The Story of Gösta Berling · Chapter
The Witch of Dovre explained
The chapter introduces the witch of Dovre, a powerful and feared old woman who wanders the land begging.
What happens
The chapter introduces the witch of Dovre, a powerful and feared old woman who wanders the land begging. She arrives at Borg and demands a ham from Countess Märta Dohna, who refuses and insults her. Enraged, the witch curses the countess, summoning magpies that besiege Borg and torment Märta, driving her to despair and near madness. The chapter reflects on the soul's hunger for meaning beyond frivolity.
Themes in this chapter
Nature and the Supernatural
The witch embodies supernatural forces of nature, controlling storms, lightning, and animals, and her curse manifests as a literal plague of magpies.
Guilt and Remorse
The narrator expresses guilt for portraying Countess Märta harshly, reflecting on how a starved soul turns destructive, linking to remorse.
Social Class and Power
Countess Märta's dismissal of the witch as a 'beggar-woman' highlights class arrogance, while the witch's power over fear subverts social hierarchy.
Characters to notice
- Countess Märta Dohna
Mistress at Borg; refuses the witch's demand and is cursed, leading to a siege of magpies that drives her to terror and despair.
- The Witch of Dovre
A powerful, ancient mountain witch who begs for a ham at Borg; curses Countess Märta when refused, summoning magpies to torment her.
Key passages
“She is mean, greedy for gifts, although she is so rich. In the clefts of the mountain she hides heavy bars of white silver; and in the rich meadows far away on the heights feed her great flocks of black cattle with golden horns. Still she wanders about in birch-bark shoes and greasy leather skirt soiled with the dirt of a hundred years.”
Despite her immense hidden wealth, the witch is miserly and constantly begs, appearing in ragged, filthy clothes.
Illustrates the witch's paradoxical greed and poverty of spirit.
“But it is so, although that poor wayfarer did not know it, that the soul is ever hungry. On frivolity and play it cannot live. If it gets no other food, it will like a wild beast first tear others to pieces and then itself.”
The soul craves substance; without it, a person becomes destructive to others and ultimately to themselves.
The narrator's moral reflection on the meaning of the story, linking to Countess Märta's fate.