May Day Eve

Algernon Blackwood – 1907

A sophisticated man of reason, logic and modern ideas takes an evening stroll en route to a friend’s house in the countryside.  The friend is a folklorist whose mystical beliefs are looked down upon by the hero, who has sent ahead a book of science that he hopes will rebut most of his friend’s arguments.  The date happens to be May Day eve, however, and as the narrator proceeds along the rural path towards his destination, he begins to sense otherworldly phenomena, including a thickening of the atmosphere, a blurring of visual perception, the vegetation attaining willful vibrancy, and the expansion of time.  Figures he can barely distinguish in the thick, chilly haze warn him of dangers in being out alone in this part of the world, but he continues on, eventually learning of the day’s particular significance in the pagan world.  This short story is quite simple but powerful because of Blackwood’s effectively created mood that mixes menace with wonder.  It is one of numerous stories he wrote about the magical and mysterious in nature, many of which are compiled in Pan’s Garden: A Volume of Nature Stories (1912).