Arne: A Sketch of Norwegian Country Life

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Arne is a peasant with a strain of poetry in him; he is a dreamer of dreams and a maker of songs, but he is conditioned by his history and environment. He is first introduced as the "only child at the little farm among the hills," living with his grandmother and his mother, Margit, who "once stayed too long at a dancing party." He is the illegitimate son of one Nils Skraeder, a fiddler of genius and a man fatally attractive to women, but a drunkard and a ne'er-do-well. Nils has his back broken in a quarrel over Brigit, another girl of the countryside, is carried to Margit's house, recovers to a certain extent, and marries her. For a time he keeps sober, but relapses and maltreats her-to the indignation of their son Arne, who is only prevented by his father's sudden death from killing him. The lad grows up shy and reserved, but he is deeply attached to his mother, who is even more deeply attached to him. He longs, however, to go into the world, to fly over the hills and far away; he is restless and unsatisfied-but there is his mother! He has a friend who has gone into the world, and he expects to hear from him of it; letters arrive, but Margit, fearful lest she lose her son, keeps them, and hides from him that they have come. Then he falls in love with Eli, the daughter of the man with whom his father had had the row that laid him low, and Brigit of the same episode ...