| "Count Magnus" | |
|---|---|
| Short story by M.R. James | |
 | |
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror |
| Publication | |
| Publication date | 1904 |
"Count Magnus" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, first published in 1904. It was included in his first collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary .
A traveller in Sweden stumbles upon the history of a mysterious and ominous figure, Count Magnus. [1]
Mr. Wraxall is an author of several travelogues, having previously published one about Brittany. During his travels in Sweden, he comes across an ancient manor house (herrgård) in Vestergothland and decides to do some research there. He is offered to lodge there, but declines and stays at the local village inn. The local church has a mausoleum nearby, built by Count Magnus for himself and his family, de la Gardie. He inquires of his landlord about local traditions surrounding Count Magnus.
The Count is known locally for being a harsh landowner, who severely punished his tenants if they were late with their rent. Houses built too near his lands often burned down. He had also been on the Black Pilgrimage and brought something " otherworldy" back. Later, in doing research among the family papers, Wraxall discovers an explanation for the Pilgrimage in a book of alchemical tracts, entitled Liber nigræ peregrinationis. The pilgrimage is to Chorazin and involves a salute to the Prince of the Air. Walking home, Wraxall finds himself at the mausoleum and expresses a desire to see Count Magnus. Later on, he meets with the Deacon and queries him about Chorazin. However, he is evasive towards Wraxall's subject. He presses the landlord of the inn about what Count Magnus brought back from Chorazin and is told a tale about two men who went poaching one night on the Count's lands. One of the men is found catatonic, while the other was dead; his face had been sucked off his skull.
The next day, along with the Deacon, he visits the mausoleum. The Count's copper sarcophagus is ornate and contains scenes from his life, as well as a depiction of the Count on its top. One of the scenes shows a man being pursued by a cloaked and hooded thing with tentacles, while the count watches from a hill. The lid is secured with three padlocks, one of which is already unlocked. Later, on his way back to the mausoleum, Wraxall's mind wanders and he finds himself chanting. Soon, he realizes that the two remaining padlocks are now unfastened.
The following day, he makes preparation to finish his researches and return to England. He stops at the mausoleum to bid farewell to Count Magnus and again expresses a desire to see him. As he does so, the third padlock detaches and the lid begins to rise. Quickly, he leaves, but is unable to lock the mausoleum behind him.
He returns to England safely by canal-boat, but feels that among his fellow passengers are two strange figures who fail to appear at mealtimes. He arrives at Harwich and takes a carriage to Belchamp St. Paul. Along the way, he sees the two strange figures. He finds lodgings there and spends the next day awaiting the two strange figures.
The next day, he is found dead in a terrible condition and a jury rules it to be a visitation by God. The house where he died is abandoned and eventually acquired by the narrator, who has it torn down since nobody will stay there.
The story was not included in the original 1970s run of A Ghost Story for Christmas for budgetary reasons. Director Lawrence Gordon Clark wanted to make the story in 1978, later acknowledging; “I wanted to make Count Magnus by M.R. James but they wouldn’t put up the money for it, which I felt was pretty shortsighted considering the success we’d had with the series.” [2]
The story was eventually adapted over forty years later in 2022 for the same strand as Count Magnus . It was written and directed by Clark's successor Mark Gatiss. [3]
Horror podcast The Magnus Archives derived its name from James' "Count Magnus". [4]
Montague Rhodes James was an English author, medievalist scholar and provost of King's College, Cambridge (1905–1918), and of Eton College (1918–1936). He was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge (1913–1915).
"Rip Van Winkle" is a short story by the American author Washington Irving, first published in 1819. It follows a Dutch-American villager in colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who meets mysterious Dutchmen, imbibes their strong liquor and falls deeply asleep in the Catskill Mountains. He awakes 20 years later to a very changed world, having missed the American Revolution.
The Cock Lane ghost was a purported haunting that attracted mass public attention in 1762. The location was a lodging in Cock Lane, a short road adjacent to London's Smithfield market and a few minutes' walk from St Paul's Cathedral. The event centred on three people: William Kent, a usurer from Norfolk; Richard Parsons, a parish clerk; and Parsons' daughter Elizabeth.
Thomas Carnacki is a fictional occult detective created by English fantasy writer William Hope Hodgson. Carnacki was the protagonist of a series of six short stories published between 1910 and 1912 in The Idler magazine and The New Magazine.
