Rasmus Engelbrigtsen Myklebust - Imprisonment

Major Rasmus rebelled against danskeveldet (the Danish Empire), or its representatives in Romsdal and was kidnapped at Myklebust and brought to Bergen. He got life sentence and died in the dungeon at Akershus Fortress in 1667

---------------POEMS ABOUT OWN ANCESTORS

A brave man rebels against superior power. 350 years later, one of his descendants sits down and commits the story to paper. "Autobiographical" novels are in the shot. Øystein Orten has chosen his own twist: He writes about his ancestor, the peasant rebel Rasmus Engelbrektsson Bust (1588-1666).

And what a novel! Here the poet Orten stands side by side with the epic Orten. We are going back to the 16th-17th centuries. Corrupt and dishonest tax collectors wreak havoc on rich and poor along the Westland coast. Rasmus Engelbrektsson Bust gets enough. He calls for battle. Stitch by stitch Orten sews a seam of words, a web of events. A living portrait of a time, a landscape and not least the people who lived before us. Dag Solstad believes that "the people of the 16th century are distant and remarkable to us. It forbids itself to write about them". Øystein Orten probably does not agree.

I let myself be excited and impressed by Orten's pen and storytelling. He is a discerning stylist. Although Rasmus lived a dramatic life, the book is not action-driven and "exciting" in the classic way. This novel lives in language. The dramaturgy is complex. The action has many schedules, angles and axes. The book is written by Rasmus' foster son Aslak. He tells the story of Rasmus to the rebel's granddaughter Ragnhild. The text is usually addressed directly to Ragnhild: "Put the trap over your child so that it doesn't freeze, and I can tell you a little before you leave." On the last page , Øystein Orten traces his own family line from "he who dictates this" all the way back to Rasmus Engelbrektsson Bust.

Although the novel is poetry about an imaginary reality - based on real events - it gives the reading experience another dimension. TOM EGELAND

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Øystein Orten: Rasmus the Rebel (2013)

Solid cases from Orten

Øystein Orten from Hareid has previously written novels where he
uses his own and his close family's experiences and life course which
starting point for poetry. An example like that in that respect
is natural to mention here, is the novel Vegen til Neverland
from 2005, where landscape and environment from Vanylven in general
and Fiskå in particular, are easily recognisable. Father of Øystein,
Einar Orten was both sheriff and mayor in Vanylven
in the 50s and bid on Fiskå.

And now, in a way, he has done it again.
But this time he goes further back
in time. Through a somewhat convoluted family tree
he returns to Rasmus Engelbrektson in the afterword
Bust who was born in 1588 - he who was called The Great
or also Rasmus Rebellen. And through old Aslak tell
he longed for Store-Rasmus for his grandson,
Ragnhild – she who is the daughter of Unge-Rasmus and born
the year the grandfather died. It's only Aslak's voice we say
hears. But into the narrative, "clips" are short, descriptive
glimpse of something that is, in a way, a story within a story -
but where the threads are tied together towards the end. Not one
unusual, if slightly dangerous, dramaturgical trick to break
up the monologue. I also think that form
which is chosen, where an older man tells a young woman
and unrehearsed in much of what is being talked about, holds good
in a historical novel. It gives the opportunity for a natural play
natural way to "clarify" and explain things - also to others
the newspaper reader without going in with the author's voice and
break the magic.

Briefly about the contents: The book is a portrait of the farmer driver
Rasmus from cradle to grave. It is the soga of a dramatic life
in a dramatic time. Here there is famine, bad years, war and extensive corruption
from futar and royal officials. The struggle for existence is fierce,
raw and merciless. People have great care for both God and king,
something that is cynically exploited by both secular and ecclesiastical doctors
power figures. Disobedience and standing up are punished
hard and preferably in a bestial way. Parallel to the belief in God
superstition and tradition go - and together they make it up
the spiritual space in which people live.

Mainly the event takes place in our villages,
on the coast of Sunnmøre - from Stadlandet in the south
and to the northernmost boundary of the bailiff
in the north, but with detours both to Bergen, Oslo,
Copenhagen and Amsterdam. And here there is much to learn both
about local, national and European history. At the same time, it is not
story about a special person with strengths and weaknesses
pages, born and raised in Vartdal in Hareid parish,
but later in life lived on Bust - on the southernmost lute on
Harøya - the island that was divided between right up to our time
bailiffs' office Sunnmøre and Romsdal. Garden's name was Haug, but
Rasmus he called Capernaum with all the symbolism that
can be put into it. On the map of the land of Canaan as Aslak
drawn in childhood, Capernaum is marked in red,
stained with his own blood.

And speaking of Aslak: It's in
that is, his mouth Orten put this story, he who
smålåte presents himself as "a simple householder from Sunnmøre,
but foster son of Rasmus, the rebel, father to father
yours, he they call The Great”. But this Aslak has appeared
to have abilities far above average. Notbøtaren, the deckhand
and the servant-at-arms is a thinker, an analyst - the son of
the lye-poor dessert owner is a peerless storyteller. He has
learned the art of writing and he is a dog for books. The Bible
has he read several times and there he has too, after that
he himself says, found models and ways of saying that he uses
among other things, the letters he writes to Rasmus, his foster father. When
I stand by this detail, it has to do with the language in the novel
to do. The story old Aslak tells has, in addition to
orda - where biblical expressions and phrases appear exactly as they are
up - also a distinctive, poetic rhythm. One can explain
the fact that Øystein Orten is a poet no less
than three poetry collections behind him - and he would have liked to
I wouldn't be able to write like that without having that background.
But the rhythm also makes me think about the one we find in
biblical texts - such as Salmane and Sermon on the Mount, Aslak
their linguistic models. For me this was the revelation
helping to make the whole story more real and
believable.

In a good story, not everything is said. Take one away
the vague hints and the unsaid, she likes to be
both one-dimensional and banal. But at the same time
must the author try so that we get enough to
the thread will be pulled, and that we will be dragged along. The resort has
empower this important balancing act. It is then too
one after another, the author we deal with.

Øystein Orten has written a credible story. A book
which provides learning and experience on several levels and in one
language that is a pleasure to read. He has, so to speak
simple, simply write a good novel.

Finally, a little about the cover - the reader's first encounter
with the book. The artist who made it has after
each created a style and quality that makes us
understand who is behind it before we read it: vanylvingen
Øystein Witness. He also made the map that is on it
both front and back of the book and helps us to
orient ourselves in a secret landscape, but partially
with names that have perhaps gradually become smaller
known.

-----------------https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l0PZSzQ6DE
https://issuu.com/magnuspeterharnes/docs/store-rasmus2