It was love in first sight for Lorens as he looked down at the pretty damsel, and she looked up to the fine horseman.īewildered by the beauty of Martine despite being demurely dressed, Lorens Löewenhielm, a young lieutenant, would often visit the Dean just to find an excuse to catch a glimpse of her. It was during this time when Loewenhielm rode into the town and met Martine in the marketplace. So, Loewenhielm’s angry father sent him on a month’s visit to his aunt in her old country house of Fossum near Berlevaag, so that he could have time enough to meditate and to better his ways of life. He was young office who would happily spend his days in his garrison town, and thus ran into debt. Lorens Loewenhielm is retrospectively introduced in the story as the lover of Martine when she was eighteen, in the year 1854. The account of the Dean is retrospectively discussed in the story, as he has been long dead during the time of the narration of the story. The members of this particular religious sect, led by the Dean, renounced all worldly pleasures, as they believed that the earth including all earthly things is illusionary in nature, and the ultimate truth is the New Jerusalem toward which they were longing. An old inhabitant of the small town of Berlevaag, the Dean was a prophet as well as the founder of a pious ecclesiastic party or sect, which was known in all of Norway. The father of Martine and Philippa, this person has always been referred to by the author as the Dean, and his real name is never revealed to us (may be his actual name was Dean, too, which coincided with his profession – but we never know!). They inherited this ascetic bent of mind from their father, the Dean, whose religiousness was in fact evident from the naming of his two daughters: Martine and Philippa were named after Martin Luther and his friend Philip Melanchton respectively. Nevertheless, they had never owned anything fashionable, and had always dressed demurely in grey or black all their lives. They were tall and willowy, and as we come to know from the story, were extremely beautiful and attractive during their youthful days. These two elderly ladies inhabit one of the yellow houses in a small Norwegian town called Berlevaag, tucked away in a fjord between two mountains.

The two sisters Martine and Philippa are the titular characters of the first part of Babette’s Feast, which is entitled “Two Ladies of Berlevaag”. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.

Babette's feast karen blixen