The Wreath

No one and nothing can harm us, child, except what we fear and love.

It’s a good thing when you don’t dare do something if you don’t think it’s right. But it’s not good when you think something’s not right because you don’t dare do it.

... with the few small spots of light like golden stars in the night, the sweet stale scent of incense, and the warm smell of the burning wax. And she at rest within her own star.

I've done many things that I thought I would never dare to do because they were sins. But I didn't realize then that the consequence of sin is that you have to trample on other people.

God help you... You want nothing more from all your prayers and fassting than to force your will on God. Does it surprise you, then, that it has accomplished so little good?

But when he saw her — if he but thought of her, a sense came over him as of the first breath of the plough-lands in spring, when the snows are but now melted and gone. He knew it now — it might have befallen him too — he, too, could have loved.

Så redo de ut från gården i första gryningen. Dimman låg vit som mjölk över bygden. Men om en stund började den lätta, och så silade solen igenom. Och drypande av dagg lyste där fram i det vita diset gräsvallar, gröna av efterslåttern, och blacka stubbåkrar och gula träd och rönn med blänkande röda bär. Fjällsidorna skymtade blåa höjande sig ur dis och ånga - så rämnade dimman och drev som molntappar mellan sluttningarna, och de redo genom dalen i det härligaste solsken, Kristin främst i skaran vid sin fars sida.

Nothing could be the same as it had been before, since a man had dared try to wreak such a will on her. She lay awake of nights and burned with shame and could not stop thinking of it. She felt Bentein’s body close against hers as when they fought, his hot, beery breath—she could not help thinking of what might have happened—and she thought, with a shudder through all her body, of what he had said: how Arne would get the blame if it could not be hidden. There rushed through her mind all that would have followed if such a calamity had befallen and then folk had heard of her meeting with Arne—what if her father and mother had believed such a thing of Arne—and Arne himself—She saw him as she had seen him that last evening, and she felt as though she sank crushed before him at the very thought that she might have dragged him down with her into sorrow and disgrace. And then she had such ugly dreams. She had heard tell in church and in holy stories of fleshly lusts and the temptations of the body, but they had meant naught to her. Now it was become real to her that she herself and all mankind had a sinful, carnal body which enmeshed the soul and ate into it with hard bonds.

Good days can last a long time if one tends to things with care and caution; all sensible people know that. That’s why I think that sensible people have to be satisfied with the good days – for the grandest of days are costly indeed.

Erlend spurte om hun kunne se det var de samme farvene som i den kjolen hun hadde båret hin dag i skogen. Kristin undret seg selv over at hun skulle bli så glad for at han sa dette — hun syntes han hadde aldri gjort henne større glede enn med disse ordene.

Da han satte sine hender for hennes barm og strøk ut over brystene, kjente hun det som han åpnet for hennes hjerte og tok det, han skilte silkeserkens folder ganske litt og kysset innimellom — det hetet inn i hjerterøttene.

Uten hun visste av det, samlet Kristin opp av alt han sa, hver liten ting som kunne gjøre ham vakrere og kjærere for henne og minke hans skyld i alt hun visste om ham som ikke var av det gode.

Hun hadde hørt ord som kjødets lyst og kjødets fristelse i kirken og i hellig historie, men de hadde ikke sagt henne noe. Nå var det blitt virkelig for henne at både hun selv og alle mennesker hadde et syndig, kjødelig legeme som snæret om sjelen og skar i den med harde bånd.

Jesus Kristus, Kristin liten, er du da så ulykkelig —" "Jeg tror jeg dør av det, far," sa hun inn til ham. Hun brast i gråt. Men hun gråt fordi hun hadde følt i hans kjærtegn og sett i hans øyne at nå var han så pint ut så han orket ikke holde fast ved sin motstand lenger. Hun hadde vunnet på ham.

Og hun tenkte nesten mest på hans ord om at hun ikke måtte søke sin trøst i å se andres feil; hun følte hun ble ydmyk og snill og så da snart hvor lett det falt henne å vinne folks vennskap. Da tenkte hun straks trøstet at det var dog ikke så vanskelig å komme til rette med folk — og så syntes hun at det kunne vel ikke bli så vanskelig for henne og Erlend heller.

Ved bønnens ord var det som hennes lengsel videt seg ut etter hvert, som ringer på et vann. De enkelte tanker som voldt henne uro, glattedes ut, hennes sinn ble stillere, mere ømt, der kom en mild, tanketom sørgmodighet i stedet for hennes sorger.