Ghost Stories · Chapter
The Horror-Horn explained
The narrator, staying at Alhubel with his cousin Professor Ingram, experiences a break in idyllic winter weather as a snowstorm descends.
What happens
The narrator, staying at Alhubel with his cousin Professor Ingram, experiences a break in idyllic winter weather as a snowstorm descends. Ingram discusses the possibility of hallucinated footprints at high altitudes, linking it to the legend of the Ungeheuerhorn. The narrator later gets lost in a blizzard while returning from St. Luigi and encounters a terrifying, bestial woman from the Horror-Horn, who devours a chamois alive. He flees in terror as her howl is answered in the distance.
Themes in this chapter
Fear and Terror
The narrator experiences sheer horror at the creature from the Horror-Horn, described as a 'hellish incarnation' that induces a 'catalepsy of terror.'
Isolation and Landscape
The harsh, snowbound Alpine landscape and the narrator's disorientation in the blizzard emphasize the isolation and danger of the setting.
Supernatural and Occult
The encounter with the bestial woman from the Horror-Horn suggests a supernatural or cryptid presence in the mountains, linked to local legend.
Characters to notice
- Unknown Narrator
The narrator, Ingram's cousin, is staying at Alhubel and becomes lost in a blizzard, encountering a creature from the Horror-Horn.
- Professor Ingram
The narrator's cousin, a celebrated physiologist and Alpine climber, who discusses the possibility of hallucinations at high altitudes.
Key passages
“But it is odd," I said, "that your keen interest in physiology did not disperse your qualms. You were looking, so I take it, at some form of man more remote probably than the earliest human remains. Did not something inside you say 'This is of absorbing significance'?" He shook his head. "No: I only wanted to get away," said he.”
The narrator questions why Ingram's scientific curiosity didn't overcome his revulsion at the ancient creature, but Ingram admits he felt only a desire to flee.
Highlights Ingram's visceral horror overriding his professional interest.
“Never had nightmare fashioned so terrible a countenance; the beauty of sun and stars and of the beasts of the field and the kindly race of men could not atone for so hellish an incarnation of the spirit of life.”
The narrator describes the creature's face as more horrifying than any nightmare, suggesting it embodies a fundamental evil that negates all natural beauty.
Emphasizes the profound terror and existential dread of the encounter.