It is precisely in this sombre setting, full of darkness lurking in recondite corners, reinforced with this sharp writing style, where the main character of the novel is presented: The eerie giant structure formed by a frozen waterfall up in the lake, called The Ice Palace. Either sanctuary or mausoleum, it arises as the eternally snow covered bridge that defies death, guilt and angst, linking Siss and Unn forever. There’s only one thing to ask in exchange for this everlasting token of friendship: A promise. Siss must never forget. But whereas Sally Carrol’s headstones mark where the dead lie peacefully at rest (another nod to the ‘sleepiness’ of the South), the underground caverns of the ice palace have the potential to disturb the dead, as the ghostly appearance of Margery Lee suggests. The Ice Palace is set in a village in rural Norway. Siss is a happy, outgoing 11-year old. She is popular with the other children at her village school and leads all the games in the playground.

Meet death and then the birth of the phoenix. What is the wild bird doing and what is the significance? The woodwind players too... The Ice Palace’ is a short story by the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940), originally published in the Saturday Evening Post in May 1920. The story is about a southern belle who becomes engaged to a man from the North; however, she almost freezes to death in an ice palace at a winter carnival and this leads her to rethink the engagement. In diesem schmalen Roman folgen wir dem jungen Mädchen Siss, das in einer ländlichen Gemeinde in Norwegen aufwächst. Ihr Leben ändert sich, als Unn nach dem Tod ihrer Mutter zu ihrer Tante ins Dorf zieht. Nach anfänglicher Distanz können die Mädchen der Anziehungskraft, die zwischen ihnen herrscht, nicht mehr widerstehen und treffen sich in Unns Haus. Sie unterhalten sich, Unn zeigt Siss ein Bild ihres Vaters, und überredet sie schließlich, dass sich die beiden aus Spaß ausziehen sollen. Sie tun es, beobachten sich gegenseitig, und Siss fühlt, dass etwas zwischen ihnen unausgesprochen und unerfüllt geblieben ist. Unn erzählt Siss, dass sie ein Geheimnis hat und Angst, nicht in den Himmel zu kommen. Die Stimmung zwischen den beiden ist jedoch so aufgeladen, dass Siss es nicht aushält, sich schnell wieder anzieht und nach Hause rennt. During the winter, she goes to visit him and his family in the North. Sally Carrol finds the locals of Harry’s home state to be mostly cold and hostile, with the exception of Roger Patton, a professor who teaches English literature, who is a friend of the Bellamy family. But Sally Carrol clashes with her future mother-in-law, Mrs Bellamy, who insists on calling Sally Carrol ‘Sally’ and omitting her second given name.Sometimes, when you lose someone, the loss is so bewildering and heavy, you have to decide whether to break off a part of yourself in letting them go, or be pulled under with them. We have a significant amount of snow on the ground for the first time in four years. With this influx of winter weather, it is comforting to read books about snow and colder climates. I have seen a number of goodreads friends review Tarjei Vesaas' definitive book the Ice Palace. In need of a foreign prize award winner for classics bingo, I decided to read his masterpiece for myself. Short in length, this novella is poignant in its prose as Vesaas writes of grieving and survivors guilt' in this harrowing coming of age tale. The visit is one of awkwardness and revelation, a sort of sounding each other out and fumbling about, but both clearly see it as friendship being established here, as two soul-mates who have found each other -- even as they're still tripping over their own insecurities. Es curioso, porque me costó ensamblar todas las piezas y la historia no hizo "clic" en mi cabeza hasta la tercera parte. Es entonces cuando comprendí lo del espejo y... todo, en general. Son la misma niña. No literalmente, pero sí literariamente. Solo que una lo supera, mientras que la otra no lo hizo. When a few dotted lines can cuff my heart into a promise and bind my palms over it in sombre armory, keep me lain in its pristine shadows for hours and yet freeze the time in crystalline imagery, I beam at the prospect: the prospect of living in that promise; that promise which lights up with the chandeliers of frosty realizations hanging from the ceiling of dreams and a sea of incomplete chances freezing my being.

In simple, poetic language it tells a fairly simple if devastating tale of friendship and childhood. From 1951-53 there ensued a fierce debate in Norway over a proposed change in the penal law of 1902. That law criminalized sexual acts between men and could result in penalties of up to one year in prison. It was particularly an alarm raised about the “seduction of adolescents” that lay behind the proposed change […] It took Norway 20 years to conclude that: “ a conversion to homosexuality via childhood seduction was unlikely and in 1972 Norway’s criminal law was changed so that sexual actions between men were no longer considered criminal” rly beautiful and intense sublimated lesbian movie...the whole sequence of unn in the ice palace ;_; gestures and unspoken desires are what animate this, the dialogue really isnt important b/c its all in their faces..Siss, one of Unn’s classmates who is lively and popular, strikes up a friendship with her. But the very next day after their first awkward meeting, Unn disappears. No one knows what has become of her but every one suspects Siss knows more than she lets on.

