In February 1923, two students from Bergen sat in a dormitory in Kristiania and scratched their heads. Their concern was the same one that all students have always struggled with: money. One, Nordahl Grieg, was later to become a famous writer, but in 1923 he had only published a collection of poems, and you didn’t get rich from that either. So how were he and the chump Nils Lie going to get money to live on? How about a robbery? Norges Bank, perhaps? Or a jeweler’s shop? No, they weren’t robbers. They were just two students whose pen was mightier than sword. Perhaps they should rather write about a robbery? It wasn’t long until Easter, and Norwegians liked to take light entertainment literature with them to the mountains. Could a suspense novel about a robbery at Easter be the solution to the money problems? They set about writing an Easter novel which would turn out to get more attention than the two people from Bergen had imagined. 100 years of oblivion 100 years after the poor students’ idea for an Easter novel, their story has been brought up at regular intervals – often by journalists who wonder if there is a connection between the Easter novel by Grieg and Lie, and the Norwegian Easter crime tradition. Bergen and crime writer legend Gunnar Staalesen knows all about that. He once wrote a column in which he wondered whether the Norwegian press had suffered a collective memory lapse, since he was asked annually about what is up with Norwegians and the Easter crime. It was therefore long overdue to send him a message and ask about the same. Staalesen has written crime stories himself for many decades. There have been books, films, TV series and crime mysteries on the Easter milk cartons and flour bags. And it turns out, fortunately, that he is more than happy to talk to journalists about the Easter crime. – No other country than Norway has an Easter crime. This is a completely Norwegian phenomenon, he says. Some may think that the Easter drama on Calvary laid the foundation for us being so interested in crime, but the story of Jesus is known to exist in several languages and exists in many other countries that have no Easter crime tradition. Not even England, one of the countries where crime literature originated, does Easter crime, explains Staalesen. Both in Sweden and Denmark they have plenty of crime, and Nordic noir has become an export item, but only Norway has Easter crime. Swedish publishers regularly try to launch the uniquely Norwegian concept, but have not quite succeeded. So why only in Norway? – The main explanation is probably that there are few places where you have such a long and established Easter holiday as in Norway, says Staalesen. If you go back 100 years, Norwegians used to pack the Easter bag with paperbacks that were both light in weight and content. There was no radio or TV, so people enjoyed themselves with entertainment novels of the type that were not considered high-quality enough to have on the bookshelf at home. It was at this time that Nordahl Grieg and Nils Lie thought they would make some quick money by writing a novel. And not only did they want to publish the book at Easter, they also wanted to write about Easter. “JONATHAN JERV”: Nils Lie and Nordahl Grieg chose to write under another name, a so-called pseudonym, which was common in crime literature at the time. Photo: GYLDENDAL / UNKNENT/ERNST SCHWITTERS But what was the story supposed to be about? Ironically, they ended up writing about young men looking for a quick buck. Robbery was already on the block, but it wasn’t so “Easter” to rob a bank. Besides, it would presumably be closed for Easter. Påskefjellet, on the other hand, was open. The millionaire Bergen train used to be full of tourists on their way to the mountain, and they were strapped for money. They would be easy prey for a group of train robbers. At the start, Grieg and Lie wanted to joke around with two of the crime writers of the time who had also written thrillers in which the Bergen train played a role. But eventually they were probably gripped by the seriousness and the poem about kapp. They got the idea in February, and in order to get the book out by Easter, they had to work at a completely different pace than they were used to from their studies. They agreed to write every other chapter, and every day they read through each other’s texts in the cold dormitory. At times the temperature rose a little, especially if the different chapters didn’t get along, but they hardly had time for protracted arguments. The main characters in the book had made their quick money after robbing the Bergen train passengers in the middle of the night. With over NOK 40,000 in their pockets, which is equivalent to over a million today, they jumped off the train at speed and disappeared on skis. Back on the train lay a bullet-wounded conductor and one of the robbers’ scorned ex-girlfriends who happened to be a passenger. To make matters worse, Easter Sunday fell on April 1, which delayed the police. Of course they thought it was a joke. The story was now finished. There was only one major obstacle left before Nordahl Grieg and Nils Lie could also fill their pockets with banknotes: How to get the story out to the people? The PR trick of the times Harald Grieg, Nordahl Grieg’s older brother, gradually became a leading