TRAVELERS

"Two men came trudging north from the neighboring farm, they were dark-faced and had thin, gray beards, one of them carried a wind instrument on his back. No one in the whole hamlet had expected anything special from this day, but then these two strangers appeared, they stepped forward in a conspicuous place between the houses, put the wind instrument on a stake and began to play."

1927

Wanderers (1927) is the first volume in the so-called August trilogy.

In the small, poor town of Polden in Nordland, the young Edevart Andreassen meets the more experienced sailor and storyteller August. Together they set out on a peddling business along the Norwegian coast. On one of the trips, Edevart meets the love of his life, the married woman Lovise Magrete. They live together for a short period in the small idyll, Doppen, before she leaves for America. Edevart and Lovise Magrete meet later, but their restlessness prevents lasting happiness.

With Edevart and August, Hamsun gives a psychological portrayal of the vagabonds who find no peace or happiness anywhere.

While Landstrykere provides a realistic depiction of the cause of the wave of emigration in Norway in the 1860s, the novel also provides a psychological explanation for the unrest and restlessness of modern man.

"They talked and talked in their strange Northern dialect, it was with many striking words, unexpected words, it was crazy to the point of art, but it expressed their opinions."