction. The priest sprinkled holy water that struck the spider, hissing like ordinary water on a hot stone; the spider grew larger and larger, stretching its black legs over the child and fixing the priest with an ever more baleful gaze; and then the priest, sized by a courage born of faith, reached out a bold hand to grasp hold if it. It was as if he were grasping a bundle of fiery thorns, but undaunted he kept his grip and then hurled the foul creature aside, took up the child, and raced with it as quick as he could to its mother's side.
Now that this battle was over, the clouds' battle also ceased, and quickly they retreated to their dark chambers; soon silent starlight flickered in the valley where not long before the fiercest battle had raged, and the priest, almost breathless, reached the house where so heinous a deed had been perpetrated against mother and child.
♥ Soon the soul of the child departed, its little body scorched as if by flames. The poor mother wept of course, but when each part goes to the place where it belongs, the soul to God and the body to earth, consolation comes with time-sooner for some, later for others.
♥ When he came to to Kilchstalden, he saw Hans, the ungodly father who had been missing all this time. Hans was lying on his back in the middle of the road. His face was swollen and charred, and right in the middle-huge, black, and terrifying-sat the spider. As the priest approached, the spider puffed itself up, the hairs on its back venomously erect, its eyes flashing baleful glances, like a cat preparing to spring into the face of her mortal enemy. The priest began to recite a psalm, holding out the hallowed weapons before him, and the spider recoiled. It crept long-legged down from the blackened face and disappeared in the hissing grass. So now the priest returned home, restored the sacred host to its place, and with violent pangs wracking his body, consigning it to death, his soul waited in sweet tranquillity to join its God, for whom it had nobly striven in valiant battle, and soon God brought it peace.
But a sweet peace calmly awaiting its Lord was not to be found down in the valley, nor upon the mountain peaks.
♥ Then a terrible shriek came from the middle of the crowd, as if someone had set his foot upon a burning thorn, as if his foot were being nailed to the earth with nails of fire, as if flames were shooting through his marrow. The crowd flew apart, all eyes drawn to the foot to which the hand of the screaming man was pointing. On this foot sat the spider, black and huge, glowering balefully, maliciously all around. The blood froze in their veins, the breath in their breasts, and the sight in their eyes, while the spider calmly, maliciously peered about, and then the man's foot turned black, and in his body it felt as if fire were hissingly, furiously doing battle with water; fear burst the bonds of horror, and the crowd scattered. But with wondrous speed the spider abandoned its first seat, scurrying across the foot of one man, the heel of another, and flames shot through their bodies and their terrible cries made the others flee even faster. Like the wind, like startled fame flying as the hunter gives chase, they fled in mortal fear to their huts, each of them imagining the spider at his heels, they barred their doors and yet were unable to stoop trembling with unspeakable fear.
And for one day the spider was gone, no dying cries were heard, people were forced to leave their barricaded homes, they had to provide for their beasts and for themselves, and so, deathly afraid, they did. For where was the spider now, here perhaps, about to set itself down unexpectedly on a foot? And the one who was most cautious where he set his feet and who peered most sharply with his eyes would suddenly see the spider sitting on his hand or foot, or racing across his face, sitting fast and black upon his nose and peering into his eyes, and flaming thorns lodged themselves in his marrow and hellfire engulfed him until he lay dead.
And so the spider was first nowhere, then here, then there, then down in the valley, then up in the mountains; it stalked through the grass, dropped from the ceiling, popped out of the ground. In the middle of the day, when the peasants sat around their pot of porridge, it would appear glowering at one end of the table, and before they had recovered from their terror, it had reached across all their hands and sat at the head of the table atop the skull of the paterfamilias, surveying the table and all the hands that were turning black. It dropped onto people's faces at night, surprised them in the woods, pursued them in the stables. There was no avoiding this creature, it was everywhere and nowhere, none could protect himself while awake and there was no safety in sleep. When people thought themselves safest, out in the open air, perched in a treetop, fire would creep up their spines and they would feel the spider's blazing feet at the back of their necks as it peered over their shoulders. The child in its cradle, the graybeard in his deathbed were not spared; it was a scourge such as had never been heard of before, and dying of it was more dreadful than anything ever experienced, and even more dreadful than the death itself was the nameless fear of this spider that was everywhere and nowhere and that-just as a person thought himself in safety-might appear flowering before him with its message of death.
