Salome's Gift: Out of the deep

Welcome to Salome’s world!“It’s getting overgrown.” With these words, Rolf Engan begins his documentary novel about Salome Raaen (1759-1848) who lived for more than 50 years in the depths of a ravine – Ruglraaen – south of Trondheim in Norway.It’s not only the countryside and physical traces of such barren places that are getting overgrown, but memories of the poverty-stricken people of that time and their struggle for existence are also fading.Salome is a strong woman. In the midst of a life of poverty, she owns a hidden wealth: her strong faith, her courage and determination, and the will and ability to help others,Salome’s grandsons, Iver, Bersvend and Ingebrigt, are the main characters in the following two novels. These tell the story of their struggle to move up and out of the ravine. Iver and Ingebrigt do so by emigrating to America in 1853, while Bersvend physically moves house and home up onto land by the road and near to the new railway line. These two books tell the story of the contrasting lives of the three brothers alternating between Bersvend in Norway and Iver and Ingebrigt in the several states in America in which they lived. But whatever their differences, all three carry within them Salome’s gift. Read more