Why do you think Mytting chose to open with a quote from Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness?

Author Lars Mytting opens The Bell in the Lake with a quote from Joseph Conrad's famous novel Heart of Darkness. Why do you think he chose this quote? How does it add to the story's descriptions of light and darkness?

It’s a signal of his theme: in the Conrad novel, the real darkness was in the cold hearts and closed minds of strangers who thought their supposedly modern culture and white race were superior and could not see the humanity of those they came to exploit. Mytting’s novel speaks to the need for understanding and respecting the past, without dismissing the need for change.

In Heart of Darkness, Marlow refers to England as also having been “one of the dark places of the earth,” before being conquered and enlightened by the more advanced Romans. I guess using this allusion might suggest Butangen, with its folklore, superstitions, and backwardness. To be honest, though, I really didn’t see the appropriateness of this epigraph to this partiular story. To me, the novels seem too different in mood and tone.

Dianelouise,
I agree the mood and tone are very different, but I think the message is the same: supposedly civilized society can be as narrow-minded and “dark” in their hearts as the people they regard as “savages.” He (Mytting) does not take sides, but shows the positive and negative aspects of both, and seems to suggest at the end that if people act with open minds and hearts, the past and the present both have a role to play in creating a better future (Schönauer’s design for a new “old” stave church, which he never got to build).

I absolutely agree with your point about Bell in the Lake and am now inspired to reread Heart of Darkness, which I haven’t read since retiring. A good rabbit hole!

Dear God--I haven't a clue--or at least I had to think about it. Heart of Darkness was a cross I had to bear as a 16 yr old college freshman and I've never wanted to revisit it. But it is true, Kai's attitude toward modernity at all costs and easy dismissiveness toward the beliefs and practices of his congregants is much the same as the attitude shown the natives of Africa in Heart of Darkness, so perhaps, Mytting wanted to stress the narrowness of mind in some and the harm it causes as it ripples out to those around them.

I agree with what everyone else has said—Heart of Darkness is obviously a tale about "civilization vs. savagery," which is a theme Mytting brings to life here as well in the ways in which he contrasts the different settings.

Conrad's epigraph, which introduces this story was to give the reader a clue as to the theme of this, etc. and the culture of an isolated 19th century Norway village.

I think Conrad's quote is appropriate not necessarily because it relates directly to "Heart of Darkness," but because rural Butangen in the late 19th century was was one of the dark places in this world. It introduces the the theme as Judyw mentioned also.

I did reread Heart of Darkness, and must say I still wish Mytting had not used a reference to it for an epigraph. Perhaps, as Lar says, we should not try to relate the two novels. But I find the Conrad so powerful that I am compelled to try, and then I am puzzled. (By the way Kenneth Branagh’s reading on the audiobook of HOD I listened to is outstanding.)

Clearly, there was a dark setting in Astrid's little village, but there also were closed minded ideas about what women should do with little hope of finding true love and a brighter future. In addition,however, just like the colonizing countries thought the African continent was theirs to plunder, some of the Europeans thought the stave churches were theirs to pull down and that only their ways and their religious practices were the best.