Trollringen is at once a historical saga, murder mystery, and domestic tragedy. Sigurd Hoel's last novel is set in the early nineteenth century, following Norway's independence from Denmark and during the country's struggle to escape Danish domination. It was inspired by his discovery in childhood of an executioner's block used in the beheading of a murderer in 1833. From that image grew the story of a utopian, a young farmer named Havard Viland, whose struggle in his time against religious bigotry, mindless conformity, and political and intellectual stagnation has implications for whatever or whoever can be branded as radical in our own time.This English translation by Sverre Lyngstad introduces the work of a major Scandinavian writer to a wider audience. As Lyngstad points out in his afterword, Hoel throws the light of modern psychoanalysis on the ancient legends, myths, and superstitions surrounding the quest of Havard Viland. The farmer wants to bring hope and dignity into the lives of everybody, even the lowliest cotter, but he is an outsider in his backward rural community. Tricked into marriage, gradually cut off, pushed into the position of scapegoat, and deliberately misunderstood, Havard becomes the personification of stifled goodwill and strangulated progress. It is shocking that he becomes the victim of a circle of aggressive neighbors and officials intent on maintaining the status quo by sticking to the old, accustomed ways and business-as-usual politics.

The Troll Circle (Modern Scandinavian Literature in Translation)

Hoel, Sigurd

Literature & Fiction

University Of Nebraska Press

Originally published in English in 1930, Sinners in Summertime takes a satirical look at sex, psychoanalysis, and the arrogance of youth. A group of students spend the summer along the Norwegian coast, determined to be honest about the nature of sex, in order to avoid the self-delusions they feel have plagued previous generations. What follows is a complete undermining of all their "enlightened" values, as they find themselves ensnared by romantic mischief. A novel of manners in an era when standards where about to break down, Sinners exposes the folly of youthful intellectualism, while also demonstrating the connections that bind all generations.Sigurd Hoel was one of the leading literary and cultural voices of Norway in the first half of the twentieth century.

Sinners in Summertime

Essays & Correspondence

Ig Publishing

Set in a farming community in rural Norway, the novel follows the exploits of Anders, the fourth child and only son of a landowner/banker and a doting mother from age four to ten

The Road to the World's End (Sun & Moon Classics)

Sun & Moon Press

In this moving and profound novel, Sigurd Hoel explores belief and traitorism through the major character's memories of the underground during World War II in Norway. At the dark center of this work are questions of why certain individuals turn against their own country, their own values, and their own "selves" so to speak. But in this weaving of fact and fiction, the faithful and the traitors are not necessarily easily distinguishable. A wonderful tale of adventure and a country's fate by the author of The Road to the World's End (Sun &amp; Moon Press) and The Troll Circle. Sigurd Hoel was for years an editor of the great Norwegian publishing house Gyldendal. He died in 1960.

Meeting at the Milestone

Lyngstad, Sverre

Literary

Green Integer

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hoel, Sigurd. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Hoel, Sigurd

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Hoel, Sigurd. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Troll Circle (Modern Scandinavian Literature in Translation)

Sinners in Summertime

The Road to the World's End (Sun & Moon Classics)

Meeting at the Milestone