Yes, we are the wanderers on this earth. We travel the roads and the deserts, sometimes we crawl, and sometimes we walk upright and trample one another. (Wayfarers, 1927)
The wanderer is a recurring figure in Hamsun's works, occurring first in Hunger (1890) and appearing for a final time in On Overgrown Paths (1949).
Under the Autumn Star (1906), A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings (1909), and The Last Joy (1912) are often referred to as the 'wanderer trilogy'. In these books we meet the aging wanderer Knut Pedersen, who gives us a critical portrayal of the spirit of modern times. The idea of people as wanderers is also central to the August trilogy, particularly in the depiction of Edevart and August in Wayfarers.
Although Hamsun's wanderer is usually found along the country lanes he can also comes across him him at sea, as we do in the case of August. In Growth of the Soil (1917) we meet Isak, the wanderer who has stopped his wandering and settled down .
Knut Hamsun was something of a wanderer himself. He spent time in Hamarøy, Gudbrandsdalen, Kristiania, and a number of other Norwegian towns and cities, as well as in Copenhagen and the USA.
