
On a craggy shore where the last light of sunset glints off restless waves, a fourteen‑year‑old boy stands alone, watching the sea roar back to life after a ferocious storm. The water’s fury leaves wrecked ships and shattered lives in its wake, and the boy feels the strange, lingering echo of the ocean’s warning as salty spray lashes his face. He wonders whether the tempest is merely nature’s rage or a sign of something far darker looming over his world.
The story unfolds in three parts—school, youth, and manhood—tracing how that early encounter with the sea shapes his growing sense of purpose. As he moves from classroom lessons to the restless curiosity of adolescence, the town’s whispered prophecies and a wandering preacher’s apocalyptic sermon stir both fear and fascination within him. Through his eyes we glimpse a community caught between ordinary survival and the unsettling belief that a greater judgment may be at hand, leaving listeners to ponder how one moment can steer a life toward destiny.
Language
fi
Duration
~10 hours (590K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Release date
2015-01-17
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1832–1910
A towering figure in 19th-century Norwegian literature, he wrote poems, plays, novels, and stories that helped shape Norway’s cultural identity. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1903 and is also remembered for writing the lyrics to Norway’s national anthem.
View all books