CHILDREN OF TIME

"The whole hamlet was once one property, and what is now the Segelfoss farm was the headquarters. At that time, Segelfoss was, by Nordic standards, a whole estate of fifty cows, and it also had a sawmill, a mill, a brickyard and many miles of forest. There was a great life on the farm with servants and householders and idlers, there were also animals in abundance, besides the large livestock, horses and dogs, cats and pigs and along the entire back of the barn was a city for chickens and geese. Yes, back then it must have been lush here! old people still say, remembering what their parents have told them from their childhood."

1913

Children of Time (1913) tells the story of Lieutenant Willatz Holmsen, patriarch of the small northern Norwegian town of Segelfoss.

When the stranger Tobias Holmengraa arrives, Holmsen's authority is challenged, and his financial situation is thrown out of balance. At the same time as Holmsen experiences his social position weakened by the new era, his failed family life with his wife Adelheid and son Willatz IV is depicted.

Towards the end of the novel, Adelheid dies, and Willatz's financial situation is precarious. However, balance is restored when he finds a treasure on the property.

In Children of Time, the rise and fall of a family is depicted as a picture of the downfall of an entire era. The novel has thematic similarities to Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks (1901), but Hamsun's humor makes them stylistically different.

"You are dealing with children, the Northerners are children."

"The man's name was Muus, and when you saw him you immediately thought this incredible thing was possible."

"No purchase is as expensive as gifts."