Triumph of Death
In a way it is strange, for the principal character of the novel, the mercenary foot soldier Mikkel Thoegersen is an unusually unpleasant person. However, in this respect he is no different from his employer, King Christian II, himself a veritable butcher, or from the King's opponents, the noblemen, who behave like berserker killing machines. Even peaceable peasants and townsmen run amok in an ecstasy of blood when the nobility deposes the King and locks him up at Soenderborg Castle. Of course there are good, loving and caring people in the novel, but to no avail - they all die anyway.
Linguistic storm
Johannes V. Jensen deserves ten out of ten for The Fall of the King, mainly for its pace and highly evocative language. For example, when lightning strikes it is followed by a crash that sounds like the crack of a canon, the rattling of falling stones and hollow thunder. A burning manor house is depicted through a gigantic rotating wheel of smoke high in the sky above. The King's power politics include a plan for Danish cannon balls to ram the cliffs of Dover and for the heads of Swedish opponents to jump from the chopping block spraying long trails of blood. This is no surprise, for when a drunken Christian II hurls his pewter tankard against the wall, it falls to the floor completely flattened. If people have been drinking, they walk like ships beating up against the wind, and booze is only deadly dangerous when they see white mice the size of a castle gate.
Dorthe Sondrup Andersen is a Master of Arts of Comparative Literature and an author and writer on cultural affairs. Her books include "The Golden Age without the Gilt" ("Guldalder uden forgyldning") (People's Press, 2004).
"The trap of history". By Aage Sikker Hansen illustrerede Forlaget Gyldendals udgave af Kongens fald fra 1944.
© Aage Sikker- Hansen/ COPY-DAN Billedkunst 20060164.