"You are a dead man. Do you know? Your bones shall lie apart. I will choose a fair nook for you in the great sea sepulchre. All the bones of other wretches who have perished among these rocks lie piled in a common heap—piled high! But you alone of many a score having set foot alive in this my garden—by strength, or courage, or cunning—no matter how, your momentary success shall receive some recognition. Maybe, if I remember, when your skull is white and bare, I will crown it with sea-blossom now and then; and whenever I pass by, cast you a tribute of coral, till the hollows of your ribs are overfilled."
—Diadyomene
The Unknown Sea, also rendered as Unknown Sea, is a novel written by Clemence Housman and published in 1898 by Duckworth. It is her second novel, following on the 1896 edition of "The Were-Wolf", but whereas that tale is a short piece originally written for a magazine, The Unknown Sea was written to be published as a novel from the start and therefore is about four times the length of its predecessor.
The Unknown Sea is a participant in the Undine-esque tradition of a soulless female water spirit becoming romantically involved with a soul-bearing male human.
The Unknown Sea provides examples of the following tropes:
- Apparently Human Merfolk: Diadyomene once was human, but she traded her soul for eternal life under water. Her appearance hasn't changed from when she was human and at most has gained an ethereal quality.
- Armor-Piercing Response: Upon Diadyomene's question if Christian properly realizes it she who decides his fate, he retorts that while his life is in her hands, his soul remains in God's. Diadyomene had a soul herself once but exchanged it for a life below the waves, eternal youth, and power. For a second, Christian's words cut through to what she has lost, to the point she forlornly looks around as if her soul is up for grabs somewhere in her garden.
- But Not Too Foreign: Christian has fair hair and clear grey eyes that betray he's from a northern race, quite like the audience Housman wrote The Unknown Sea for. He was the lone survivor of a shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea and was adopted by a local couple, thus allowing the story an exotic setting.
- Child by Rape: Lois's younger sister was raped by the town's priest and became pregnant as a result. They both died in childbirth.
- Coming of Age Story: Christian's adoptive mother declares him to have gone from boy to man the day he keeps a secret from her. The reason for this, other than that it is a general sign of independence, is that Lois herself has kept the secret of how she came to adopt him for fifteen years and for Christian to keep a secret is her cue to finally share the painful story.
- Curtain Camouflage: The entrance to Diadyomene's cave residence is hidden by the seaweed growing from the ceiling. The only reason Christian thinks to investigate is because the wind stirs the weed just too much for there to be rock behind it.
- Dirty Old Monk: Eighteen years prior to the story, the town's priest raped Lois's younger sister. She became pregnant and died along with the child in childbirth. Lois and her husband are the only ones who know what he did but held no more power against him than refusing any of his religious services, including the baptizing of their newborn. The priest died three years later, shamed but unpunished.
- Feet-First Introduction: Christian learns of Diadyomene by a track of footprints she's left behind going into the sea's waters. He is fascinated and terrorized by how fine the prints are and how calm their pace when Isle Sinister should be uninhabited and dangerous to reach. When finally he meets Diadyomene in person, he does see her in full but, initially unable to look her in the eyes, averts his gaze downwards as she approaches to muse on the perfection of her feet and ankles and how they can be nothing but the devil's craft.
- For Doom the Bell Tolls: The House Monitory is an institute up on the cliffs of the shore that watches over the people who enter the sea's domain. The residents use the three bells, named after the saints Mary, Margaret, and Faith, sometimes to rally the local population to rescue someone in distress, but more often to grant the souls of those who didn't make it safe passage.
- Dramatic Drop: Christian spies a branch of rare coral at the center of Isle Sinister and picks it up as a good prize for his unique efforts to reach the island. He drops it mere seconds later when he spots human footprints in the sand.
- Due to the Dead: Some time prior to the story, two men drowned off the shore. As per local custom, wreckage had been gathered at the beach and used as a funeral pyre for the two. Christian washes up nearby the remaining grey patch and walking past is hit by the awareness that death is a reasonable outcome to his adventure. He crosses himself and commits to a brief prayer for the souls he hopes not to join.
