Kneeknock Rise

Kneeknock Rise explores the human longing for mystery and the value of legend as essential to joy, belief, and imagination. Early in the narrative, the setting itself embodies this idea. The mysterious Kneeknock Rise looms over the town of Instep and acts as both a geographical landmark of the setting and a symbol of the town’s culture and identity. The narrator describes the allure of the landscape for the villagers: “Here lay the heart of the mountains’ charm; here, like Eve’s forbidden fruit, dwelt their mystery, for good or evil” (4). The comparison to forbidden fruit suggests that the mystery of the mountain is both tempting and dangerous, much like the pursuit of knowledge itself.

The townspeople do not attempt to climb the mountain or investigate the origin of the Megrimum’s howling, reiterating the importance of the legend to their communal identity. They maintain the tradition of holding the fair at the mountain’s base, not to lessen fear, but to embrace it. For the people of Instep, the fear the Megrimum gives life a sense of fantastical possibility: “To all of them the cliff was the grandest, most terrible thing in the world.