The Bridegroom is a tragic romance novel, set in Norway at the time of The Black Death. It was published in 1927, written by Norwegian author Ingeborg Refling Hagen.
The novel tells the story of Elise, a teenage girl living on a secluded farm in the deep forests of eastern Norway. She has a distant crush on the local master fiddler Erik Ekset, whom she knows will show up for the annual midsummer revels. She prepares for this meeting, unaware that the plague is approaching. Ekset is supposed to be playing at a grand wedding later on, at the farm of Kvålstad.
During the midsummer feast, the plague arrives, in form of a dead fiddler in a cart, drawn by a gaunt and pale horse, who scares off almost everyone present. Only one remains, a poor Cloud Cuckoolander who tries on the hat of the dead man, and thus catches the plague. He is assigned as a serf to the Kvålstad farm, and tragedy ensues when he brings the plague with him. A week later, the entire community is smitten, and among the first casualties are - the fiddler Erik Ekset and the bridegroom at the wedding. Many more follow suit.
Elise has been promised a date with the fiddler, and waits for him all summer, unawares that he is dead. Only at autumn, news reach the farm, in form of a traveller who carries the news, and the plague with him. Elise´s brother, and her great-grandmother, succumbs, and Elise acknowledges that her farm is desolate, takes a horse to bring news. But as she approaches the closest farm, Arstad, an old woman tells her that everyone except her is dead, after attending the Kvålstad wedding. Thus, Elise rides on, distraught, nearly losing it.
At the same time, the forest is packed with people carrying coffins to the lake, to get them ferried over to the local church. Among them is a young mother, carrying her husband, with the help of her father, who asks her to snap out of her sorrow. Elise agrees to help them, and then, the bride from the wedding earlier on shows up, completely disarrayed and out of her mind from grief, still carrying her bridal crown. The father, who is related to the bride, tries to console her as well, only to be rebuked - "there is no solace for me, the roads go in circles here". So, they all reach the beach, calling for the ferryman to take the coffins over the lake. The bride panics, the father consoles the daughter, and Elise jumps in the boat, rowing it herself, to find the fiddler´s grave. She is, by now, smitten herself, and succumbs to the plague while searching for the grave of her lost love. The novel ends as her soul departs.
Tropes to be found in this work:
- A Fête Worse than Death: Twice in row. First, the midsummer revels, and after that, the Kvålstad Wedding. The horse, carrying the dead fiddler, interrupts the revels, and everyone present run away screaming.
- And I Must Scream: Elise is bound to her (imagined) bridal gear, that is a heavy bridal crown and tight lacing around her chest - for the rest of her life. For the bride Alis, it is even worse, because she has worn her bridal outfit, crown included, for months after her wedding.
- Anyone Can Die: Set during The Black Death, it is given almost from the cover.
- Class 0: The entire community collapses because of the sheer number of deaths. Truth in Television, by the way.
- Artistic Licence – History: Depending on how you interpret the fiddle. Four strings and a bow might not be available in rural Norway in the mid 1300s.
- Bearer of Bad News: The herdsman who tells the story of the advancing plague. He also bears the plague with him.
- Cool Crown: The custom for brides in Norway was to carry a crown on their wedding day
. Some crowns were elaborate, heavy and was customarily only worn for that one day. The crown is essentially cool, but Alis the bride has been wearing it for months - and that makes it more of a self-inflicted punishment. - Dies Wide Open: Played straight for Elise, who dies in the graveyard, nobody tending to her.
- "But the deep wide open broken eyes mirrored the wide and desolate night sky..."
- Downer Ending: For almost everyone involved.
- Eldritch Location: The woods come out like this, because the inner Mental World and the outer deep forest blend, and it gets effectively impassable and scary.
- Everybody's Dead, Dave: Eline Arstad tells Elise that much when she comes riding for help. She has, by the way, her own Madness Mantra: "Nobody is home here".
- The Fair Folk: A number of them dress Elise up for her wedding, when she knows the titular bridegroom is dead. This also doubles as a warning that she is getting ill. It is a pure Mushroom Samba sequence, because she also inhalates the strong herbs her great-grandma is brewing for her sick brother. Later, they return right before her death.
- It is clear that the fair folk in question openly taunt her, because they know the bridegroom is dead.
- Find the Cure!: Heavily averted - it is stated quite clearly that nothing can cure this plague.
- Foregone Conclusion: When the cover states "Novel from the time of The Black Death", it is a given.
- Foreshadowing: Page one already, describing how the sun sets "red of storms".
- Harbinger of Impending Doom: A pale skanky horse drawing a cart with a dead fiddler in it, through the forest to the beach where the midsummer revels are ongoing. It brings the plague with it, of course. The description of this is pure
Nightmare Fuel. - Hearing Voices: Elise, during her trek from Hadstad to Arstad. It serves as a reminder that the despair is closing in on her, and she is swiftly losing it.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Hadstad, the farm where Elise lives, has gradually fallen into decline, to a point where most people shun it and prefer to go the far way around it instead of taking the easy road, passing it. It is also stated that the serfs are going mad from working there, because of the isolation. At the end of the novel, the farm is completely deserted.
- Madness Mantra: Several. Elise has "warmth has gone out at the Hadstad stove", Asgjerd has "light in the ski trail", and Alis has "roads go in circles in the woods". Fair enough, everyone seems to have one in this book.
- Moment Killer: The worst application of the trope possible. Elise and Erik, dancing in tight embrace, having their moment of happiness, is interrupted by the skinny horse, neighing straight in his neck. When he and the others understand what they are up against, everybody panics.
- Mood Whiplash: It begins on a bright summer evening, with Elise dancing in the meadow. From there it gets progressively darker, and darker, passing through gothic horror over madness to death. On a more instant note: the moment the horse arrives at the beach, scaring everyone away.
- Mysterious Waif: The ferryman, carrying the dead over the lake to the churchyard, and in the end, Elise herself.
- Never Mess with Granny: Elise´s great-grandma is thoroughly respected, and pretty agile for a woman her age. She insists that she is about hundred years old. Of course, not even she can cope with the plague.
- The Plague
- The Pollyanna: The father of Asgjerd. To have Polyanna traits during that time is quite a feat.
- Raised by Grandparents: Elise and her brother after the death of their parents. Actually, this is their great-grandmother.
- Rule of Three: No less than three women have lost their men. Elise after her first meeting, Asgjerd after her first child, Alis in the middle of her wedding.
- Sanity Slippage: The different women cope with their sorrow this way. The plague is making everyone a Shell-Shocked Veteran over night.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Elise and Erik. Death parted them after one single meeting.
- Widowed at the Wedding: Alis, the Kvålstad bride. No wonder she is distressed.
