The Ritual

Content Warning: This section includes discussion of death and graphic violence.

The virgin forest is frequently described as an ocean in The Ritual, becoming an important motif in the text that evokes The Clash Between Modernity and Ancient Beliefs. The ocean symbolizes a vast region that is inhospitable to humans. Human-made structures, like tents and houses, are compared to ships on the ocean. The ocean, like the Scandinavian wilderness, is mostly unexplored and unreachable by humans. For example, “Out there, somewhere in the length and breadth of the countless trees and the oceans of invisible ruin and tangle, a great bow or strong limb had been snapped in half” (138, emphasis added). An ocean is a massive amount of space: It is long, wide, and deep. The forest that Luke and his friends travel through is also enormous and beyond their comprehension. They cannot see it all, as much remains invisible and untouched by people.

Humans create structures to exist within the ocean of forest, including tents and houses. Luke describes the tents’ features as ropes used on ships, and torches/flashlights as lights on a ship. While at the old woman’s cabin, Luke describes how “[t]he building listed like a boat in a squall” (390).