Take Advantage Of Sacrificial Smoke: Volume 3 In The Holme Trilogy Originated By Jan Fridegård Shared As Brochure

sista del i Fridegårds trilogi om trälen Holme och folket i Brika See my comments on Land of Wooden Gods The third and final book in the Holme trilogy was somewhat less annoying than the second.
Over the three books, we could see Holme's evolution, In the first book, he was a thrall whose main concern was the safety and freedom of his own family, If others were helped in the process, good, but it wasn't his main focus,

In the second book, his focus shifts a bit to the general plight of other thralls, He is concerned about their safety and freedom now, but it has the feel of an afterthought, more like, "oh, these people helped me, so I suppose I should help them now, too.
" His sense of purpose wasn't fully established yet, although he seemed to have a vague idea that freedom for all thralls was a good idea, even though he didn't have a definitive approach to getting that freedom.


In this third book, he went completely freaking Braveheart on everyone FREEEEDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!! and it got old, The plot was interrupted by it, really, because one topic would be under discussion and then some random thought about freedom would be interjected in the middle of it.
It was appropriate for the overall tone of the trilogy, but was frequently a non sequiter for any specific part of the book.


The way the Christians were portrayed was amusing, From a pagan thrall's perspective, it isn't surprising that they were frequently viewed as horrible, for indeed they did do some horrible things to get people to convert back in the day.
I was also curious about the blatant hypocrisy of the Christians in these texts, Holme was the very sort of man they should have wanted to convert, He was a man of the people, he fought for the common man, he was gentle by nature and only fought when he was attacked.
Aside from fighting, he really did become a sort of Christ figure, And the priests were completely threatened by him and saw him as their worst enemy, If they'd haad a brain in their heads, they would have seen that trying to force him to believe their ways was exactly the wrong way to get him on their side, which is something they should have done as soon as they saw his influence over the other thralls.
But no, they wanted to force their ways on him and when it didn't work, thought that killing him through attack or through deception was a grand idea.


However, while the Christians were depicted as generally evil, uptight and devious, the followers of the Norse gods were depicted as drunken, rutting savages.
I know nothing of Fridegard's personal religious faith, but I have to wonder if he's a devout atheist or suffered some sort of trauma at the hands of religion, since he seems angry at religions and lends little credence to either of the major religions that were front and center in his books.
His central character was essentially atheist throughout most of it,

I understand that Fridegard was primarily focused on the rise of the proletariat and his struggle for independence, but there were many, many places where the hammer of obvious was used just

one too many times.
I think the overall message of the trilogy would have been more powerful if it had been a bit more subtle, As it was, there were a few places where eyerolling was the standard reaction because it was just a bit too over the top.


Another thing that perplexed me was the role of Svein, I guess "perplex" isn't the word to use, I understand that he's supposed to represent the next generation of Vikings, those who have seen free thralls and aren't threatened by them, and see the value of free and happy societies.
I'm just not sure why it was necessary to take him in some of the directions he was, His personal growth over thebooks was astounding, and part of my eyerolling, but still nice to see, He went from a pain in the ass, spoiled child, to a sullen and bitter mama's boy, to an honest, open gentle man.
That was a nice transformation, if a bit hard to believe, given his early conditioning and life experiences,

Ausi was still pretty codependent in this book, but she was in a smaller, less irritating role here, Their daughter Tora grew up to be a strong woman, so it took some of the sting out of seeing such a stupid and helpless woman in Ausi.
And she did think only of Holme and Tora's souls throughout, She converted to Christianity early in the first book, but her Jesus was a gentle and loving man, and she was the sort of Christian all Christians should strive to be.
She worried mostly for Holme and Tora's souls and when she died, she went with the belief that she could talk Jesus into forgiving Holme and Tora for being heathens so they could all be together in heaven.
I found her sacrifice at the end, though, to be simultaneously selfless and selfish, I am not entirely sure what I think of that yet,

I don't know Swedish, but I'm sure this trilogy is an excellent and faithful translation from the original into English.
Bob Bjork is a top notch scholar and I trust his scholarship implicitly, His footnotes and afterword are interesting and enlightening,

Overall, I'd give the whole trilogy maybe,stars. I am inclined to rate it higher because of Bob's role in translating, The story itself, while I understand is a Swedish national literary gem, was a little too over the top for my tastes, a little too simplistic and naive.
Still, I found it a very worthwhile read and I'm glad I took the time to read it, Johan Fridolf Fridegård, known as Jan Fridegård, originally Johansson and in youth called Fride Johansson, was a Swedish writer, In the Swedish literature Fridegård belonged to the so called proletarian authors, specifically statarskolan, He is known for integrating social issues and conditions within his novels, His most prominent books are the self biographical Lars Hard series as well as his Viking age trilogy, However, he was a very prolific author, Fridegård kom från statarmiljö den fräna självbiografiska romansviten om Lars Hårdgenomsyras av ett frigörelsepatos, Samma engagemang kännetecknar också trilogin om den upproriske trälen Holme, Trägudars land, Gryningsfolketoch Offerrök, Johan Fridolf Fridegård, known as Jan Fridegård, originally Johansson and in youth called Fride Johansson, was a Swedish writer, In the Swedish literature Fridegård belonged to the so called proletarian authors, specifically statarskolan, He is known for integrating social issues and conditions within his novels, His most prominent books are the self biographical "Lars Hard" series as well as his Viking age trilogy, However, he was a very prolific author, Fridegård kom från statarmiljö den fräna självbiografiska romansviten om Lars Hårdgenomsyras av ett frigörelsepatos, Samma engagemang kännetecknar också trilogin om den upproriske trälen Holme, Trägudars land, Gryningsfolketoch Offerrök, sitelink.