“The Bell in the Lake” is a compelling and well written novel
by best-selling Norwegian author, Lars Mytting. The story is set in Gudbrandsdal, a beautiful
valley of lakes and rivers where farm families are eking out a subsistence
living on small farms on steep mountain sides; their large families living in
poverty most of the year.
It is 1880, which is etched in my mind as the year my
grandparents, Olaf Aaker and Ellen Solberg, were born – not in Norway but as
children of immigrants who had left rural Norway in the 1840s and 50s to come
to settle in Minnesota. My great- great-grandparents Knut and Mari Aaker left a similar rural setting (Telemark) as
that described in this book. From what I
have read about the conditions in rural Norway that prompted my ancestors to
emigrate, Mytting gives a realistic depiction of rural Norway at that time; very
small farms, poverty, high infant mortality, seasonal hunger, but also strong
community bonds and the central role of the local Lutheran church, especially
the pastor.
There are three principal characters; Astrid Hekne, whose
forefathers had forged beautiful twin bells for the village’s Stave church in
the sixteenth century. The bells were a memorial to and named for twin sisters,
literally joined at the hip, but still able to weave beautiful tapestries that
developed a semi-occult legend which persisted through the centuries. The bells, which are said to ring on their own
in times of danger, play a central role in the story. Astrid
has dreams of a life beyond the drudgery of daily life on the farm where
marriage and a large family would be expected to be her destiny in life.
Kai Schweigaard has recently arrived in the village of
Butangen to serve as the new pastor in the centuries old stave church*. The young pastor has bold plans to replace
the drafty old church with a new one, and prominent Germans in Dresden offer an
opportunity. They want to disassemble the
church and send it to Germany to be reassembled as a kind of museum. This will provide funds to build the new
church, which will be a large and functional – though not artistic –
building. The Germans send artist and
architect Gerhard Schonauer to make detailed drawings and a plan for carefully
taking down the church and shipping it to Dresden. The author develops intriguing relationships
between these three characters related to their personal needs and distinct feelings
about the stave church.
The story melds old Norse myths and legends with Norwegian
church and political history, as rural culture and customs confront a
modernizing world. The plot develops
with dramatic tension and effect based on historical reality, great character
development and overall good writing. I
came upon numerous lines that caused me to pause and ponder – imagining life,
faith, culture, birth and death in that time and place. As
always in a good story, decisions and choices are made that lead to
irreversible and sometimes tragic results.
I wonder about the hard life and challenges my ancestors
faced in Norway in the mid-1800s as the family discussed leaving everything
behind and emigrating to America. I know
a lot about the place they came to, but I never went to see the place from which
they came.
This is the first book of a trilogy. I look forward to
reading the second,” The Reindeer Hunters”, which picks up where this one ends.
*Stave churches were constructed between 1150 and 1350 and were framed around wood pilers (staver in Norwegian) and had Christian as well as Viking symbols and styles. Below is a picture of one of the most famous of the existing churches, the Borgund Stave church. There are only 28 surviving stave churches in Norway. Several replicas have been constructed in the United States, including one which we have visited in Moorhead, Minnesota.
https://www.lifeinnorway.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/exterior-borgund-church-768x594.jpg
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