starting with marie

A Norwegian Farm - Marie Hamsun - Cadmus Books - Copyright 1933 J.B. Lipincott. Abridged and translated by Maida Castehun Darnton, Illustrated by Elsa Jemne

This is children's literature, but by no means should this be used to pigeonhole it. the innocence in this book is so charming and heartfelt it gives me supergoosebumps. it was such a relaxing read. it centers around, of course, a farm in norway, i am guessing nordland since that is where a good deal of knut hamsun's writings occur. there is talk of frozen ground and bitter cold so there you go. this is primarily the story of Ola and Einar, brothers. they have sisters as well that play supporting roles. Ingerid and Martha. Ola is ten and Einar is eight. Svarta was the oldest and most important of the cows. each of the kids owned a cow, Svarta belonged to Ola and they boys seemed to trade her back and forth for the other cow plus something extra thrown in, a red pencil, a dozen or so buttons, a reprieve from a bloody nose etc...the boys and girls all work on the farm in varying degrees each to their own abilities and temperaments. what makes this sweet is that the children find joy in such simple things, chasing squirrels, collecting buttons, herding, hunk of white cheese or sour cream on bread to them is a particular goodness. the problems in the book are easily solved, one of the boys is playing with a farm girl and she climbs a tree, falls out and breaks her collarbone, the boy after collecting his earnings from herding sends her 5 oer and this settles things. the boys befriend a poor old man and they give him wood that they had collected from a felled tree in the stream,he in turn makes them birch wood baskets,and one of the boys send him letters which a neighbor reads to him and it brings him great joy. simple simple simple.

another wonderful part of this book, which i am ASSuming is as autobiographically slanted as a lot of knut's works is the christmas masquerading where the family dresses up in masks and makeup, knut joining them as a milkmaid in undergarments and all, jesting along with the best of them, makeup, female voice and gestures....a grand time was had by young and old as they went from house to house fooling everyone...dressing up even the horse! it is not all that often we get to hear of the playful exploits of the great and serious knut hamsun himself.

it was neat that i should find in this book about scheming playful children this note...







characters: Langerud farm, cows - svarta (ola's), Kvita (Einar's), Julgaas (ingerid's), stjerna (martha's), potimor (the sexton's heifer - a real asshole), people - Ola - ten, Einar - Eight, Ingerid and Martha. Mother and Father. Pig - Fatty(eats ola's bible history book), Goat - svartkonsta, neighbors: The sexton, anna and jacob from neighboring farm - jacob could not prounounce 'z's..torinus - neighbor they borrowed tobacco from...birch bark lars..kindly neighbor, poor...inger - little girl svarta met first, broken collarbone..adopted by sexton, gusta-gudbrand and gudbrand gusta they mow hay..father of jacob and anna, cousin henry from..... Gulla the hen....