..out of the dark

He rows for days, avoids the English, and reaches almost all the way back home, right in between the skerries he knows well, before he's intercepted by an english corvette. His boat is sunk, and when he's captured, it is clear that whatever drove him to slave for his wife and child is no more. He's defeated. There is no mercy from the young captain of the english ship: He laughs in his face, the cargo is left on an underwater reef, and Terje is jailed in the "prisonen", an english jail, where he's stuck until the peace comes in 1814.

He then travels home on a Swedish ship, and arrives in his home- town to find that his wife and child are both dead, laid to rest in unmarked graves - like many others during the famine. His home is occupied by strangers, who know nothing of Terje or his wife.

He broods for a while, as Ibsen says. But then "shakes off" his mood. He lifts his head, and becomes a pilot for the ships coming in from the coast. And he lives once again. Nevertheless, he watches the reefs intently some times, his eyes flare, and when they do it's best to leave him alone.

One day, in a particularly nasty storm, a damaged english yacht seeks emergency shelter in the bay. Noone but Terje dares to go out and help. He does, he boards the damaged yacht, and puts it on course in spite of a damaged sail and mast, away from the dangerous underwater reefs. The captain approaches, a Lord with his beatiful wife and a small child, and promises to make him a rich man if he can save them. Terje freezes, he drops the rudder - he recognises the Lord: it's the young captain from the corvette all those years ago.

Terje laughs, and his voice gains strenght as if something is released from the inside - he commands everyone to the boats - "the ship does not respond to command!" - and takes the Lord and his wife in the boat with himself. They thank him, they thank the powers that be, and huddle together in the boat, while it speeds towards the bay.

Suddenly, Terje lets the rudder and sail slip - he stands up, towering over the Lord and his wife and child, as they scream in terror when Terje thrusts an oar through the bottom of the boat - and the water flows in. The Lord's wife screams for her child and lifts her up. A beautiful little child whose name is Anna. And Terje is struck with remorse. He takes the rudder again, and steers the boat in towards a reef he knows well - where it's calm on the inside, even in the worst weather. He runs the boat aground. The Lord is afraid - he says the ground is not solid, they're going to sink anyway. No, says Terje, you're safe - underneath here is another light- boat and it's cargo - a few barrels of corn.

The Lord recognises Terje - the captured prisoner - now in control over his destiny as much as he was over Terje's all those years ago. Terje refreshes the captain's memory - he explains, just a little longer now, and it's over for him. The Lord dies on the inside, his hair turns grey. But in the end, Terje relents - it is done, although the Lord and his family still lives, Terje's soul is whole again:

Han ånded, som løst fra et fængsels hvælv,
hans stemme lød rolig og jevn:
"Nu er Terje Vigen igen sig selv.
Indtil nu gik mit blod som en stenet elv;
for jeg måtte - jeg måtte ha'e hævn!

(He breathed, as if released from a prison- vault,
his voice now calm and sure:
"Now Terje Vigen is himself again.
Until now, my blood ran like a stoned up stream;
for I needed - I needed revenge!")