In literature, in painting and also in film, the motif of the maelstrom is often used to describe a vortex of water that draws everything mercilessly into the depths. However, it is not so well known that there is a real model for this frightening vortex, which is thematized in Jules Verne's novel "20,000 Miles Under the Sea" and Edgar Allan Poe's narrative "Down into the Maelstrom": the Mosque Traumen, which lies between the Norwegian Lofoten Islands.
