Waterland

Henry is a superstitious man whose life is punctuated with tribulation, and finding Freddie’s dead body is no exception: “once again, Trouble was invading his quiet riverside life. For when a body floats into a lock kept by a lock-keeper of my fathers’ disposition, it is not an accident but a curse” (31). Portents arise early on in the narrative. When Tom states, “I don’t know what to guess, what to believe. Superstition’s easy; to know what’s real—that’s hard” (58), he suggests superstition has direct connotations that reality does not. When Tom is given the unenviable task of throwing the fetus into the river after Mary’s abortion, Martha warns him, saying, “‘An’ when you throws it, don’t you look. Nothin’ but bad luck if you look’ […] I turned my head away. But then I looked. I howled” (316-17). This poignant scene foreshadows how Tom and Mary’s marriage will be barren and fraught with psychological repercussions.

The will-o’-the-wisp, a colorful apparition occasionally observed hovering over marshy land at night, literally appears on the Fens at times, but it primarily functions as a misleading omen. It first appears when Henry is excited to see an actual “willythewisp,” but he is “amazed.