NICOLAS KLIM’S UNDERGROUND JOURNEY
by Ludvig Holbergtranslation © Dennis List, 2000
CHAPTER 1
In which the author returns to Norway, falls through a hole into the subterraneous world, narrowly escapes becoming a planet (unlike his loaf of bread), harpoons a griffin, and finally lands on the inner planet.
The Author’s Descent to the Subterranean World
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In the year 1664, I passed my final examinations at the University of Copenhagen. My examiners awarded me the grade of Honours, in philosophy and religion. It was time to return to my native country, so I took a passage on a ship bound for Bergen in Norway.
Though I was dignified by various awards from the university, I had almost no money. This was a problem that affected both myself and several other Norwegian students, who returned from our studies to our own country, with hardly a penny to our names. Pushed along by a pretty brisk gale, we arrived at Bergen harbour after a voyage of only six days. Back in my own country, wiser though no richer, I was supported at the expense of my near relations, and led a precarious sort of life - though not totally inactive.
In order to clear up by experience some points of natural science (a subject I had devoted myself to) I explored every corner of the province with insatiable curiosity, studying the nature of the earth, and searching into the very bowels of our mountains.
There was no rock too steep for me to climb; no cavern too dark and deep for me to descend into, to see if I could discover anything curious and worthy of scientific inquiry. For there are a multitude of things in our country of Norway, hardly ever seen or heard of - but if France, Italy, Germany, or any other country so full of other marvellous things, could boast of these, nothing would be more discussed.
Among those things which to me appeared most worth looking into, there was a large and deep cave upon the top of a mountain which the natives call Floien. The mouth of the cave used to send forth an occasional gentle murmuring sound, as if its jaws were opening and shutting. Thus the literati of Bergen, and particularly the celebrated Master Abeline, and Master Edward (one of our first geniuses in astronomy and natural science) imagined this place highly worthy of scientific study. Since they themselves were too old for such an enterprise, they encouraged the younger inhabitants to closely examine the nature of the cavern, especially as on occasions the sound, after not being heard for some time, came out with extra force - like a human breath.
With all this talk, and my own natural inclination, I decided to go down into this cavern, and told some of my friends of my plan. They disapproved of the idea, stating that it was a wild and frantic undertaking. But, far from discouraging me, they could not even dampen my keenness. Their advice, instead of weakening my curiosity, added fuel to it
The eagerness with which I pursued the study of nature inspired me to face every danger, and the penury of my private circumstances gave a spur to my natural inclination. My own funds were all spent, and it seemed to me the greatest hardship to live in a state of dependence, in a country where all hopes of advancement were cut off, where I saw myself condemned to poverty, and every avenue to fame and wealth totally blocked, unless I could make my way by some flagrant act of dishonour or immorality.
Thus resolved, and having got together all I needed for such an exploit, one Thursday morning, when the heavens were all serene and cloudless, I left the city soon after dawn. My plan was that when I had finished my observations, I might return again that same day. Being ignorant of the future I did not foresee that I, like another phaeton
Volverer in praeceps longoque per aera tractushould be flung upon another world, not to revisit my native soil till after ten years of travel.
This expedition happened in1665, when John Munthe and Laurence Severini were consuls of Bergen, and Christian Bertholdi and Laurence Sandio being senators. I went out with four fellows I had hired, who carried a collection of ropes and iron crooks to be used in my descent.
We went straight to Sandvik, the easiest way to climb the mountain. Having with difficulty reached the top, we came to the place where the notorious cave was. Tired after our troublesome journey, we all sat down to breakfast. Only then did I, sensing some approaching evil, begin to worry. I turned to my companions, asking "Will any one of you do this task?" But none of them answered me. My keenness, after languishing, now grew again.
I ordered them to fasten the rope around me. Thus equipped, I commended my soul to almighty God. Now that i was ready to be let down, I instructed my companions. They should continue letting down the rope till they heard me cry out. On that signal they should stop. If I kept crying out, then they should immediately pull me up again. In my right hand I held my harpoon, an instrument that could be useful in removing whatever might obstruct my passage, and also to keep my body suspended equally between the sides of the cavern.
I had descended about twenty feet when the rope broke. I discovered this accident on hearing the sudden outcries of the men I had hired. But their noise soon died away, because with an amazing speed I fell down into the abyss, and like a second Pluto, assuming my harpoon to be a sceptre,
Labor, et icta viam tellus ad tartara fecit.For about a quarter of an hour (as near as I could guess, considering my great alarm) I was in total darkness. At last a thin small light, like twilight, broke in upon me, and I saw a bright serene sky. In my ignorance, I thought that, perhaps by the force of some contrary wind, I had been thrown back, and that the cave had vomited me up again.
But neither the sun which I then saw, nor the skies, nor the heavenly bodies, looked at all familiar, since they were considerably fewer then our own. I concluded that either all that whole mass of new heavens existed solely in my imagination, excited by the vertigo my head had undergone, or else that I had arrived at the mansions of the blessed.
But this last opinion I soon rejected with scorn, since I could see myself armed with a harpoon, and dragging a mighty length of rope after me. I knew perfectly well that a man on the way to paradise has no need for a rope or a harpoon, and that the celestial inhabitants could not possibly be pleased with clothing which looked as if I (like the Titans) intended to take heaven by force, and to expel them from their divine abodes.
At last I conjectured that I had fallen into a subterranean world. There are men who believe the earth to be hollow, and that inside the shell or outward crust there is another smaller globe, and another firmament adorned with lesser sun, stars, and planets.I soon discovered that this theory was right.
