Kristina - Interactive Act 1

It appears as if the heavens have rained stones down upon Korpamoen during the six days of creation. Karl Oskar has barely reached adulthood when he decides to take over his parent's farm. And if one is going to be a farmer, one had better have a wife.

Kristina from Duvemåla sits on her swing and daydreams. She sings about her young man, about how he makes his way towards her through meadows and along paths in the woods. When Karl Oskar appears he proposes to her. A wedding is celebrated in Duvemåla.

Karl Oskar has a brother, Robert. He is a dreamer. He is sent away by his parents to work on the farm of Aron of Nybacken. Robert dreams, as the brook seeks the sea, of freedom in the New World.

For two years Kristina and Karl Oskar have managed well. In the third year the crops are drenched in rain and in the fourth year the drought burns everything. These are difficult times and the family is growing. Karl Oskar imagines a land where the wheat stands tall in the fields. It seems as if the soil in Sweden is cursed. Perhaps the ground in the New World is blessed.

Robert comes to Karl Oskar and Kristina. His master has beaten him brutally. He wants his share of the family inheritance and announces his intention to go to North America. Karl Oskar has harbored the same thoughts but Kristina says no.

There is a lack of food and everyone is hungry. Kristina has given birth to another child and she saved a little barley grain with which to prepare a "christening porridge". When the eldest daughter, Anna, sees the porridge she cannot resist eating it. But since she is famished she cannot digest it and the porridge swells in her stomach and Anna dies. Kristina perceives an unending darkness - she realizes that she must get away.

Prior to the voyage Kristina is terrified. She is afraid of the water, the sea she has never laid eyes on. Karl Oskar sees only opportunity. Along on the journey is Kristina's Uncle Daniel and his family, the parish whore, Ulrika, and her illegitimate daughter, Elin, and a farm servant named Arvid.

It becomes a frightful voyage. Kristina discovers that she has lice on her body and in her garments. She accuses Ulrika unfairly of infesting them all with lice. Aboard the ship, another passenger, Fina-Kajsa, tells about how lice are created. Harsh storms toss the ship. Kristina becomes seriously ill of scurvy and Karl Oskar fears that he may lose her.

At last, the emigrants reach New York. The people there are beautifully dressed and they hardly notice the exhausted immigrants in their tattered clothes. When Kristina comes ashore she gets an apple. This reminds her of the apples of Duvemåla and she is wrought with homesickness. They are celebrating midsummer now back home.

The voyage continues by train and steamboat, night and day. One evening the company from Småland wind up on a dock. It is dark and rainy again. They feel completely abandoned. But, like a candle in dark house, along comes a Baptist minister, Pastor Jackson. He offers the group shelter, warmth and food. The women are astonished. Imagine that such men as this one actually exist.

Robert and Arvid have decided, despite Karl Oskar's objections, to travel to the gold fields of California to seek their fortune. Karl Oskar and Kristina continue their journey to Lake Ki-Chi-Saga in Minnesota Territory where they build their new home.