Out of the Deep

Introduction

OUT OF THE DEEP is a sequel of sorts to SEA CURSE (Weird Tales, May 1928). It was submitted to Weird Tales and Ghost Story in 1928 but got rejected.

“Out of the Deep” continues Howard’s interest in maritime dread and the uncanny power of the sea. It blends small-town coastal atmosphere with folkloric oceanic menace — a revenant corpse used by a sea-fiend to stalk the living — and reflects Howard’s recurring themes of ancient nonhuman forces intruding on ordinary life.

Summary

Adam Falcon sails away; his fiancée, Margeret Deveral, waits. A corpse in Adam’s clothes is washed ashore and mourned, but when Margeret kisses the body she screams — it is not Adam. John Gower, a rejected suitor, claims the corpse rose and killed Margeret in the night before fleeing. Horror spreads through Faring town: people die mysteriously and violent, sea-smeared attacks continue. The narrator, driven by a theory, confronts the thing at dawn on the beach: a sea-fiend wearing Adam’s garments. After a brutal struggle he kills it; the thing reverts to a moldering sea-mass and is left to be reclaimed by the tides. The implication is an ancient oceanic creature (mermen/sea-fiends) using a human likeness to terrorize the town.

Characters:

  • Narrator (unnamed) – The first-person observer and narrator of the tale. Curious and determined, he pursues a theory about the nature of the attacks and confronts the sea-fiend at dawn.
  • Adam Falcon – A seaman who sails from Faring town. His clothing and a corpse in his attire are central to the mystery, though the true Adam is implied to lie safely in the ocean depths.
  • Margeret Deveral – Adam’s fiancée. Devoutly attached to him, she is one of the story’s chief victims when the false-Adam attacks her in the death-room.
  • John Gower – A rejected suitor and a moody, dangerous man. He witnesses the corpse animated, rescues (or cradles) Margeret after she is killed, and gives a lurid account that spurs the town to action. He later escapes the stocks in a traumatized, near-drowned state.
  • Tom Leary – A practical, organizing townsman who opposes hanging without proof; he helps marshal the villagers and later leads the search for corpses and the fiend.
  • John Harper – Owner of the Sea-Lion Inn and an old ex-seaman. He supplies local seafaring lore and supplies atmosphere and superstition about drowned men and sea-weeds.
  • Michael Hansen – A companion of the narrator who is found dead during the search; his death intensifies the narrator’s resolve and supplies a telling expression that hints at drowning by unnatural means.
  • Lie-lip Canool – A local figure whose bleached skeleton on Hangman’s Hill is invoked as a grim landmark in the town’s landscape (minor, atmospheric presence).
  • Sea-Fiend / Mermen – The supernatural antagonist. An ancient ocean creature (described as mermen-like) that can appear in human form when lifted from the sea by men; it wears Adam Falcon’s clothes and commits murderous acts before being slain and reverting to sea-mass.
  • Townsmen / Posse – The people of Faring town who search, react with mob fear, lock doors, and carry out the brief, desperate attempts at defense and justice.

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Cover: Marchers of Valhalla by Melvyn Grant
Cover art by Ken Kelly
Cover art by Ken Kelly