Trygve Gulbranssen (1894–1962)

In the version I have there's an In Memoriam text at the end of it. It quotes Eugenia Kielland, who apparently wrote something called "Aftenposten", and a translated paragraph of that is quoted:
"Midden in de harde en dertiger jaren, die voorafgingen aan de tweede wereldoorlog, zond hij zijn Bjorndaltrilogie de wereld in, boeken vol romantiek en mystiek, sterk van traditie en schoonheid.
In heel veel opzichten deed dit alles goed in een periode waarin de literatuur voor een aanzienlijk deel in show more het teken stond van de erotiek zonder meer."
In english, I guess that quote can be summarized as: in the 1930's in which the literature was dominated by eroticism, the author wrote books full of romance, mysticism, tradition and beauty.
And this surprized me, on several levels. I may start to check out what kinds of books appeared on the erotica front in the 1920's and earlier to understand what this comment refers to.
Perhaps it was meant to refer to the 'wholesomeness' of this novel. It is wholesome.
I gather, again from the in memoriam, that the author thought the last part in the trilogy was his best work. Certainly the sentiment of what life is all about, described from a christian viewpoint, is most present in this last part.

The trilogy is a slow story. Slow words, Slow sentences. Not slow in a bad way. Slow as in timeless, or rather representative of the time in which a chestnut tree grows and dies, the time it takes a peaking mountain to level off over eons. That kind of slow. The good slow.
The kind of slow, also, of a time period in which there was no television for entertainment. The time when more words is better. Because more words on more pages means more time to savour.

The tale is about strong men, strong women, morose men and women, harsh landscapes, surviving, pride, hard work, strong words, strong emotions, tightlipped silences, silent tensions.
Shallow and deep feelings intermingle. Smart and stupid things to do. Emotional and rational decisions made. Regrets and hopes. Times lost through negligence and times regained through memory.

It seems a tale of a type of people who may not exist anymore, but whose sentiments and attitudes I seem to recognize among the older (long deceased) members of my own family.
But simultaneously it also seems a timeless tale. Regardless of when it was written, and regardless of the time period in which it is set. It speaks of emotions and actions we all have from time to time, the daily struggles of how to live and be a person in the world.

Above all it is a well written tale.

I am glad I finally read it. show less

This is a review of the complete Bjørndal triology, where this is the third book

Once read, you never be in doubt of which of the three books in the trilogy comes first and last: The story is told by the three titles alone, to anyone having knowledge of the Bible.

In "Beyond sings the Woods" the wood that is singing in the people from the Bear valley, has sung in Man since Adam was chased into the wilderness. Old Dag is fighting the bear in himself most of his life.

In the second book, "The show more wind from the Mountain" his son, young Dag is exposed to death, both by loosing loved ones and by just surviving death himself.

The third book in the trilogy is worked into the second book in the English translation. If translated from Norwegian it would be something like "What you cannot Escape". The book is what becomes the law of young Dag´s life after coming down from the mountain, how his way of thinking is affected by his experiences, and how it translates into practical life, and even more what reactions his actions gets from the surroundings.

As an allegory of the Christian creed, Gulbranssen´s Bjørndal Trilogy matches Dostoyevsky novel "the Idiot". Only the inner and outer fight is not taking place at the Russian court, and young Dag is not prince Myshkin. The story is set in Norway; the tone is more subdued, young Dag is not hysterical, he is as down to earth as the landscape he lives in. The choices that has to be made is not theoretical, not about something far off, but practical choices about daily life, being done on daily basis. show less

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