Nelvy too was a victim of the war, there can be no doubt about that, and those standing silent around the coffin are overcome more by profound anguish than tears, with the exception of Helmer, who is crying like a human being, the boy who used to tease Nelvy because she couldn’t tail-tie fish. But this may also have something to do with their being more or less the same age and coming from the same county, a county that is no more, which Captain Wara also mentions; he is from the town of Vadsø by Varanger Fjord, where Finns and Norwegians have lived side by side for hundreds of years, he himself has roots in both peoples and he says he knows only one Greek word, which startles the others as they were expecting a Finnish one, however it is the most important word of all, it is angelos, which means angel, and he finishes by saying that the depressing memory of the destruction of Finnmark will follow Nelvy down into the grave and on into heaven. The others console Helmer, who hides behind his brothers and wants none of this. Arne tells them to leave him in peace, and they row home to Barrøy in two boats.

8

Nelvy’s death is the type of death that prevents the bereaved from resuming their lives, those of them who thought they had a life, it is a profound and personal death, unlike anything they have to compare it with. So they rise from their beds late and walk around and do nothing. Their eating habits are irregular too, as Barbro is also stricken, they eat titbits and leftovers as the mood takes them, and have once again lost hope of both spring and peace materialising.

It is at this time that Ingrid discovers sleep, her body lying with renewed life between the sheets, as she dreams of something bearable, as she sees shimmering images and memories and an amusing incident, at which she is even able to smile, in her sleep, that is. Then she wakes and is just as insane and sits on the chamber pot and goes back to bed, to the same bearable dreams, such that an affection can arise between sleep and death.

When Barbro is on the mend and asks whether they are prepared to let themselves go to wrack and ruin out here, Ingrid turns her back on her in scorn and carries on sleeping and will not be moved, until Sverre bursts into her room one morning, red-faced and excited, and announces that the ewe has had three lambs, all of which have survived, and not one of them is a male.