On Overgrown Paths (Paa gjengrodde stier, 1949) – summary
On Overgrown Paths. First page. Courtesy of the National Library of Norway.
Describing a book is not always an easy task. On Overgrown Paths, Knut Hamsun’s
account of the period between his arrest on 26 May 1945 and the High Court
sentence passed on 21 June 1948, is one of the most remarkable documents in
Norwegian literary history.
In this work we accompany Hamsun, a grand old man of literature and traitor now
almost 90 years old, on his personal journey through criminal proceedings against
him after the war, from the period of house arrest at Nørholm, the stay at Grimstad
Hospital and finally to the Old People’s Home in Landvik. Hamsun goes for walks in
the countryside, recounts short stories, commits memories from his youth to
writing… and waits. He waits for his case to come before the court. He waits for an
opportunity to explain himself. He waits for his final sentence. All the while bitterly
continuing to adhere to his psychiatric degradation and his status as a social pariah
and political exile.
In Hamsun’s speech to the court in Grimstad, incorporated in its entirety in On
Overgrown Paths, he repeats time and time again that he does not wish to come with
excuses or a defence, but simply to explain himself. He stands by the articles he
wrote during the war. As he always has done. Perhaps it is this which makes the
strongest impression when reading On Overgrown Paths today; this outstanding writer
of prose rigidly and obstinately continues to proclaim his responsibility in a manner
the world no longer is able to hear.
Trond Haugen
Research Librarian, The National Library of Norway (Nasjonalbiblioteket)
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Knut Hamsun's manuscript On Overgrown paths. (In Norwegian: Paa gjengrodde Stier)
