There by the
fence stood Merle, looking at me. She had drawn a kerchief forward over
her brow, after the fashion of the peasant women, so that her face was
in shadow; but she smiled to me--as if she, too, the stricken mother,
had risen up from the ocean of her suffering that here, in the daybreak,
she might take her share in the creating of God. . . .
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
PRONUNCIATION OF PROPER NAMES
For the convenience of readers a few points in which Norwegian
pronunciation differs from English are noted below:
The vowels a, e, and i in the middle of words are pronounced much as in
Italian.
aa = long o, as in "post" or "pole."
e final is sounded, as in German; thus Louise, Merle, etc.
d final is nearly always elided; thus Raastad = Rosta'.
g before e or i is hard; thus Ringeby, not Rinjeby.
j = the English y; thus Bojer = Boyer, Jens = Yens.
l before another consonant is sounded; thus Holm, not Home.
CURRENCY
The unit of currency in Norway is the crown (krone), which in normal
conditions is worth something over thirteen pence, so that about
eighteen crowns go to the pound sterling. Thus Peer Holm's fortune in
the Savings Bank represented about L100 in English money, and a million
crowns is equivalent to about $260,000 in American money.
To avoid encumbering the reader unnecessarily with the details of
Norwegian currency, small amounts have been represented in this
translation by their equivalents in English money.
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