"The Tomb" is a short story by American writer H. P. Lovecraft, written in June 1917 and first published in the March 1922 issue of The Vagrant. It tells the story of Jervas Dudley, who becomes obsessed with a mausoleum near his childhood home.
Lust for a Vampire, also known as Love for a Vampire or To Love a Vampire, is a 1971 British Hammer Horror film directed by Jimmy Sangster, starring Ralph Bates, Barbara Jefford, Suzanna Leigh, Michael Johnson, and Yutte Stensgaard. It was given an R rating in the United States for some violence, gore, strong adult content and nudity. It is the second film in the Karnstein Trilogy, loosely based on the 1872 Sheridan Le Fanu novella Carmilla. It was preceded by The Vampire Lovers (1970) and followed by Twins of Evil (1971). The three films do not form a chronological development, but use the Karnstein family as the source of the vampiric threat and were somewhat daring for the time in explicitly depicting lesbian themes.
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary is a horror short story collection by British writer M. R. James, published in 1904. Some later editions under this title contain both the original collection and its successor, More Ghost Stories (1911), combined in one volume.
Joel Stephen "Joey" Greco is an American television personality, best known as the long- time host of the reality TV show Cheaters, hosting for ten seasons.
A Ghost Story for Christmas is a strand of annual British short television films originally broadcast on BBC One between 1971 and 1978, and revived sporadically by the BBC since 2005. With one exception, the original instalments were directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark and the films were all shot on 16 mm colour film. The remit behind the series was to provide a television adaptation of a classic ghost story, in line with the oral tradition of telling supernatural tales at Christmas.
"A Warning to the Curious" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his book A Warning to the Curious and Other Ghost Stories first published in 1925. The tale tells the story of Paxton, an antiquarian and archaeologist who holidays in "Seaburgh" and inadvertently stumbles across one of the three lost crowns of East Anglia, which legendarily protect the country from invasion. Upon digging up the crown, Paxton is stalked by its supernatural guardian. Written a few years after the end of the First World War, "A Warning to the Curious" ranks as one of M. R. James's bleakest stories.
"The Ash-tree" is a ghost story by British writer M.R. James, included in his 1904 collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary.
"Number 13" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his first collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904).
"'Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad'" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his collection Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904). The story is named after a 1793 poem of the same name penned by Robert Burns.
"A School Story" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his collection More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary.
"Mr Humphreys and His Inheritance" is a ghost story by British writer M. R. James, included in his 1911 collection More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary.
Brownhill Inn, now just called Brownhill, was an inn approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) mile south of Closeburn, on the A76, which itself is about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of Thornhill, in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Built in approximately 1790, this old coaching inn has undergone extensive changes, and the south side of the original property appears little changed whilst part of the inn has been demolished. The inns facilities used to include the once-extensive 12 stall livery stables on the west side of the road, but these have been sold and converted to farm buildings after the inn closed. The inn was the first changing place for horses hauling coaches from Dumfries and closed in 1850. In 1789 an Act of Parliament had been passed that enabled the building of a Turnpike from Auldgirth Bridge to Sanquhar through Closeburn Parish and the inn was built to serve the patrons of this new road. The toll road supplanted the original post road that ran via Stepends, Gateside and Shaw that may have been of Roman origins.
"Richilde" is a German literary fairy tale, written by Johann Karl August Musäus, published in 1782 in the first volume of his collection Volksmärchen der Deutschen. It is Aarne–Thompson type 709, Snow White, focused on the character of the wicked stepmother.
Count Magnus is a British supernatural television film broadcast on BBC Two on 23 December 2022 as part of the BBC's Christmas festive programmes. The thirty-minute film is one of the BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas series and was written and directed by Mark Gatiss, based on the 1904 short story of the same name by M. R. James.
Lost Hearts is a 1973 supernatural gothic drama produced by the BBC as part of its A Ghost Story for Christmas series. Running at 35 minutes and directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark, it was written by Robin Chapman and was based on the 1895 short story "Lost Hearts" by M. R. James.
There have been many adaptations of the works of M. R. James for television, radio, audio and the stage, as well as a 1957 film adaptation of "Casting the Runes" by Jacques Tourneur, titled Night of the Demon.
The full text of Count Magnus at Wikisource
Count Magnus public domain audiobook at LibriVox