TIME

Bjørnson was aware of his impermanence: Time takes it! Do the rest of us have anything to say? For my part, I sit and take notes and scribble about a burnt-down wooden villa and think about this affair. Away by the nearest farm, a small dog runs back and forth, and I see that it barks at me, but it does not disturb me. I have peace, my mind is clear and my conscience is clear. I receive letters that I will be read for ages immemorial, even the Jøssingers boast about me. Let it be as it will with this kindness. But there are few things that last long, time takes it, time takes everything and everyone. I lose a little name in the world, a picture, a bust, it would hardly have been an equestrian statue. (On Overgrown Paths, 1949)

Time is brought up as both a theme, motif and narrative strategy.

Several of the poems from Det vilde Kor (1904) address the transience of time, including "Om Hundrede Aar er alting glemt" (In a Hundred Years Everything is Forgotten) and "Høstdag" (Autumn Day). Hamsun also reflects on transience versus eternity in På jengrodde stier (On Overgrown Paths) . In Landstrykere (1927), the bell-making Jew Papst appears, and in Markens grøde (1917), Isak eventually brings a bell with him to Sellanraa. The bell signals the passing of time and the transience of things, but is also an emblem of the new era.

In terms of narrative technique, Hamsun experiments with the aspect of time in his novels by using an omniscient narrator who nevertheless creates the illusion of the same ignorance as the characters on the plot level. In Hunger (1890) and Pan (1894) The narrative action is retrospective in nature, meaning that the first-person narrators write down the story after the events being narrated.