Körkarlen
Encyclopedia
Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! (Swedish: Körkarlen) is a 1912
novel
by the Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf
. It was translated into English by William Frederick Harvey in 1921. Lagerlöf was commissioned to write it by a Swedish association as a means of public education about tuberculosis
("consumption"). It has been dramatized for the screen twice in Sweden and once in France, under various English titles of The Phantom Carriage, The Phantom Chariot and The Stroke of Midnight and Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness
is on her death bed dying of "consumption" (tuberculosis
). She requests that before she dies, she would like to see again David Holm, one of her charges. It becomes apparent she has a special relationship with David Holm. A year earlier, he was the first patron of the newly opened social welfare house that Edith started. He also had infected her at the time with tuberculosis after she stayed up all night mending his torn and infected coat. Over the next year Edith wanted to help him, but he was a violent alcoholic and always cruelly rejected her. This only increased her resolve and Edith developed a deep love for David. Edith then learned David is married with children, but they had to leave home because David was so violent. Edith persuades David's wife to return home, but they are treated worse than ever by David. This makes Edith feel guilty as David threatens to deliberately infect his children with TB. On her death bed, Edith now wants to try one last time to put things in order.
Meanwhile, David is sitting in the park with drinking buddies and telling them a horrible story about the coachman of death - as it happens, the last person to die each year is recruited by Death incarnate to travel for the next year picking up the souls of the dead in the Phantom Carriage. David heard this story from his friend George, who died last year on New Year's Eve. After more drinking, David gets into a fight with his companions, is hit in the chest and suffers a hemorrhage (a complication of TB) and falls lifeless to the ground. At the same moment the clock strikes midnight. None other than David's old friend George then appears in the Phantom Carriage. David now has to replace George and serve as the driver for a year of death. When David refuses, Georges binds him and throws him into the death cart.
Now a ghostly apparition, George takes David to see the people that David loved most and whom he has most harmed. First they visit the dying Edith. When David learns that Edith has loved him, he softens and falls to his knees in front of Edith. Edith can now die in peace, and Georges commands her soul from her body. David and Georges then go to a prison in which David's younger brother is incarcerated. The brother had been led astray by David, starting with drinking alcohol and then committing a murder. Now, David's brother is dying of TB. The brother regrets that he his failed to fulfill a promise he once made to a sick child to see the ocean. David vows that he will fulfill his brother's promise, and so David's brother dies in peace. Finally, George and David go to David's wife. She has decided to kill herself and the children, life with David is no longer tolerable and she sees no way out. David feels love for his children for the first time in his life. David pleads with George to allow his soul to return to his body so the he may stop his wife from killing herself and the children. This Georges does and David redeems himself to his wife in a tear filled reunion. Georges will serve another year as driver to the dead. David prays the New Year's prayer that he has learned from George, God, let my soul come to maturity before being harvested.
("consumption") and its control. Lagerlof had a personal interest in the disease, her older sister Anna and their young child had it. Before the invention of antibiotics, tuberculosis was widespread and feared, public education was important. Since Lagerlof could better express herself in a narrative way, rather than a treatise, she proposed to write the novel Körkarlen.
Lagerlof built into the structure of the novel lessons on how to avoid contracting the disease. She includes scenes of the consequences of coughing in public, hygiene and sterilization of clothing. More so than in her earlier works, she deals with concrete social ills of the day - alcoholism, domestic violence. Her experiences of social deprivation as a young teacher in the southern Swedish town of Landskrona
help inform the novel. However far from a novel of social realism, her characters take on mythic qualities, David Holm is a personification of evil.
In contrast to the concrete social ills is the story of a ghostly carriage of death and its rider. In none of the works of Selma Lagerlof is the role of the supernatural so dominant as in Körkarlen. In a letter to Sophie Elkan, Selma Lagerlof wrote that in the evening, when she was alone in her room working on the novel, she sometimes had the feeling that only a thin curtain separated her from the other world. This feeling is a basic motif of Körkarlen.
1912 in literature
The year 1912 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Virginia Stephen marries Leonard Woolf.*Frieda von Richthofen meets D. H. Lawrence.-New books:*Mary Antin - The Promised Land*L...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by the Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf
Selma Lagerlöf
Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf was a Swedish author. She was the first female writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, and most widely known for her children's book Nils Holgerssons underbara resa genom Sverige ....
. It was translated into English by William Frederick Harvey in 1921. Lagerlöf was commissioned to write it by a Swedish association as a means of public education about tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
("consumption"). It has been dramatized for the screen twice in Sweden and once in France, under various English titles of The Phantom Carriage, The Phantom Chariot and The Stroke of Midnight and Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness
Plot
The novel is set in a small town in Sweden at the beginning of the 20th Century. Edith, a young "Slum Sister" (social worker) in the service of the Salvation ArmySalvation Army
The Salvation Army is a Protestant Christian church known for its thrift stores and charity work. It is an international movement that currently works in over a hundred countries....
is on her death bed dying of "consumption" (tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
). She requests that before she dies, she would like to see again David Holm, one of her charges. It becomes apparent she has a special relationship with David Holm. A year earlier, he was the first patron of the newly opened social welfare house that Edith started. He also had infected her at the time with tuberculosis after she stayed up all night mending his torn and infected coat. Over the next year Edith wanted to help him, but he was a violent alcoholic and always cruelly rejected her. This only increased her resolve and Edith developed a deep love for David. Edith then learned David is married with children, but they had to leave home because David was so violent. Edith persuades David's wife to return home, but they are treated worse than ever by David. This makes Edith feel guilty as David threatens to deliberately infect his children with TB. On her death bed, Edith now wants to try one last time to put things in order.