Parts of the novel are difficult to read, as Vesaas leads his young character down a road of no return, but it is a remarkably powerful evocation of the human condition. After several days of remaining silent, Unn approaches Siss and invites her to visit her at her auntie’s house after school. Both of them seem to feel the need to talk. After chatting briefly with Auntie, the girls go up to Unn’s room. They say very little, each of them unsure what to say, but they tacitly agree that there is a bond between. A strange, mystical atmosphere seems to hold them in thrall. Unn talks about her auntie, her mother and the father she has never met; all she knows is that he was handsome and had a car. At Unn’s suggestion, they gaze at a mirror together. Something seems to fill all their senses: Siss leaves promptly and Unn suffers pangs of doubt. Had she overshared? Did Siss feel the same way? Was she imagining their connection? I appreciated the simple lyrical writing, at times almost like poetry. The story kept my interest, but I thought it a got a bit repetitive or drawn-out and the whole story became too much like a fable. It seemed to me to stretch plausibility that one girl would become so obsessed or infatuated with the other girl after a few hours during one evening at her house (even though some odd stuff goes on). I felt I was reading a fable by Paulo Coelho, which I'm not a fan of.Trata muchos temas, pero sobre todo se centra en el duelo, en la pérdida que ahoga, la negación a aceptar lo sucedido y el valor de las promesas dichas. Explora con brillantez los sentimientos de la protagonista: el temor de fallar, de no permitir el paso al olvido y la incapacidad de seguir adelante sin esa persona. Relata un encuentro entre almas gemelas que se ven unidas por una extraña pero sincera conexión que deriva en una amistad inolvidable. She behaves almost bewitched, and I was under the same spell. I wanted to shout at her GET OUT OF THERE, and at the same time, I needed to know what was in there, too.

The pieces are all set for the magic to start. Siss, the popular leader of her peers at school and the beloved daughter of a well-off family, begins the journey with no return to become Unn, the introverted, mysterious girl, who leads an isolated life with her aunt, wrapped up in an irresistible and unsettling aura. Two gleaming faces in a mirror become one in a radiant moment, memory and dreams are fused into an impossible reality and Unn becomes Siss and Siss becomes Unn, scorching twin souls emerge amidst the implacable coldness of their existence, producing a miracle. Or a curse. For this world is made for the living, and that is a lesson Siss will have to learn if she wants to break free from a heavy burden which is drowning her in the mesmerizing but already thawing chambers of The Ice Palace. It's a first play date for the new friends, and when Siss finally arrives at Unn's cottage, it's clear that the girls have an unusual attraction for one another. Their time together is sensual and intimate, despite their young ages and their new acquaintance, but it is cut short by Siss, who feels suddenly overwhelmed by their new relationship and Unn's mysterious hints. And she didn't say a word about hiding." The Ice Palace is full of what wasn't said, and especially of Siss reacting to and dealing with what remains unspoken.Das Eisschloss (1963) von Tarjei Vesaas ist einer jener Klassiker, die lange unter meinem Radar flogen. Ich meine, es ist überhaupt mein erstes Buch eines norwegischen Schriftstellers. Auf BookTube, vermehrt im englischsprachigen Raum, hielten es jedoch immer mehr Leute in die Kamera und so wurde auch ich darauf aufmerksam. Ich vermute, dass es an dem wunderschönen Cover der Penguin Classics-Ausgabe liegt, die so erst 2018 erschien. Wie dem auch sei, ich bin froh, es endlich gelesen zu haben. Kad vis dėlto visam šitam aprašomam skausmui ir gedului yra išorinis pagrindas, tragiškas įvykis, ir toks labai skandinaviškas, kaip iš šiaurietiškų trilerių. Jo išpildymas visiškai kitoks, bet išdava ta pati: kaip vaikystės trauma gali pakeisti tave visam gyvenimui. Tik ta vaikystės traumos samprata visiškai praplečiama, šiuo atveju tai ne smurtas, o gedulas, kuris rodomas kaip niekuo ne mažiau sužeidžiantis ir nebeleidžiantis toliau ramiai gyventi. I say again, you must feel you are freed. It’s not right for you to go on as you are. It’s not like you. You’re a different person".