Metzengerstein is a horror Short Story written by Edgar Allan Poe, published in January 1832.
In Hungary, there was a long-standing feud between two wealthy families - Metzengerstein and Berlifitzing - tied to an old prophecy: "A lofty name shall have a fearful fall when, as the rider over his horse, the mortality of Metzengerstein shall triumph over the immortality of Berlifitzing".
Generations later, Frederick, a descendant of the Metzengerstein, had just come into his inheritance when a stable fire occurs at the Berlifitzing estate, with him being suspected of the cause. Not long after, he becomes intrigued by a previously unnoticed and untamed horse presumably belonging to the late master of the rival family. Unbeknownst to him, his obsession with the fiery horse will lead him to a horrific demise.
It can be read here
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Metzengerstein comes to inherit the following examples:
- Ambiguous Time Period: The opening paragraph deliberately eludes to specify a date for the story's events.Horror and fatality have been stalking abroad in all ages. Why then give a date to this story I have to tell? Let it suffice to say, that at the period of which I speak, there existed, in the interior of Hungary, a settled although hidden belief in the doctrines of the Metempsychosis.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Frederick Metzengerstein is certainly not a good master. The narrative presents him as debauched and cruel, and compares him directly to Roman Emperor Caligula and King Herod, only to say that he has "out-Heroded Herod".
- Feuding Families: The Metzengersteins and the Berlifitzings, due to a mysterious prophecy that one of them would destroy the other.
- Hellish Horse: The mysterious red horse found after the fire. The horse exerts some obsessive compulsion on Baron Metzengerstein and eventually carries him to his death in a fire. The smoke arising from the fire also takes the shape of a horse, seemingly confirming the ride’s supernatural nature.
- Meaningless Meaningful Words: Just after introducing the prophecy, the narrator dismisses it as being an example; it turns out to not be so—in fact, they are quite literal.
- Prophecy Twist: It was predicted long ago that one family would destroy the other when "as the rider over his horse, the mortality of Metzengerstein shall triumph over the immortality of Berlifitzing". It comes to pass when the horse, supposedly a reincarnation of the dead Count William Berlifitzing, carries the living Baron Metzengerstein to the fire.
