A Terrible Vengeance
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"A Terrible Vengeance" (russian: Страшная месть, Strashnaya mest') is a short
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
horror story Horror is a genre of fiction which is intended to frighten, scare, or disgust. Horror is often divided into the sub-genres of psychological horror and supernatural horror, which is in the realm of speculative fiction. Literary historian J ...
written by Russian author
Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol; uk, link=no, Мико́ла Васи́льович Го́голь, translit=Mykola Vasyliovych Hohol; (russian: Яновский; uk, Яновський, translit=Yanovskyi) ( – ) was a Russian novelist, ...
. It was published in the second volume of his first short story collection, ''
Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka ''Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka'' (russian: «Вечера на хуторе близ Диканьки») is a collection of short stories by Nikolai Gogol, written in 1829–1832. They appeared in various magazines and were published in book f ...
'', in 1832, and it was probably written in late summer 1831.


Origin

The appearance of evil spirits, and specifically of an
Antichrist In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form) 1 John ; . 2 John . ...
figure, in "A Terrible Vengeance" was typical of Gogol's belief in the omnipresence of Evil in everyday life, an aspect of his religious philosophy that is uniquely direct in this story. The overall construction of the story is typical of what would come to be called ''
skaz Skaz ( rus, сказ, p=ˈskas) is a Russian oral form of narrative. The word comes from '' skazátʹ'', "to tell", and is also related to such words as ''rasskaz'', "short story" and ''skazka'', "fairy tale". The speech makes use of dialect and sla ...
'', wherein characters are identified to a large degree by linguistic specificities of their manner of speech. Another particularity of the piece is frequent narratorial intrusion, such as asides to the reader or other violations of the narratorial frame. The basic plot of the story evokes folklore, but there is no comparable piece in
Ukrainian Ukrainian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Ukraine * Something relating to Ukrainians, an East Slavic people from Eastern Europe * Something relating to demographics of Ukraine in terms of demography and population of Ukraine * So ...
or
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
traditions. A similar story of a sorcerer appeared in " Pietro Apone" by German romantic
Johann Ludwig Tieck Johann Ludwig Tieck (; ; 31 May 177328 April 1853) was a German poet, fiction writer, translator, and critic. He was one of the founding fathers of the Romantic movement in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Early life Tieck was born in Be ...
, published in Russian in 1828. Other potential subtexts are Tieck's ''
Karl von Berneck Karl may refer to: People * Karl (given name), including a list of people and characters with the name * Karl der Große, commonly known in English as Charlemagne * Karl Marx, German philosopher and political writer * Karl of Austria, last Austria ...
'' (1797) and E. T. A. Hoffmann's novella '' Ignaz Denner'' (1816).


Plot

Danilo and Katerina attend the wedding of the
Cossack The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...
''
yesaul Yesaul, osaul or osavul (russian: есау́л, translit=yesaul, uk, осаву́л, translit=osavul) (from Turkic yasaul - ''chief''), is a post and a rank in the Ukrainian Cossack units. The first records of the rank imply that it was introdu ...
'' Gorobets's son in a neighborhood of
Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...
. During the celebration, the
yesaul Yesaul, osaul or osavul (russian: есау́л, translit=yesaul, uk, осаву́л, translit=osavul) (from Turkic yasaul - ''chief''), is a post and a rank in the Ukrainian Cossack units. The first records of the rank imply that it was introdu ...
brings out two holy
icons An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Catholic churches. They are not simply artworks; "an icon is a sacred image used in religious devotion". The most ...
, at the sight of which a stranger transforms into a sorcerer and disappears. As soon as Katerina's father arrives at her and Danilo's home the next morning, he demands that she explain her late return the previous night. In the ensuing fight, Katerina's father shoots Danilo in the arm before she intervenes and begs them to forgive one another. Katerina tells Danilo she had a dream the previous night about a sorcerer who wants to marry her. Danilo discovers that the sorcerer is her own father and realizes he is the
Antichrist In Christian eschatology, the Antichrist refers to people prophesied by the Bible to oppose Jesus Christ and substitute themselves in Christ's place before the Second Coming. The term Antichrist (including one plural form) 1 John ; . 2 John . ...
. The Cossacks capture her father and chain him in the cellar of Danilo and Katerina's house, but he convinces Katerina to release him. A group of Poles, organized by the sorcerer, come to take Danilo's land, but they are struck down one by one by him and his fellow Cossacks. At the end of the battle, the sorcerer shoots Danilo dead from behind a tree. Katerina has a dream about her son being killed, wakes up from the nightmare, and finds the baby dead in its cradle. Katerina turns mad until a traveler stops at her house one day and appears to bring her back to sanity. But when he claims that Danilo once told him to marry her should Danilo die, Katerina recognizes him as the sorcerer and tries to stab him, but he gets hold of the knife, kills her and flees on horseback. A miracle happens: both the
Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
and the
Carpathians The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The ...
become visible from Kiev. As clouds clear off towering Mount Kriváň, the sorcerer sees a hulking knight with a boy on a horse riding down its slopes. He pleads with a
starets A starets (russian: стáрец, p=ˈstarʲɪt͡s; fem. ) is an elder of an Eastern Orthodox monastery who functions as venerated adviser and teacher. ''Elders'' or ''spiritual fathers'' are charismatic spiritual leaders whose wisdom stems from Go ...
at the
Kiev Monastery of the Caves Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra or Kyivo-Pechers’ka Lavra ( uk, Києво-Печерська лавра, translit=Kyievo-Pecherska lavra, russian: Киево-Печерская лавра), also known as the Kyiv Monastery of the Caves, is a historic Ea ...
to help him, but they will not, for the sorcerer is already damned, so the sorcerer kills the starets. The knight catches up with the sorcerer and casts him into an abyss where corpses of his ancestors await to eternally gnaw on his body.


Film

A 20-minute animated adaptation of the story was made at
Kievnauchfilm Kievnauchfilm (russian: Киевнаучфильм), also Kyivnaukfilm ( uk, Київнаукфільм, translit=Kyïvnaukfil′m), translated as Kyiv Science Film, was a film studio in the former Soviet Union located in Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR. Alt ...
studio in 1988 (with the same title). The film keeps the original dark tone, albeit breaks narrative even more in favor of surreal elements. It was directed by Mikhail Titov.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Terrible Vengeance, A Short stories by Nikolai Gogol Horror short stories 1832 short stories Anti-Catholic publications Short stories about Cossacks Short stories set in the Russian Empire Gothic short stories Short stories adapted into films