The Ice Palace Quotes
"The darkness was thick, in spite of the stars."
"Siss was not afraid of the cold. It wasn’t that."
"Wonder what I shall find out at Unn’s. I’m sure to find out something."
"After long preparation they had dived in head first."
"It wasn’t searching or envious eyes; there was desire in them."
"The ice thundered like gunshot, blasting long fissures, narrow as a knife-blade, from the surface down into the depths – yet the ice was stronger and safer each morning."
"She gave a start. A loud noise had interrupted her thoughts, her expectancy; a noise like a long-drawn-out crack, moving further and further off, while the sound died away."
"If she gave way to the temptation to go on tiptoe, she was finished."
"The idea of meeting each other was so completely new it had only come about that very day."
"It was fun looking through the black, shining ice close to the shore."
"She was cold, too. She got up and began half running, sliding on the slippery ice."
"The distant tremor of the falls reminded her of where she was going. She awoke. She would have liked to tell somebody what she was feeling now – but she would never manage it, she knew."
"Unn was running here without permission. She thought: I didn’t really want to either. But the truth was that she wanted to more and more."
"Her impetuous running had made her warm. Her breath lay in small clouds about her whenever she paused."
"It was the only thing that was right, even though it was disobedient and wrong."
"Two waves went through her: first the paralysing cold, then the reviving warmth – as happens on great occasions."
"Unn began to shout for joy. It was drowned in the surge and din, just as her warm clouds of breath were swallowed up by the cold spume."
"She was intoxicated. The place was full of wings and turrets, how many it was impossible to say."
"She was aware of nothing but her desire to enter."
"Inside the ice palace, she found a room that was more like a passage but was a room all the same."
"The floor was wet with the drops. In some places the surface of the water was freezing thinly."
"She thought this only vaguely. At any rate there was no way out."
"She was tired of all this running about in the palace, in all this strangeness, so it was good to sit for a while."
"Siss had to lie for a while thinking about all that was going to be new from now on. She made herself feel solemn by thinking: I am Unn’s friend for ever."
"But the early darkness would not be delayed by haphazard, desperate wishes; it continued to fill up and thicken rapidly."
"She stood howling, bitter and defiant, in the driving snow."
"But the palace was dark and dead; no light came from within."
"Nothing to be seen except the palace and the river and immensity."
"It depended on what each of them expected to find."
"Nothing there either. Only an icy breath, much colder than it was outside, that chilled them to the marrow."
"The ice construction rises above them, enigmatic, powerful, its pinnacles disappearing into the darkness and the winter cloud drift."
"Time is misleadingly brief, it will fall one day when the floods begin."
"The unfamiliar ice palace exerted a tremendous fascination."
"They were visiting an unknown fortress, and it looked like the fortress of death."
"They themselves have lent it life; light and life to the dead block of ice."
"They bring out what sorrows they may have and transfer them to this midnight play of light and suspicion of death."
"They stood at the foot of the ice walls with tense faces, ready to break into a song of mourning before the closed, compelling palace."
"The snow piled higher, and still Unn did not appear."
"It was as blind around Unn as in the blinding snowstorms."
"The radiant image from the nights when she had had fever: Unn, not lost, not dead."
"They were happy. She noticed one or two of them whom she had previously had to reckon with as equals but who now stood there embarrassed and happy, too."
"It felt like that to begin with, then it was a relief."
"The snow sifted down, blanketing everything, out of doors and in people's minds."
"You're the person who can think about Unn all the time."
"The empty desk left by Unn was immediately the centre of attention."
"That they suddenly wished to defend Unn's place."
"They were no longer part of it – and here was Siss standing among them looking almost the same as before."
"I expect I'm seeing it for the last time. I daren't come here again."
"They cut right through and drew out the truth about what she was expected to do: get over it."
"It was too dangerous to have her parents' eyes on her: they might breach the dam; it might spill over."
"I’m the only one who remembers. And her Auntie, I expect she remembers. And she hasn’t sold her house and gone away."
"She made her stand, plucked up courage, and spoke at the room so that everyone could hear, making it sound almost like an announcement: ‘Unn.’"
"‘We haven’t forgotten her,’ As if cutting off something."
"I’m certain now that there’s nothing more to wait for."
"But you mustn’t promise so much that you destroy yourself, especially when there’s no point in it any more."
"You can’t bind yourself to her memory and shut yourself away from what is natural for you."
"The winter-spring evening transformed the landscape into a hazy, shifting pattern that passed their eyes in slow movement."
"What in the world was it that made this miserable little Auntie into someone she would walk with all night if necessary?"
"You must remember it was at the very beginning when everything had to be tried in order to find some trace."
"Let’s walk on, Siss. I’d like to do the rounds before I go to bed."
"You are uncertain. You are anything but dead."
"The promise has been lifted off, but you are not freed because of that."
"Everything about her was bare. Drizzle, wind and swaying trees."
"You walk as fast as you can and wish at the same time that the road would never end."
"You mustn’t promise so much that you destroy yourself, especially when there’s no point in it any more."
"Siss seemed to be standing on melting ice."
"The palace, too, was different since her shy conversation with the boy."
"The ice palace stood quivering in a surging stream. It would be crushed."
"A window that opens by itself on to the night like that – you think to yourself that it doesn’t do it for fun or for no reason at all."
"The excitement of rising sap, the excitement of the scent of damp earth – her heart quivered as she walked among it all."
"We are woodwind players, enchanted by things we cannot resist."
"The brief time left to us will be spent here."
"The ground was rough, with thickets and clumps of trees, down in the third valley."
"The waterfall would be strong enough to tear it loose."