Meanwhile, David is sitting in the park with drinking buddies and telling them a horrible story about the coachman of death - as it happens, the last person to die each year is recruited by Death incarnate to travel for the next year picking up the souls of the dead in the Phantom Carriage. David heard this story from his friend George, who died last year on New Year's Eve. After more drinking, David gets into a fight with his companions, is hit in the chest and suffers a hemorrhage (a complication of TB) and falls lifeless to the ground. At the same moment the clock strikes midnight. None other than David's old friend George then appears in the Phantom Carriage. David now has to replace George and serve as the driver for a year of death. When David refuses, Georges binds him and throws him into the death cart.
Now a ghostly apparition, George takes David to see the people that David loved most and whom he has most harmed. First they visit the dying Edith. When David learns that Edith has loved him, he softens and falls to his knees in front of Edith. Edith can now die in peace, and Georges commands her soul from her body. David and Georges then go to a prison in which David's younger brother is incarcerated. The brother had been led astray by David, starting with drinking alcohol and then committing a murder. Now, David's brother is dying of TB. The brother regrets that he his failed to fulfill a promise he once made to a sick child to see the ocean. David vows that he will fulfill his brother's promise, and so David's brother dies in peace. Finally, George and David go to David's wife. She has decided to kill herself and the children, life with David is no longer tolerable and she sees no way out. David feels love for his children for the first time in his life. David pleads with George to allow his soul to return to his body so the he may stop his wife from killing herself and the children. This Georges does and David redeems himself to his wife in a tear filled reunion. Georges will serve another year as driver to the dead. David prays the New Year's prayer that he has learned from George, God, let my soul come to maturity before being harvested.
Background
Selma Lagerlof was commissioned by a Swedish association to write an essay on tuberculosisTuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
("consumption") and its control. Lagerlof had a personal interest in the disease, her older sister Anna and their young child had it. Before the invention of antibiotics, tuberculosis was widespread and feared, public education was important. Since Lagerlof could better express herself in a narrative way, rather than a treatise, she proposed to write the novel Körkarlen.
Lagerlof built into the structure of the novel lessons on how to avoid contracting the disease. She includes scenes of the consequences of coughing in public, hygiene and sterilization of clothing. More so than in her earlier works, she deals with concrete social ills of the day - alcoholism, domestic violence. Her experiences of social deprivation as a young teacher in the southern Swedish town of Landskrona
Landskrona
Landskrona is a locality and the seat of Landskrona Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 28,670 inhabitants in 2005.-History:The city of Landskrona was founded at the location of Scania's best natural harbour, as a means of King Eric of Pomerania's anti-Hanseatic policy, intended to compete...
help inform the novel. However far from a novel of social realism, her characters take on mythic qualities, David Holm is a personification of evil.
In contrast to the concrete social ills is the story of a ghostly carriage of death and its rider. In none of the works of Selma Lagerlof is the role of the supernatural so dominant as in Körkarlen. In a letter to Sophie Elkan, Selma Lagerlof wrote that in the evening, when she was alone in her room working on the novel, she sometimes had the feeling that only a thin curtain separated her from the other world. This feeling is a basic motif of Körkarlen.
Screen versions
- 19211921 in film-Top grossing films :-Films released in 1921:U.S.A. unless stated*$10,000 Under a Pillow, silent film directed by Frank Moser*The Ace of Hearts, silent film directed by Wallace Worsley*Across the Divide, silent film directed by John Holloway...
- Silent filmSilent filmA silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
KörkarlenKörkarlen (1921 film)The Phantom Carriage is a 1921 Swedish film generally considered to be one of the central works in the history of Swedish cinema. Released on New Year's Day 1921, it was directed by and starred Victor Sjöström, alongside Hilda Borgström, Tore Svennberg and Astrid Holm... - 19391939 in filmThe year 1939 in motion pictures can be justified as being called the most outstanding one ever, when it comes to the high quality and high attendance at the large set of the best films that premiered in the year .- Events :Motion picture historians and film often rate...
- La charrette fantôme, a Franch film directed by Julien DuvivierJulien DuvivierJulien Duvivier was a French film director. He was prominent in French cinema in the years 1930-1960... - 19581958 in filmThe year 1958 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 16- "In the Money" by William Beaudine is released on this date. It would be the last installment of The Bowery Boys series which began back in 1946....
- Körkarlen
External links
- Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness! at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
(scanned books)