Spellmann på dromen, by Mary Barthelemy
Yes, I had finally reached this book, after reading through the ones that were stacked on top of it. I had really been looking forward to reading this book ever since I came home again from the sea. And what a book it is! Curiosity about one of my ancestors was of course the main reason. But also because I wanted to learn as much as possible about our “people” in general.
Mary Barthelemy’s book is easy to read, with beautiful drawings and pictures that wonderfully illustrate the story she tells us. It is what they call a “page‑turner” in English, because it is hard to put down. There is so much interesting material and so much information that you actually should put it down now and then, just to digest everything. A luxury problem.
In the middle of the book, when it tells about one of the journeys made by “Fant Karl” and Magdalena (and the family) from Norway to Sweden and back to Norway in 1828, I began to think… Quite incredible to imagine that when they took that surely strenuous trip, they had no idea that a relative from Bergen would, almost 200 years later, sit and read about it and study the map of the journey they made.
The back of the book.