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Aksel Sandemose (1899-1965) | |
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Danish-born Norwegian novelist, who mixed in his works influences from Freud's insights of the psyche and Joseph Conrad's stories exploring complex moral problems. Sandemose wrote his first six works in Danish, then translated the most striking of them, Klabautermanden (1927), a tale of strange beliefs at sea, into Norwegian in 1932. "Aksel Sandemose is one of the few writers who seriously delved into the teachings of psychoanalysis and thereby became a writer. Like Strindberg and Dostoevsky, he discovered that the irrational is real; his writing is a constant attempt to track down this incomprehensible element. The chaotic nature of his books is traceable solely to this monomaniacal obsession, which for him represented the fight for his own soul." (Sven H. Rossel in A History of Scandinavian Literature, 1870-1980, 1982) Aksel Sandemose was born in the north Danish town of Nykøbing, Mors Island, the son of Jørgen Nielsen, a blacksmith, and Amalie Jacobsdatter, a housemaid; she died in 1926. At the age of fourteen, Sandemose left school and attended a seminary for one year. He then went to sea, worked intermittently as a teacher, clerk, and journalist. Sandemose's voyages took him to America, Canada, and West Indies. In Newfoundland he left the ship and worked in a lumber camp before returning to Danmark. His first book, Fortællinger fra Labrador, came out in 1923. This and other books from the 1920s Sandemose wrote in Danish. In 1927 he gained fame with Klabautermanden (1927), a romantic tale of superstitions – symbolized by the banshee – and destruction. Next year Ross Dane won him a Danish stipend. His early writings, influenced by great sea story writers Jack London and Joseph Conrad, were based his own experiences as a sailor, and portrayed people in Canada and Labrador. In 1929 Sandemose settled in Norway, where his mother had been born. From the 1930s Sandemose published his works in Norwegian. En sjømann går i land (1931) started a long series about the author's alter ego, Espen Arnakke, from the Danish city of Jante. Film version of the story, supplemented with material from other books and Espen Haavardsholm's autobiography Mannen fra Jante, was filmed in 1999 by Nils Gaup. Espen is an impulsive seventeen-year-old sailor, who searches explanation for his own irrational act of murder. In the first book he kills his friend, "Big John", who seduces his girlfriend, and flees to Canada. Other novels in the series were En flyktning krysser sitt spor (1933, A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks), set in a small narrow-minded Danish village, Sandemose's 'Yoknapatawpha'. Now Espen plunges into his childhood to find out who he is. Espen's story continued in Det stod en benk i haven (1937) and Brudulje (1938). The series develops into a strong defense of all men, who have dreams and live in terms of their own problems. Vi pynter oss med horn (1936, Horns for Our Adornment) is about the relationships between the crew members of a schooner on its way from Bergen to New Foundland. It combines legends, Freudian psycholoanalysis and short sketches. Among the members of the crew is a clergyman accused of child molestation, and a giant, violent sailor, called the Golden Horse, who becomes the central character of the novel. When Nazism started to grow in Germany, Sandemose warned in his articles of its likely spread northward. Until 1941, Sandemose remained in Norway. His involvement in the resistance movement forced him to escape to a safer country. During German occupation Sandemose lived in Sweden, where he wrote one of his major works, Det svundne er en drøm (1946), a story of a crime and passion recorded in the form of diary entries from 1938 to 1940. John Torson, a Norwegian-American, who is haunted by an unhappy love affair, visits his home country. His younger brother is accused and condemned to die for a murder, which perhaps Torson himself has committed. In Tjærehandleren (1945) Sandemose continued to plumb the depths of destructive behavior. Audun Hamre, hates the world, feels contempt for human beings, and steals money from widows and unmarried women. The only person he loves is his mother. "Du har hørt dette om at en full kvinne skal være et sånt forferdelig syn - og de er noe i det, men