figure in the Norwegian book industry. In 1923 he was director of the publishing house Gyldendal. He was therefore the one who could decide whether the Easter novel “Bergenstoget ranet i nat” would actually be published. He had previously published his brother’s book of poems, but it had been rather far from being a success. – You don’t want to imagine that anyone bothers to read that nonsense! said the brother after reading the script. But blood was thicker than water, and Harald agreed to publish another one of his brother’s books, on one condition: The ending was absolutely reprehensible and had to be changed! That the young men who robbed the train did not repent and come up with better thoughts in the end was downright indecent, elder brother Grieg believed. Little brother Grieg refused to change the last chapter. The whole plot was built up towards this end, he thought. But then, as often happens in sibling disputes, older brothers win, at least when they are sitting on the money bag that will finance a book publication. The last chapter had a more decent ending, that is, the robbers returned the money after winning big at a casino abroad. The book was then sent to press. Then came the stroke of genius that makes this book still remembered 100 years later. BRØDRENE GRIEG: Nordahl and Harald were together with Nils Lie behind “Bergen train looted last night”. Photo: The National Library Storebror Harald had in fact laid out a grand PR plan: There was to be advertising for the book at the top of the first page of all the Oslo newspapers, in giant letters. Today we might call it clickbait, fake news or content marketing, but in 1923 such words did not exist. Because when people got to see the newspaper covers on Saturday 24 March, they hardly understood that they were witnessing a book advertisement. At the top it said, in large letters: “BERGENSTOGET LOUNDED TONIGHT!” In small print next to it, it said: “Price 2 kroner, Gyldendal”. There was no radio or TV, so the newspapers were the only source of news, and it didn’t take long before the newspaper editorial offices and NSB were besieged by worried people. The misunderstanding was quickly cleared up, but all the attention the book received meant that the book was pulled from shop shelves. Big brother Harald had gotten what he wanted. – As soon as I saw that manuscript, I was a success, the director is said to have said later. The book was not called an Easter crime at the time, but the combination of Easter and crime was thereby set. Before this, terms such as Easter readings, Easter novels and the like were used to denote light entertainment for the holiday. The term Easter crime itself only appeared a few years later. But the popular book was the seed for Easter becoming a popular crime season. And the kind of book launch you had hardly seen before. – That says something about Harald Grieg’s ability to combine serious publishing with daring marketing, says current editor-in-chief in Gyldendal, Kari Marstein. VALUABLE FIRST EDITION: This can be worth up to NOK 10,000, if you find an edition at the cabin that is in good condition. After the Easter crime tradition was established in the bookstores, news also wanted to try its hand, first on radio, then on TV. This was something completely new for people. Usually they had to wait a week between episodes in a suspense series. Now they got a new episode every Easter holiday. Easter crime became a success and a habit. news is said to have tried to drop the Easter crime drama on the radio for a year, with the result that the public became enraged. This year, most channels and streaming services offer Easter crime stories. It included the one Easter crime book from Nils Lie and Nordahl Grieg, or “Jonathan Jerv”, which was the pseudonym they used. But the book continued to generate money, not least when it was made into a film a few years later. In a letter, Grieg writes to his friend: “My best thanks for your extortion business on the occasion of the Bergen Train. Yes, by Christ’s holy blood, now it has been plundered!” Both continued their literary careers, and eventually Nordahl Grieg probably became more famous for the poem “To the youth” than for the Easter crime. The two kept in close contact until Grieg died aged just 41 during World War II. WAR VICTIMS: Journalist Nordahl Grieg died in 1943 when he was with a British bomber flying over Berlin. The plane was shot down, and everyone on board died. Photo: National Library Gyldendal, the publisher that published “Bergenstoget…”, is of course also publishing crime stories this Easter, as they have done for many decades. Bergenser and crime writer legend Gunnar Staalesen himself made his debut as a crime writer at Gyldendal after winning a writing competition in which Nils Lie sat on the jury. – I am also from Bergen, so I felt a bit like I had taken over the baton from Jonathan Jerv. Sources: “Festskrift til Harald Grieg”, “A lasting friendship: 46 letters from Nordahl Grieg to Nils Lie”, “Bergenstoget plundered in the night”, “On the track of Bergenstoget”, Dagbladet, Klassekampen. Hi! Feel free to send me an email if you have any input or tips. Thanks for reading this far. Please also check this out:
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The Easter crime that tricked the country – Culture