- Fish People: Invoked. Christian finds a track of female human footprints walking at a leisure pace in the center of Isle Sinister, an island he risked his life to reach specifically to put himself to the test. He notes that if the footprints possessed "finned heels and splay web-toes", he'd have been less unnerved.
- Honor Thy Parent: When first Christian's life comes in undeniable danger, he isn't sorry for himself but experiences guilt over what his death would take from his parents both in emotional and financial terms. He recalls them again when he fights with Diadyomene with little chance to survive, although his guilt isn't strong enough to obey her order to idolatrously grovel for his life.
- I Know You're Watching Me: During their second meeting, Christian lacks the strength to look at Diadyomene directly. Instead, he looks at her through the reflection in a puddle. It's not long before she takes notice and gazes back at him through the reflection. Then she dips her foot in the puddle so that the ripples blot her out.
- Infodump: After three continuous chapters devoted to Christian's and Diadyomene's first meeting, there's a time skip of a few hours in Chapter IV to the moment Christian arrives back home. His mother questions him and his reticence pushes her to detail the circumstances of his adoption fifteen years ago, which takes up roughly a third of the chapter.
- Keeping Secrets Sucks: Christian promises Diadyomene not to tell another about her and her home at Isle Sinister. This leaves him with no explanation where he was all this time, why his boat is in such terrible shape yet illogically still afloat, and what the deal is with his sour mood. His evident secrecy causes strain on his relation with his parents.
- Meaningful Name:
- Christian is a devout Christian and the eventual savior of Diadyomene. Upon meeting, Diadyomene is annoyed by his pious spine and bewildered when on top of that he introduces himself as Christian.
- "Diadyomene" appears to take from "Anadyomene", one of the titles of Aphrodite that emphasize her birth from the sea. "Anadyomene" means as much as "rise up" with the full implied meaning being "rise up from the sea". "Diadyomene" means something like "make way through" or "slip in-between", which both evokes her connection with the sea and her liminality.
- Naked First Impression: Christian and Diadyomene meet when the former has lost most of his clothing in the struggle to reach Isle Sinister and the latter goes undressed because she is a solitary sea witch who owes trespassers no decency. They don't pay each other's state much mind given the more immediate conflict.
- Prayer Is a Last Resort: Despite his brash confidence in his abilities to conquer fierce waters to get to Isle Sinister, Christian crosses himself regularly.
- Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Christian is stunned by Diadyomene's beauty when he first sees her. The first details of her apperance he comments on being how her smooth limbs are whiter than the sand and how her dark, massed hair is black as the nighttime shadows.
- Repeated for Emphasis: A few lines in the third chapter repeat an eye-catching adjective once or twice to emphasize the value of the adjective to the situation. Diadyomene is described as "strong in witch-might and witch-malice." Diadyomene herself laments that she gave her soul "in exchange for sea-life, sea-power, sea-beauty." And Christian questions if it's wise to accept "fair words and a fair shape as warranty for fair dealing."
- Replacement Goldfish: Fifteen years prior to the story, Lois and Giles lose their child of two-to-three years of age when it wanders off looking for shells on the beach. Their grief over the loss is augmented by the fact that they had yet to get it baptized. Yet shortly after, a living child washes ashore along with two adult corpses as the sole survivor of a shipwreck. Lois and Giles regard it as a mercy from God and adopt him. They get his name, Christian, from a cross pendant on his neck, and all this prompts Lois to view her replacement child as not merely a replacement, but also as her means to atone for her religious failing in regards to her original child.
- Sea Serpents: When first they meet, Diadyomene threatens to sic sea-serpents on Christian.
- Servile Snarker: Christian has a life debt to Diadyomene for sparing him when he trespassed in her domain. He's not happy about this because she's a witch and devoid of a soul, which is reflected in quips to and about her no other character receives from him.
- You Have No Chance to Survive: Upon meeting Christian, an intruder to her home, the dangerous sea-dweller Diadyomene greets him with the promise of his demise and a lurid description of how she'll treat his corpse. Christian trusts that she has the power to back up her taunt, but faces certain death with pride, which angers Diadyomene.
