Walter Fyrst

This the story of a wizard elk - Rauten, as people called him. He was a human being in animal guise. The story begins in Ré Valley, which lies like a yawning gap between mountains, long and flat with borders of forests so dark that they look as though part of the blackness of night lingered in them. A river moves sluggishly along the bottom of the valley, making its way slowly and carefully between stretches of light-red sand. It runs northwards, a rare thing in Norway.

In the difficult 30'ies, the poor working family Jensen is struggling in affording their sons education, and it ends in tragedy. The son befriends the daughter of the, not liked by the rich employer West, which sends his daughter away.