The Troll Circle

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.