Ghost Stories · Chapter
Gavon's Eve explained
The narrator and Hugh Graham investigate the local superstition of Gavon's Eve, suspecting that Sandy is consulting a witch to learn the fate of Catrine Gordon.
What happens
The narrator and Hugh Graham investigate the local superstition of Gavon's Eve, suspecting that Sandy is consulting a witch to learn the fate of Catrine Gordon. They hide in the ruins of a Pict castle and witness a supernatural ritual at midnight, where a dead-white figure of Catrine rises from the pool. Sandy rushes into the water and drowns, while a lightning strike shatters the altar and presumably kills the witch. The next day, the bodies of Sandy and Catrine are found together in the pool, but the witch's body is never recovered.
Themes in this chapter
Folklore and Superstition
The entire chapter revolves around the local legend of Gavon's Eve, where evil spirits are said to be at their most powerful, and the ritual to raise the dead at the Picts' pool.
Supernatural and Occult
The invocation of spirits, the apparition of Catrine rising from the water, and the witch's incantations are central supernatural elements.
Death and the Afterlife
The chapter deals with the attempt to contact the dead, the appearance of Catrine's corpse, and the final resting of Sandy and Catrine together in the graveyard.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
The narrator, a guest at Gavon Lodge, accompanies Hugh Graham to witness the supernatural events at the Picts' pool on Gavon's Eve.
- Hugh Graham
Hugh deduces Sandy's plan to invoke spirits on Gavon's Eve and persuades the narrator to join him in hiding at the Pict castle to observe the ritual.
- Sandy
Sandy, desperate to learn Catrine's fate, consults a witch and attempts a dangerous invocation; he drowns after rushing into the pool when Catrine's apparition appears.
- Catrine Gordon
Catrine's dead body is supernaturally raised from the pool during the ritual; her body is later found alongside Sandy's.
- A Stranger
The unnamed witch who assists Sandy in the ritual; she is struck by lightning and disappears, her body never recovered.
Key passages
“At midnight is said to shine through a certain gap or fissure in a wall of rock close beside the river on to the ruins of a Pict castle, so that the light of its beams falls on to a large flat stone erected there near the gate, and supposed by some to be an ancient and pagan altar.”
Local legend holds that at midnight on Gavon's Eve, moonlight passes through a narrow opening in the rock face and illuminates a flat stone near the castle gate, believed to be an ancient pagan altar.
Describes the setting for the supernatural ritual.
“Then the surface of the water was broken, and a head, the head of a girl, dead-white and with long, flowing hair, appeared above the stream. Her eyes were shut, the corners of her mouth drooped as in sleep, and the moving water stood in a frill round her neck.”
The water parted and the pale, lifeless head of a young woman with flowing hair emerged; her eyes were closed and her mouth slack, as if asleep, with water lapping around her neck.
Describes the apparition of Catrine rising from the pool.
“In two strides Sandy had rushed down the steep bank, and hurled himself out into that mad swirl of waters. For one moment I saw his arms flung up into the sky, the next he had altogether gone.”
Sandy dashed down the slope and plunged into the raging river; his arms shot upward briefly before he disappeared completely.
Sandy's desperate and fatal attempt to reach the apparition.