Maan Siunaus: Romaani
1919
A novel written in the early 20th century. It portrays the founding of a homestead in the northern wilderness, following the tireless settler Iisakki and the capable Inkeri as they wrest a living from forest and bog, gather livestock, and turn rough ground into fields. Themes include the dignity of manual labor, the rhythms of nature, and the slow making of home and family far from town. The opening of the novel follows a solitary man, Iisakki, trekking north through marsh and forest until he chooses a site, throws up a turf hut, and begins clearing land, first with goats and ingenious contrivances to manage them alone. Seeking “women’s help,” he eventually finds Inkeri, a strong, shy woman with a harelip, who stays, milks, brings sheep, and later returns with a cow, Mansikki. Iisakki hauls logs, raises a proper house, replaces a stone hearth with a stove, and steadily adds to their stock; worries that the cow might be stolen are eased when a visiting kinswoman, Ulla, confirms its origin. A son, Elias, is born; the pair marry and have the child baptized. Iisakki acquires a horse, cart, plow, and harrow on credit, expands fields, and sows barley while relying on hardy potatoes; a long drought burns the grain, but late rains salvage a decent potato crop. Everyday life is built from toil and small triumphs—new sheds, a harness room, cheese-making, and clever fixes after mishaps like a young bull breeding too early. By winter he sells firewood to clear debts and brings home comforts such as a lamp and a wall clock, marking the homestead’s steady rise from rough hut to a living farm.
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“The long, long road over the moors and up into the forest - who trod it into being first of all? Man, a human being, the first that came here. There was no path before he came.””
— Knut Hamsun
“A man comes walking north. He carries a sack, the first sack, containing provisions for the road and some implements. The man is strong and rough-hewn, with a red lion beard and little scars on face and hands, sites of old wounds--were they gotten at work or in a fight? Maybe he has been in jail and wants to go into hiding, or perhaps he is a philosopher looking for peace; in any case, here he comes, a human being in the midst of this immense solitude. He walks and walks, in a silence broken by neither bird nor beast.””
— Knut Hamsun
“Growth of the soil was something different, a thing to be procured at any cost; the only source, the origin of all. A dull and desolate existence? Nay, least of all. A man had everything; his powers above, his dreams, his loves, his wealth of superstition.””
— Knut Hamsun
“Never stand around saying 'Poor thing' and being pitifulwhen things are being killed. It makes them tough and harder to kill.Remember that!””
— Knut Hamsun
“He never read a book but often thought about God; it was unavoidable, a matter of simplicity and awe. The starry sky, the soughing of the forest, the solitude, the big snow, the majesty of the earth and what was above the earth filled him with a deep devoutness many times a day. He was sinful and godfearing; on Sundays he washed himself in honour of the holy day but worked as usual.””
— Knut Hamsun
“Deliberately shorn of all that makes for mere effect, Isak stands out as an elemental figure, the symbol of Man at his best, face to face with Nature and life. There is no greater human character”
— Knut Hamsun
“Young hearts have their unfathomable depths.””
— Knut Hamsun
“Markboen tapte ikke hodet. Han fandt ikke luften usund for sig, han hadde publikum nok til sine nye klær, han savnet ikke diamanter, vin kjendte han fra bryllupet i Kana. Markboen gjorde sig ikke ondt av de herligheter han ikke fik: kunst, aviser, luksus, politik var værd nøiagtig det som menneskene vilde betale for det, ikke mere; markens grøde derimot den måtte skaffes til hvilkensomhelst pris, den var altings ophav, den eneste kilde.””
— Knut Hamsun
“Duga, duga staza preko močvari u šumu, – ko ju je ugazio? Muškarac, čovek, prvi koji se našao tu. Za njega još nije bilo staze. (…) Tako je nastao put kroz široku utrinu koja nije nikome pripadala, kroz ničiju zemlju.””
— Knut Hamsun
