ON OVERGROWN PATHS

"The year is 1945. On May 26, the police chief in Arendal came to Nørholm and ordered my wife and I under house arrest for 30 days. I was not notified. My wife handed over my firearms to him upon request. I then had to write to the police chief afterwards that I also had two large pistols from the last Olympics in Paris, he could pick them up whenever he wanted. At the same time, I wrote that the house arrest was not to be understood literally, I had farming far from the farm, and it needed supervision. After some time, the sheriff's officer in Eide came and picked up the two pistols."

1949

On Overgrown Paths (1949) was written while the 90-year-old Hamsun was awaiting trial for alleged treason. The book has been described as a genre hybrid, a mix of autobiography and fiction.

Hamsun tells in the first person about the events from his arrest in May 1945 until the verdict in the case against him in June 1948. He describes meetings with people, memories from childhood, whims, thoughts and reflections on his current situation. Particularly interesting is Hamsun's description of his meetings with Martin from Kløttran, a supposedly fictional character and Hamsun's last wandering figure.

On Overgrown Paths managed to subtly discredit Hamsun's diagnosis, "permanently impaired mental faculties."