My headlong fall had now continued for some time, but now I realized that it was slowing down, as I approached a certain planet, which was the first thing I met with. As the planet became closer and closer, I began to distinguish mountains, valleys, and seas, through the thick atmosphere that surrounded it.
...Sicut avis, quae circum litora, circum
Piscosos scopulos humilis aequora juxta,
Haud aliter terras inter coelumque volabam.Then I noticed that my motion, which had until now been perpendicular, had now become a circular one. At this, my hair stood on end: I worried that I might be transformed into a planet, or into a satellite of the neighbouring planet, to be whirled about in perpetual rotation.
On further reflection I realized that by this metamorphosis my dignity would suffer no great loss, and that a heavenly body (or a satellite of one) was at least as noble a thing as a famished philosopher. So I took courage again, specially when I found from the benefit of that pure celestial ether, that I was no longer bothered by hunger or thirst.
I remembered that I had in my pocket one of those oval loaves of bread that in Bergen people call bolken. I decided to take it out, to experiment whether I had any appetite in this situation. At the first bite, the bread tasted quite nauseous, so I threw the useless loaf away. I was surprised to find that not only was it suspended in the air, but (strange to see) it orbited round my own body.
In this way I learned the true laws of motion: that all bodies, when placed in equilibrium, spin with a circular motion. With this discover, instead of deploring my wretched luck (as I had been doing until now), I perked up a little, finding that I was not only a simple planet, but an important planet, with a perpetual satellite spinning around me. I would rank as one of the greater heavenly bodies, or stars of the first magnitude.
And to confess my weakness, I was so elated that if I had then met any of our consuls or senators from Bergen, I'd have received them with a supercilious air. I'd have regarded them as atoms, and considered them unworthy to be saluted or honoured with a touch of my harpoon.
For almost three days I stayed in this condition. In my nonstop whirl about the planet next to me, I could distinguish day from night. Noticing the subterranean sun rise and set, and fade gradually out of my sight, I could easily see when it was night, though it was different from what it is with us. At sunset the whole face of the sky was bright purple, not unlike the look of our moon sometimes. This I took to be caused by the inner surface of our earth, which borrowed that light from the subterranean sun, which was placed in the centre. This theory I developed by myself, being not a complete stranger to the study of astronomy.
So I was amused by thoughts of being in the neighbourhood of the gods, congratulating myself as a new constellation, together with my satellite that surrounded me. I hoped in a short time to be added to the catalogue of stars by the astronomers of the neighbouring planet.
Suddenly, an enormous winged monster hovered near me, sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other, sometimes over my head. At first I took it for one of the twelve heavenly signs in this new world. I hoped that, if this conjecture was right, it would be Virgo, since of all the twelve signs, that alone could give me, in my unhappy solitude, some delight and comfort. But when the figure came closer to me, it appeared to be a fierce, huge griffin.
I was so terrified that (forgetting my new starry dignity) I took out my university degree, which I happened to have in my pocket. It would show this terrible adversary that I had passed my academic examination, that I was a graduate student, and could plead the privilege of my university against any one that should attack me.
As my terror cooled, I realized that this was not a good idea, because it was not clear why this griffin should approach me: whether as an enemy, or a friend; or (more likely) attracted by the sole novelty of this thing, he only wanted to satisfy his curiosity. For the sight of a human creature whirling about in the air, brandishing a harpoon in his right hand, and pulling after him a great length of rope like a tail, was a phenomenon which might excite even a brute creature to watch.
Afterwards, I learned that this unusual sight had greatly puzzled the inhabitants of the globe around which I revolved. The philosophers and mathematicians thought I was a comet, certain that my rope was the tail. There were some, who from the appearance of so rare a meteor, predicted some impending misfortune - a plague, a famine, or some other extraordinary catastrophe. Some went further, and drew my figure (as it appeared to them at that distance) in very accurate drawings. Thus I was described, defined, painted and engraved before ever I touched their globe. Much later, after I had arrived on the planet and learned their language, hearing this news greatly amused me.
Sometimes, new stars appear: the Subterraneans call them scissisi, or blazing stars. They describe these as looking horrid with fiery hair, resembling our comets, bushy on the top, projecting in form of a long beard. As in our world, these are considered ominous.
To resume my history, the griffin came closer, bothering me by the flapping of his wings. He even tried to attack my leg with his teeth, so it now became obvious what he had in mind. So I began to attack this troublesome animal with weapons: grasping my harpoon with both hands, I soon curbed his insolence, obliging him to look around for a way to escape. At last, since he persisted in annoying me, I thrust my harpoon with such a force into the back of the animal, between his wings, that I could not pull it out again.
The wounded griffin, uttering a horrible cry, fell headlong onto the planet. As for myself, I was already weary of this starry station, of this new dignity - which I now understood was not without danger. So I clung to my harpoon and fell down with the griffin.
Arbitrio volucris rapior, quoque impetus egit
Huc sine lege ruo, longoque per aera tractu
In terram feror, ut de coelo stella sereno,
Etsi non cecidit, potuit cecidisse videri.My circular motion changed again, into a perpendicular one. For some time I was violently tossed around, by the winds of a thicker air. Finally with an easy, gentle descent, I arrived on the planet - together with the griffin, who soon afterward died of his wound.
It was night when I landed on that planet. I gathered this, not because it was dark, but because the sun was not visible. There was still so much light that I could easily read my university degree. This nocturnal light comes from the inward surface of our earth, which reflects a light, like that of the moon on us. Thus, in terms of light, there is little difference between the nights and day: only that the sun is absent at night, so the nights are a little colder.