Hamarøy – Wayfarers (Landstrykere)
The novel Wayfarers (1927) is the backdrop for the national anniversary celebration at Hamarøy in the county of Nordland on 4 August 2009, the 150th anniversary day itself. Below is a brief description by Professor Per Thomas Andersen of the position of the work in the literary landscape.
by Per Thomas Andersen
Poster for screen version of Wayfarers 1990. Director: Ola Solum. Courtesy of the National Library of Norway (Nasjonalbiblioteket). Reproduced with permission of Norsk Filmstudio.
The novel Wayfarers is representative of one of the clearest recurring themes in the works of Knut Hamsun, namely the wanderer motif. It can be followed from its inception in Hunger (Sult) to its conclusion in On Overgrown Paths (På gjengrodde stier). The motif even appears in The Growth of the Soil (Markens grøde) in the character of Geissler.
The wanderer shares the nomadic restlessness of modern human beings. Indeed, as a symbol of an existential condition, one may view the wanderer as an expression of strikingly contemporary trends. We travel more than ever before, our sense of belonging is becoming more and more ‘location polygamous’ – and for many this also means not drawing one’s personal repertoire from one identity, one life project or one permanent place in the world.
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Per Thomas Andersen is Professor of Scandinavian Literature at the University of Oslo.
Wayfarers. Novel I–II. Fair copy with some corrections (final proofs), selected pages. Courtesy of Nasjonalbiblioteket. (Ms.8° 1391) (Click on illustration for enlargement):
 Wayfarers. Part I, page one. Courtesy of Nasjonalbiblioteket. |
 Wayfarers. Part I, page two. Courtesy of Nasjonalbiblioteket. |
 Wayfarers. Part II (here called Chapter XI), page one. Courtesy of Nasjonalbiblioteket. |
 Wayfarers. Part II (here called Chapter XI), page two. Courtesy of Nasjonalbiblioteket. |
National Commemorative Event Hamarøy – 4 August
Pictures from "Nothing to Dread" (Text in Norwegian only)
