Over twenty years later I ran. He must not to travel. I saw him disappear and said: “Farewell then”.
Farewell then
I remember. Still, I’m unsure, I don’t know if the moments I remember are life told or life lived.
I’ve made some changes with the story that might provoke or surprise, I’ve changed the gender of the protagonist to see what it does to the narrative.
The first time I worked with this folk tale was in connection with a performance called «Farvel da” meaning Farewell Then». I didn’t tell the story at that time. In connection with the performance, I had 365 folded paper boats lying across the floor. On every boat there was a story about death. This was one of the stories.
There in the home it was never asked – what should we eat today? They knew what to eat, the same every day, porridge or soup with what they found edible. Everything they owned, they wore, and switched in between them if they wanted a change. They spent days brushing, patching and repairing what they had. Well, you should be glad you weren’t there, and so were they, because then they would have another mouth to feed. We who live in a kind of abundance cannot imagine what it was like, but it was what it was.
And in all this poverty, another child was born. The wife lifted the baby and held it in her arms, she saw the beautiful, wise eyes and said, «You can’t live here. I have to go out into the world and find someone who is willing to take you. «
After a while, a skinny and bearded man approached her. He had intense eyes, those eyes that didn’t see you, but that mirrored itself in you. The wife was sweating in her hands and was about to pass by when the stranger stopped and said «Where are you going with the child?» «Oh,» the wife sighed on exhalation, «I have so many, short and long, weak and strong, it is enough. I’m off to see if anyone has the heart to take it. » «I can have it,» said the stranger. The wife looked closer at the stranger, dressed in brown and gray, almost blending with trees and dusty road, he looked like he was going to collapse, but stayed upright.
«And who are you?» the wife wanted to know. «I am Jesus,» he said. «Jesus?», the woman shook her head and thought for a while. Then she said, «Yes, it is strange, you would like to make it to a poor woman and believe me, I have tried and that is the biggest cross anyone can carry,» she said, thanked and moved on with the child.
On the way she met another guy. This was a bent forward one, always smiling and rubbing in his hands, twinkling eyes and stubble sticking out of his chin and down his throat. He stretched his neck and looked curiously at the child she was carrying. The wife shuddered. «Where are you going with the little baby?» the stranger asked. «I’m off to see if anyone can take care of it,» the wife said. «I can take it myself,» said the stranger. «Who are you?» the wife wanted to know. «I’m Old Eirik,» said the stranger. «No!» said his wife, spitting in the ground, «you won’t get the child, you are leading everyone to ruin,» she said, and then she traveled on with her child.
If you do not know who Old Eirik is, he is also called the devil or the evil one. According to the cultural heritage, Old Eirik is a degradation of Erik the Holy. Erik, once a Swedish king, killed and made the saint. But Pope Alexander the Fourth forbade the cult around Erik.
The evening was soon there, the twilight crept in between the trees. The wife stopped, would she go home with the child? Or should she place the child on the edge of the forest and hope that someone would find it?
«What are you doing with the child?» the stranger asked. «I’m looking for someone to take care of her,» her mother said. «I can take it,» the man said. «Who are you?» she wanted to know. «I’m death,» said the other, sighing.
The collective memory is not fixed and archived as a stagnation, this can be seen through religion, according to the French philosopher Maurice Halbwachs (Halbwachs, 1992, p. 92). Interpretations of the great memory book the Bible have changed, albeit, it seems like, the aftermath of rest of the society; many of us look with puzzled eyes on those who interpret the Bible literally, as if they came from another time. We who are concerned with storytelling see similarities between myths and stories in contemporary religions. Religions are built on stories, because the stories are good caretakers of memory.
The influence of the present day enriches the religious memory, but on the other hand, religion is also fixed through rituals that makes a connection that is greater than the individual’s relationship to the memory. The rituals ensure a connection between what has been and the present, it is a materiality there that has always been repeated.
Many of us do not give religion a thought beyond rituals that give us days off and days to gather and nurture the collective memory.
«Are you?» The wife said, looking closer at the stranger. He looked as though he was carrying a heavy burden on his shoulders, at the same time acting determined and firm. The wife looked down at the child and back at the old one, she shrugged her shoulders and said, «Yes, you will have her, because you make everyone equal. You’re a fair man. » Then she gave the child to death. She turned her back and hurried home and never looked back. The old man rocked the child and hummed shaky tones he had heard other humming to lull children to sleep.
