About the work
“Der Keim” is the German edition of Tarjei Vesaas' novel “Kimen”, published in Norway in the autumn of 1940, the same year German troops occupied the country. An abridged German version had already appeared in 1966 under the title “Nachtwache” (Suhrkamp, translated by Elisabeth Stahlschmidt); the complete new translation by Hinrich Schmidt-Henkel was published by Guggolz Verlag in 2023 under its current title.
Plot
On a small, isolated Norwegian island lives the farming family Li: parents Karl and Mari, their adult son Rolv and seventeen-year-old Inga. A traumatised stranger who survived an explosion at his factory appears on the island and kills Inga in the woods. Led by Rolv, the village community hunts down and kills the stranger, and is then left to confront its own guilt.
Cultural significance
“Kimen” marks Vesaas' turn toward an allegorical mode of storytelling that he continued in post-war novels such as “Das Haus im Dunkeln” (1945), and is regarded, alongside “Das Eis-Schloss” (1963), as one of his most important books. The novel is also available in English translation as “The Seed” and was filmed under the same title by Erik Solbakken in 1974.