The Visionary

The preface to the translation says that “Lie heard many a strange tale of sea-goblins and land-spirits as he wandered in his boyhood along the quay and in the streets of Tromsö.” The preface calls “The Visionary” “a tragedy in which resistless Fate hurries its victims to destruction”. The preface names “The hero, David Holst,” as “one of those unhappy beings who seem doomed to a more than ordinary share of the ills of life”.

The preface says that “Throughout his life he was subject to visions”, and that “the appearance of a lady carrying a white rose marked the near approach of calamity”. A sailing scene says that “The fourth reef of the sail ought properly to have been taken in, but Elias was loth to give up the race”. A sailing scene also says that “the sea had grown rougher, and two considerable waves had already broken over them”. A shore scene describes a gull: “a poor exhausted gull, which had probably got out from its mountain cliff into the wind, fighting and battling in it, often with its wings almost twisted.”