In other words, the story of the «individual self» is not as old as human, a rather radical contrast to our present day, where the individual and the personal are the focus.
The girl grew up and over time learned to heal the sick. Then came the day when she had to leave death and travel on her own. Death said to her, «That’s one last thing I want you to know. When you come to someone who is sick you will see me in the room. Do you see me sitting at the head of the sick person lying in bed, then there is no hope,» he said, «but if I sit by the feet, the sick can recover again. You must never break this sign, because then you have a fine, your life. ” The girl who had now become a young woman nodded her head and then traveled alone around the world. She traveled here and there and up and down, taking care not to break the words of death.
We have our private, mental rooms, where all kinds of stories intertwine: «There you find hidden meanings of the life we have lived – impressions from childhood, books we have read, memories, family stories, unfinished thoughts, feelings we do not understand ourselves, dreams, presence of people we have met and never forget, dead we remember in despair and with gratitude, clues that connect us to the past and an unknown future, emotions such as wonder, confusion, anxiety, and not least awareness of the very death that awaits us – all that and much more is present in our own hidden inner space. (my translation Pollan, 2015, p. 171) ».
The girl became a doctor who was widely known and sought after across all countries.
One day the king fell ill and the doctor was asked for. She walked into a darkened room, heavy blankets muted the sounds. Here and there counselors and the king’s family stood and shook their heads as they whispered muffled with sorrowful voices. Here the time stood still, for they tried to catch it and turn it around so that the dying would be healed and alive. The king was dearly loved and then the heavier grief. The doctor saw death sitting at the headboard. «There’s no hope here,» she said, becoming part of the flock shaking her head. The people were so sad and they said she had to save him. If she could make the king well, she would receive as much payment as she had never received before. She looked at him, the death, the old man sitting there nodding his head. He sat and slumbered. She had an idea. «Fast,» she whispered, making signs that they would take the king and turn him around. They rushed forward, took hold of the king and turned him. So that the head lay where the feet had been and the feet were now at the headboard. The king opened his eyes, he was healthy and everyone was filled with joy. But not him.
He was not happy. He got up and waved her to him with his strict pointing finger. «You’re coming with me,» he said.
I personally like to work in the span between the personal and the mythical.
One might wonder why stories like myths survive as they do not represent an objective reality. They are in a place where we use our imagination to connect to them. Pollan says that the survival is because the myths tells about the absolute value of the individual and the need to «accept the loneliness of oneself (Pollan, 2015, p. 64)».
Have you heard a story you wish you never heard?
Do you have a story about yourself that you regret sharing?
She fell to her knees before death and prayed for her life. «I am still young and have many years left to live, let me go on. I promise to never again break the promise. » Death looked at the woman he had raised himself, he felt with her and maybe he was too strict. He said, «If you do this one more time, I’ll take you,» and then he stroked her head and let her live. Yes, the doctor promised she would never do it again.
Then a short time passed and the king’s son fell ill and the doctor called for. If the king was loved, the king’s son filled them with even greater sorrow. Nothing pains so much to see a child being sick. I had to say, goodbye then.
And nothing pains like watching a parent love his child and having to say goodbye to it. She had to say it. «There’s no hope here,» she saw death sitting at the headboard. But they asked her and the king said that if she could do good to his son, she would have him. The doctor looked at the king’s son and she saw how beautiful he was and she thought she had never been able to love anyone and had anyone loved her? Death sat and drowsed. The doctor couldn’t resist it. She dared to turn him around and he got well again. The King’s son threw his arms around the doctor.
But death grabbed her by the collar, pulled her away and said, «You’re following me.»
This is an exercise for you, think of something that has happened in your life and is there a parallel to that event somewhere else? If you, for example, just to take an example that comes to me, rode a horse as a child, have you read, heard stories of others riding a horse. Can you mix the two events into a story?
Literature
Halbwachs, M. (1992). On collective memory. Chicago og London: The University of Chicago Press.
Pollan, B. (2015). Å huske sitt liv Litterære Essayer. Oslo: Emilia Press.