Varg Veum
Varg Veum is the main character of the detective novels of the Norwegian Gunnar Staalesen. Its name makes smile the protagonists that it meets, to whom it answers: “Yes, my parents had much humor”. The formula vargr í veum , literally “wolf in the sanctuary” in Old norrois, meant “outlaw indeed”. To be vargr during the medieval period thus meant to be rejected, banished definitively. Worse than to be a criminal, it was not to be more human, it was, for example, to have assassinated somebody during his sleep by cowardice. One could then be carried out by no matter whom, with impunity.
Born in October 1942, orphan at 14 years of a driver of tram, he is private detective in the town of Bergen or he was born and with grown, except his various stays in other parts of Norway for his studies or the military obligations. Its office is besides in Strandkaien, close to Nordnes, where it passed its early childhood. Its memories of childhood strew the novels. Before opening its own agency of detective, Varg Veum was employed with the Service of the Child welfare, until the day of May 1975 or it was congédié after having had the hand a little too light on a dealer. That's no problem, it opens its agency of private three months later. He knew the joys of marriage in 1969 until in 1973 then his wife, Beate, left with their Thomas son (born in 1971), to settle with another man, Lars " Lasse" Wiik, a professor who does not hide his contempt for the miserable life only even Veum.
He lives since as a recluse and carries out his surveys in Norway little reluisante, côtoyant the social underworld local and cases, the prostitutes and the young people who play of the knife; between Aquavit Simers and adventures one evening. Descriptions of the town of Bergen are very thorough and let show through the attachment of the father of the character at his city, which since years is victim of the Tourisme Veum : the house and the offices of the detective, respectively located at Telthussmauet 7B and Strandkaien 2 attract the curious ones. Through the life of Veum one reads the life of Staalesen, the life of a man who born in Bergen devastated by the war, with the marked social differences, in a company which will know chamboulement durable years 1960 because of discovered oil. In Bergen where the drug addicts of Nygårdsparken present in its first works always haunt the alleys nowadays, proof that the universalism of the Norwegian model is only one semisuccess.
Its adventures are the subject of very large televised adaptations and even of two cinematographic films. Trond Espen Seim should incarnate it with the screen. The choice of the actor caused an outcry in the Bergenois mediums, because being areas of the east of Norway, it does not have the local accent. Bergenois are indeed the Norwegian Norwegian , some are even liked to say not-Norwegian. The first film, Bitre Blomster , left the September 27th 2007 to Norway.
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