A maelstrom (or malström/malstrøm in the Scaninavian languages) is a very powerful whirlpool; a large, swirling body of water. A free vortex, it has considerable downdraft . The word was introduced from the Nordic form by Edgar Allan Poe in his story "A Descent into the Maelstrom" (1841). In turn, the Nordic word was borrowed from the Dutch maalstroom which means mill stream. The original Maelstrom (described by Poe and others) is the Moskstraumen, a powerful tidal current in the Lofoten Islands off the Norwegian coast.