The Right Waters, ref. 1

  "The ship I was on sank, so I had to swim."
       He nodded.  "The one I was on ran afoul of the Maelstrom, but I dove
  for this spar and didn't get sucked down with the rest.  It's a cylinder
  you see."

"Skaldskaparmal" from Snorri Sturluson's compilation of the "Younger" or "Prose Edda" makes reference to "Grottasong", Eddic poetry relating the story of a ship containing stolen magic millstones from which salt magically grinds out. This thievery comes to a bad end when the ship sinks while the millstones are still grinding, eddying the water above it into an immense whirlpool and salinating the sea as the stones grind on uncontrolled.

Mention of an unseen event wouldn't normally be cause to add something to the reading list; ordinarily events to be included should be events witnessed, not merely background details that Silverlock only has by hearsay. Naturally there are going to be exceptions, and the entrance of Golias, mast in hand, amounts to such an unlikely piece of luck that I find I must regard Golias's reported encounter with the Maelstrom as one of the central plot actions.

Mind you, Myers himself is simply referencing Poe's "A Descent into the Maelstrom" when he quotes it's recommendation for cylindrical floatation devices. Extending the comment to cover "Grottasong" and the legend associated with the actual Maelstrom is derived purely from "A Reader's Guide to the Commonwealth", supplemented by various web references which also lead off toward Charybdis from "The Argonautica" and other sources in that tradition.

To draw in Greek and Norse mythology a chapter or two early is unnecessary when the Poe reference is most appropriate here.

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