♥ He rode along the edge of a fir forest towards the nearest farm, his sharp eye darting glances around and above him. When he beheld the house and the people around it, he called to his dogs, and removed the hood from his falcon's head, while his dagger rattled in its sheath. When the falcon turned its dazzled eyes to the knight, awaiting his signal, it sprang up from his fist and shot into the air, the dogs that had leapt to his side now howled and raced off with their tails between their legs. In vain did the knight ride and shout; his animals did not return to him. Then he rode to where the people were, wishing to question them, and they stood waiting until he drew close. Then they shrieked in horror and fled to the woods and the ravine, for atop the knight's helmet sat the spider, black and swollen to supernatural size, glowering balefully, maliciously all around. The knight was carrying the very thing he sought and did not know it; in ardent fury he shouted and gave chase to the people fleeing before him, shouting ever more furiously, riding ever faster, bellowing ever more dreadfully, until he and his steed tumbled over a cliff and down into the valley. There his body was found, and his helmet; the spider's feet had burned their way through the helmet and into his brain, igniting the most horrific flames there, until death overtook him.
♥ Yet the sense that the knights had been rightly served was no consolation to the peasants, whose terror grew ever greater and more horrific. Some attempted to flee. Some tried to leave the valley but quickly felt the spider's wrath. Their corpses were found along the road. Others fled into the high mountains, but the spider was always there ahead of them, and just as they thought themselves in safety, it would appear sitting on the back of one, the face of another. The creature grew ever more malicious, ever more devilish. It no longer contented itself with surprising them unawares and inoculating the unsuspecting with fiery death; no, it sat before its victim in the grass or dangled from a tree with its baleful stare. Then the person would run as far as his feet would carry him, and when he stood still again, out of breath, there the spider would sit regarding him with its baleful glower. Yet if he fled once again and once again was compelled to curb his steps, it would once again sit before him when he stopped, and when he could flee no longer, only then would it slowly creep up to him, bringing death.
♥ Flight, resistance-it was no use. All hope vanished, and despair filled the valley and rested upon the mountains.
♥ But just as the pear tree that is best nourished and watered and bears the most fruit can be struck by the worm that gnaws at its rind, making it wither and die, so it can happen that where the flood of God's blessings flows most richly over men, the worm can creep its way in, causing men to puff themselves up and grow blind, seeing only God's blessings and forgetting God, letting the riches they enjoy distract them from their provider, becoming like the Israelites who received God's succor and then forgot Him, blinded by golden calves.
And so, after many generations had come and gone, vainglory and pride took root in the valley, brought and fomented by women from other lands. Their clothing took on a vainglorious cast, gleaming jewels appeared, even the very emblems of holiness were affected, and while their hearts should have been ardently bent toward God during prayers, their eyes clung instead to a rosary's golden beads. And so worship was replaced with vainglorious grandeur, and hearts were hardened against God and man. God's commandments mattered less and less, and worship and worshippers became objects of mockery; for where much vainglory is found, or much wealth, one also finds delusions that mistake appetite for wisdom and value wisdom of this sort above the wisdom of God. Just as the knights had once tormented them, they now grew hard and tormented their own servants, and the less they themselves worked, the more work they demanded of these others; and the more they expected of their farmhands and maids, the more they treated them like insensible beasts of burden, not stopping to consider that their servants too possessed souls that need protection. Where much wealth or much vainglory is found, construction soon commences, each house finer than the next; and now they began to build just as the knights had built before them, and just as the knights had once caused them to suffer, they themselves now spared neither servants nor beasts once they were visited by the demon of construction. These changes had made their mark on this household as well, while its old prosperity remained.
♥ When no master sits at the head of the table, no master attends to the goings-on in a household, no master holds the reins either outdoors or in, it will soon come to pass that whoever behaves the most savagely will fancy himself the greatest among his peers, and whoever's speech is the most blasphemous will think himself the best.
♥ He was a strange one, they say, and no one knew where he came from. He could be as gentle as a lamb or rapacious as a wolf; alone with a woman, he was a gentle lamb, but in company he was a wolf, rapacious, one who despised the others and sought to outdo them with ferocious words and deeds; such men are said to be favorites with women. And so in public the maids shrieked in horror at his deeds, but privately they loved him more than any other.
♥ Christen alone stood accused of godless ways, and entire mountains of curses were heaped upon him from all sides. And yet he was perhaps the best among them, it was only that his volition had been bound up in the volition of his women, and servitude of this sort is, to be sure, a significant failing for any man, whose solemn responsibilities remain the same even if he is not as God would have him. Christen understood this, and for this reason he accepted the judgements passed on him and did not protest his innocence; indeed, he accepted more blame than was his to bear: Yet this did not satisfy the people, who began to shout to one another how great his guilt must be if he willingly accepted so much blame and was so submissive to their demands, even going so far as to proclaim his own worthlessness.
♥ Soon everything was quiet outside the house, and within as well. Peaceful the house stood there, gleaming lovely and pure all down the valley in the moonlight, and solicitously, amicably it sheltered good people in their sweet slumber-the sort of slumber enjoyed by those who carry the fear of God and a good conscience in their breasts, and who will never be woken from this slumber by the black spider, but only by friendly sunshine. For where belief dwells, the spider may not stir, neither by day nor by night. But what strength it can attain when beliefs and temperaments change is known only to the One who knows all things and who gives to each his powers: both to spiders and to men.