Mysteries (1892)

Mysteries (Norwegian: Mysterier, 1892) is the second novel by Norwegian author Knut Hamsun. The story concerns a small Norwegian coastal community that is shaken by the arrival of eccentric stranger Johan Nagel, who beguiles the bourgeois townspeople with bizarre behavior, feverish rants, and uncompromising self-revelations. The book is often regarded as pre-figuring later modern literature, has been called a classic, and has been named as a favorite or a great work by several noted writers.

Plot

One summer, a man of about age 28, Johan Nagel, arrives at a town by boat. Flags are flying in honor of the wedding engagement of Dagny Kielland, the parson's daughter. Nagel nervously paces the deck and misses his chance to disembark, although porters have already taken his luggage off the boat. The boat carries him away again. He re-arrives the next day by horse carriage. He is mildly mocked by some townspeople for his boat trouble earlier, but he doesn't notice their comments.

Nagel takes a room at a hotel. His belongings includes a violin case, a trunk, a lifesaver's medal, and a vial labelled "Poison." He has a long friendly conversation with the hotel keeper. Nagel is congenial but casually fails to offer much information about himself when asked, yet very animatedly says that he may decide to stay for a long time. They discuss a recent death of a man in the woods, Karlsen, an apparent suicide that Nagel read about in newspapers. They muse about details of the case and the fact that Karlsen killed himself with a dull pen-knife after being rejected by Dagny Kielland.

In the dining hall one evening, Nagel observes a short-statured man known as Miniman ("Minutten" in Norwegian), whose real name is Grøgaard, being harshly bullied and humiliated by a deputy and others. Nagel interrupts the situation by loudly offering money to Miniman to throw a glass in the face of the deputy, whom he insults. The deputy attacks Nagel but Nagel is skilled at boxing and defeats him. Chaos ensues in the room. When the hotel keeper enters the scene, bystanders all defend Nagel. Nagel invites Miniman up to his room for smoking and conversation. Among other subjects, Nagel makes bizarre theoretical propositions to him, while also inquiring about Miniman's life and the town.

Over several months in the summer, Nagel becomes a social fixture of the town. He befriends and falls in love with Dagny, and attends friendly gatherings with Dagny and other townspeople. He amuses people with unexpected opinions and behavior. He rants about literature and politics, and is harmlessly called out by a townsperson who recognizes him as a known controversial forum-attendee in another town. He also spends much time alone in his room or in the forest, and experiences apparent nervousness and sudden impulses. Long after disappointing people by claiming that his violin case is an empty affectation filled with dirty laundry, he delights people with his violin-playing. His life-saver's medal suspiciously has the name scratched off, and it's unclear whether this is another ploy of modesty. Nagel sends telegrams to himself knowing that the hotel staff will snoop through them and gossip about them, and openly reveals the scheme to Dagny.

Listeners are captivated when he publicly narrates fantastical dreams or visions. In one, he calmly drifts in an aromatic wood boat with a silk sail, and fishes with a silver hook. Someone in the group lightly mocks the dream, but Dagny stammers that the situation was lovely. In another narrated dream, Nagel is lying in bed and becomes encompassed by the vocal sounds of thousands of tiny angels who float around him and settle in his hair, and he recognizes that they are blind. In another dream, a man is imprisoned in a supernatural tangle of tree roots in a marsh and tries to bite Nagel, but can't. Nagel aggressively taunts him, but they eventually hold hands and leave the marsh. The man then takes on a pathetically self-effacing manner. Nagel explains that the man in the dream was Miniman, and Dagny exclaims that she knew it was him much earlier.

Nagel attempts to give money to a relatively impoverished woman who lives alone, Martha Gude, but disguises it by claiming that a random chair in her home is a valuable antique that he, as an antique enthusiast, must buy at any price. Martha frustrates Nagel by humbly refusing the money. He later makes an intense marriage proposal to her. They have a short romance that is soon ruined by her distrust of him. He thinks that Dagny convinced Martha to reject him.

Ultimately, Dagny scornfully rejects Nagel and mistrusts his behavior and identity. He goes into the woods and drinks his vial of poison to die alone. He waits in agony for several hours, then desperately attempts to vomit up the poison, and begins making an imaginary soliloquy to Dagny. He eventually realizes that someone had replaced his poison vial with water.

In preparation to leave the town, Nagel attempts to pay the hotel keeper for the summer stay, but has a mental crisis and can't find any money. Nagel becomes feverish and bed-ridden. Sara, a hotel worker, partly cares for him as he talks nonsense. He is seized with fear about a missing ring that apparently he must find before midnight. He believes that he is called to the sea, and dreams that he is trying to drown himself. In a vision, Miniman tauntingly tells him that the drowning attempt will fail because Nagel is a good swimmer. Nagel wakes up from the dream greatly relieved that it wasn't real, but still appears to be in the grips of a delusional psychological condition. He runs to the docks and into the sea, and dies by drowning.

The story ends with Dagny and Martha conversing on a walk. They discuss an unspecified event in which Miniman had done something to Martha and came to a bad end. Dagny expresses puzzlement that Nagel had predicted Miniman's fate. The women support each other physically while walking on a slippery icy street.