er det noen forskyell på kjønnenes oppførsel i den situasjonen forekommer det meg at mennene baerer prisen hjem. Det er madonna dyrkelsan som igjen er på farten, kvinnen skal ikke brøle opp og være full, det får hun la mannen om, hun skal være en blå blomst i gresset og bli spist av den første oksenkalven som går forbi. Det er også et dogme at når en kvinne går til bunns, gjør hun det så meget frykteligere enn mannen. Kan du si meg hvordan hun skulle bære jegad med det? Det kommer sett og slett av at du kjenner deg forurettet når hun lukter sånn av kloakk at hun ikke er noe å ligge med, men kannskje hun også har luktesans og misliker at menn gjør på seg og oser av gammel fyll." (from Varulven, 1958) After the war Sandemose returned to Norway, and settled with his family on a farm, Kjørkelvik, near Risør. In Alice Atkinson og hennes elskere (1949) Sandemose examined one of his favorite themes, the oppressing atmosphere of a small town, the hidden, dark secrets of the human mind, and everyday life cruelty. In the background of the story is World War II. The protagonist, Jörgen Haukli, is tortured by his memories. He is a fighter pilot and a British spy, who writes letters to his sister and tells in them about the mysterious death of a woman, Alice Atkinson, whom he loved passionately. In Varulven (1958, The Werewolf) and Felicias bryllup (1961) traumatic experiences of two men and a woman in their youth unleash destructive forces of the libido. One of the characters says, "the family is nature's own school in the nature of love." The werewolf of the title symbolizes a struggle against intolerance. Felicia was abandoned at the age of seventeen by Erling Vik. She marries Jan, a farmer. Later Erling, a poet, becomes her lover, but he cannot forget his great love, Gulnare. Murene rundt Jeriko (1960) was partly autobiographical novel, a dreamlike story about death, sorrows and joy. "I have taken the art of lying to its extreme limits, because lying is necessary so that one could live." "But for me, the word is nothing, I cannot understand without an image... I have wished that I never had learned to read and write. Then I wouldn't have this glasswall between my perception and reality..." (from Murene rundt Jeriko, 1960) From 1951 to 1955 Sandemose published the magazine Årstidene. He wrote all articles himself. Main themes in Sandemose´s novels are love and hate, torturing memories, and the oppression of a small-town society. His psychological probing has been compared to the work of an archeologist, also one can detect the influence of Sigmund Freud, August Strindberg, D.H. Lawrence, and James Joyce. Many of Sandemose's novels have autobiographical background, drawing experiences from his wanderings. He also wrote essays, short stories and memoirs. Sandemose died in Copenhagen on August 5, 1965. In 2000 his son Bjarne Sandemose revealed in Ugler i Sandemossen (2000) that a great writer is not necessary a great father. He depicts in the book with dark humor about his father's violence and excessive use of alcohol. For further reading: 'Aksel Sandemose: Investigator of the Mystery of Human Nature' by Erling Nielsen in Scan 8 (1969); Ideas and Ideologies in Scandinavian Literature since the First World War, ed. by Sveinn Skorri Höskuldsson (1975); På sporet af Sandemose. Essays og artikler by Johannes Væth (1975); A History of Scandinavian Literature, 1870-1980 by Sven H. Rossel (1982); Aksel Sandemose: Exile in Search of a Home: by Randi Birn (1984); Janteloven: Aksel Sandemose. En biografi by Ole Storm (1989); A History of Norwegian Literatures, ed. by Harald S. Naess (1993); Vildmanden: Sandemose og animalismen i mellemkrigstidens litteratur by Jens Andersen (1998); Nytt lys på Aksel Sandemose: ti artikler, ed. by Thaly Nilsson (1998); Kollisioner: Aksel Sandemose som outcast och monument by Anna Forssberg Malm (1998); Encyclopedia of World Literature in the 20th Century, Vol. 4. ed. by Steven R. Serafin (1999); Diktning som skjebne: Aksel Sandemose by Jorunn Hareide (1999); Sandemose og offentligheden. Et kildeskrift by Johannes Væth (1999); Ugler i Sandemossen by Bjarne Sandemose (2000); Flyktningen. Aksel Sandemose by Jørgen Sandemose (2004); Aksel Sandemose and Canada: A Scandinavian Writer's Perception of the Canadian Prairies in the 1920s, edited by Christopher S. Hale (2005) Selected works:
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