"Thrawn Janet" is a short story, written in Scots, by the Scottish author

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

. He wrote the story in the summer of 1881 while he stayed at the rented Kinnaird Cottage in Kinnaird, a hamlet near

Pitlochry Pitlochry (; gd, Baile Chloichridh or ) is a town in the Perth and Kinross council area of Scotland, lying on the River Tummel. It is historically in the county of Perthshire, and has a population of 2,776, according to the 2011 census.Scotla ...

, with his parents and wife. When he read the story to his wife

Fanny Stevenson Frances "Fanny" Matilda Van de Grift Osbourne Stevenson (10 March 1840 – 18 February 1914) was an American magazine writer. She became a supporter and later the wife of Robert Louis Stevenson, and the mother of Isobel Osbourne, Samuel Lloyd ...

, she said of it that it "sent a cauld grue hudderalong my bones" and "fair frightened" Stevenson himself. It was first published in the October 1881 issue of the ''

Cornhill Magazine ''The Cornhill Magazine'' (1860–1975) was a monthly Victorian magazine and literary journal named after the street address of the founding publisher Smith, Elder & Co. at 65 Cornhill in London.Laurel Brake and Marysa Demoor, ''Dictionar ...

''. It is a dark tale of satanic possession. The story was later included in Stevenson's 1887 collection ''The Merry Men, and Other Tales and Fables''.
Book News
'. Vol. 5. 1887. p. 270.

Plot summary

In 1712, a newly graduated preacher arrives in a small town, and hires Janet, an old crone, as his housekeeper—a woman whom many of the townspeople believe to be in league with the devil. When some of the local women attempt to dunk Janet in the river to prove that she is a witch, the preacher rescues her and has her abjure the devil before them. From the next day forward, Janet's appearance is altered; she has a thrawn (twisted) neck, with her head on one side, like someone who has been hanged. Later, after an encounter with a strange "black man" in the churchyard, the preacher finds Janet's corpse hanging by a thread from a nail in her room. He is pursued by the dead woman's body, until he invokes the power of God. The body turns to ash, and the black man, believed to be the devil, leaves town. Thereafter, the preacher often frightens his flock with the intensity of his admonitions against the forces of evil.Dziemianowicz, Stefan R. (2017).
Thrawn Janet
. In Cardin, Matt, ed., ''Horror Literature through History: An Encyclopedia of the Stories That Speak to Our Deepest Fears''. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO Greenwood. p. 796.

Publication history

The story is one of only two stories ever written by Stevenson in Scots, the other being "The Tale of Tod Lapraik". Stevenson was aware that his readers might not understand the broad Scots the story was written in and so fully expected the ''Cornhill Magazine'' to reject "Thrawn Janet" on its first submission. However, ''Cornhill Magazine''s editor,

Leslie Stephen Sir Leslie Stephen (28 November 1832 – 22 February 1904) was an English author, critic, historian, biographer, and mountaineer, and the father of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell. Life Sir Leslie Stephen came from a distinguished intellectua ...

, put it straight into print in the next issue.

References

External links

Online text

Standard English translation
{{Robert Louis Stevenson Scottish short stories Scots-language works Horror short stories Fiction about the Devil Witchcraft in written fiction 1881 short stories Short stories by Robert Louis Stevenson