Underlying book story — recording-specific coverage unverified
Coverage is limited to the scope described in this write-up. Recording changes, further installments or an unwritten ending may remain outside it.
This synopsis covers the underlying book linked to this recording: Journey to the Interior of the Earth. Recording-specific abridgements, added material or adaptation changes have not been verified.
The story begins in May 1863, at the home of Otto Lidenbrock, a professor of geology in Hamburg, Germany. While leafing through an original runic manuscript of an Icelandic saga, Lidenbrock and his nephew Axel find a coded note written in runic script along with the name of a 16th-century Icelandic alchemist, Arne Saknussemm. When translated into English, the note reads:
Descend into the crater of Snaefells Jökull, which Scartaris's shadow caresses just before the calends of July, O daring traveler, and you will reach the center of the earth. I have done so. Arne Saknussemm
Lidenbrock departs for Iceland immediately, taking the reluctant Axel with him. After a swift trip via Kiel and Copenhagen, they arrive in Reykjavík. There they hire as their guide Icelander Hans Bjelke, a Danish-speaking eiderduck hunter, then travel overland to the base of Snæfellsjökull.
In late June they reach the volcano and set off into the bowels of the earth, encountering many dangers and strange phenomena. After taking a wrong turn, they run short of water and Axel nearly perishes, but Hans saves them all by tapping into a subterranean river, which shoots out a stream of water that Lidenbrock and Axel name the "Hansbach" in the guide's honor. During this descent, Axel once again comes close to death as he diverges from Lidenbrock and Hans and suffers major injuries finding his way back, however he manages to do so and is saved by them.
Following the course of the Hansbach, the explorers descend many miles and reach an underground world lit by aurora borealis-like electric light, with forests consisting of giant mushrooms, tree ferns and trees including various modern trees like oak, as well as prehistoric ones like arborescent lycophytes (Sigillaria, Lepidodendron). The travelers then build a raft out of semipetrified wood and set sail over what turns out to be a vast underground sea. While at sea, they encounter prehistoric cephalaspid fish and giant marine reptiles from the age of dinosaurs (a Plesiosaurus fighting an Ichthyosaurus). A lightning storm threatens to destroy the raft and its passengers, but instead throws them onto the site of an enormous fossil graveyard, including bones from various extinct creatures like Lophiodon, Anoplotherium, Megatherium, mastodon, Pliopithecus, the pterodactyl, and the preserved body of a man.
Lidenbrock and Axel venture into a forest featuring primitive vegetation from the Tertiary period. In its depths they are stunned to find a prehistoric humanoid more than twelve feet in height with a huge unshapely head mostly hidden by a mane of hair. It is watching over a herd of mastodons as a shepherd. Fearing the humanoid may be hostile, they leave the forest.
Continuing to explore the coastline, the travelers find a passageway marked by Saknussemm as the way ahead, but it has been blocked by a recent cave-in. The adventurers lay plans to blow the rock open with gun cotton, meanwhile paddling their raft out to sea to avoid the blast. On executing this scheme, they find a bottomless pit beyond the impeding rock and are swept into it as the sea rushes down the huge open gap. After spending hours descending at breakneck speed, their raft reverses direction and rises inside a volcanic chimney that ultimately spews them via an eruption into the open air. When they regain consciousness, they learn that they have been ejected from Stromboli, a volcanic island located off Sicily.
The trio returns to Germany, where they gain recognition; Professor Lidenbrock is hailed as a scientists of the day, Axel marries his sweetheart Gräuben, and Hans returns to his life in Iceland.
The story begins in May 1863, at the home of Otto Lidenbrock, a professor of geology in Hamburg, Germany. While leafing through an original runic manuscript of an Icelandic saga, Lidenbrock and his nephew Axel find a coded note written in runic script along with the name of a 16th-century Icelandic alchemist, Arne Saknussemm. When translated into English, the note reads:
Descend into the crater of Snaefells Jökull, which Scartaris's shadow caresses just before the calends of July, O daring traveler, and you will reach the center of the earth. I have done so. Arne Saknussemm
Lidenbrock departs for Iceland immediately, taking the reluctant Axel with him. After a swift trip via Kiel and Copenhagen, they arrive in Reykjavík. There they hire as their guide Icelander Hans Bjelke, a Danish-speaking eiderduck hunter, then travel overland to the base of Snæfellsjökull.
In late June they reach the volcano and set off into the bowels of the earth, encountering many dangers and strange phenomena. After taking a wrong turn, they run short of water and Axel nearly perishes, but Hans saves them all by tapping into a subterranean river, which shoots out a stream of water that Lidenbrock and Axel name the "Hansbach" in the guide's honor. During this descent, Axel once again comes close to death as he diverges from Lidenbrock and Hans and suffers major injuries finding his way back, however he manages to do so and is saved by them.
Following the course of the Hansbach, the explorers descend many miles and reach an underground world lit by aurora borealis-like electric light, with forests consisting of giant mushrooms, tree ferns and trees including various modern trees like oak, as well as prehistoric ones like arborescent lycophytes (Sigillaria, Lepidodendron). The travelers then build a raft out of semipetrified wood and set sail over what turns out to be a vast underground sea. While at sea, they encounter prehistoric cephalaspid fish and giant marine reptiles from the age of dinosaurs (a Plesiosaurus fighting an Ichthyosaurus). A lightning storm threatens to destroy the raft and its passengers, but instead throws them onto the site of an enormous fossil graveyard, including bones from various extinct creatures like Lophiodon, Anoplotherium, Megatherium, mastodon, Pliopithecus, the pterodactyl, and the preserved body of a man.
Lidenbrock and Axel venture into a forest featuring primitive vegetation from the Tertiary period. In its depths they are stunned to find a prehistoric humanoid more than twelve feet in height with a huge unshapely head mostly hidden by a mane of hair. It is watching over a herd of mastodons as a shepherd. Fearing the humanoid may be hostile, they leave the forest.
Continuing to explore the coastline, the travelers find a passageway marked by Saknussemm as the way ahead, but it has been blocked by a recent cave-in. The adventurers lay plans to blow the rock open with gun cotton, meanwhile paddling their raft out to sea to avoid the blast. On executing this scheme, they find a bottomless pit beyond the impeding rock and are swept into it as the sea rushes down the huge open gap. After spending hours descending at breakneck speed, their raft reverses direction and rises inside a volcanic chimney that ultimately spews them via an eruption into the open air. When they regain consciousness, they learn that they have been ejected from Stromboli, a volcanic island located off Sicily.
The trio returns to Germany, where they gain recognition; Professor Lidenbrock is hailed as a scientists of the day, Axel marries his sweetheart Gräuben, and Hans returns to his life in Iceland.
Sources and content license
Source and revision history ↗ · Underlying book identified by the catalog’s explicit book_slug relation. Exact source annotation 733. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Section headings and formatting adjusted. · Content license