The Trial of Sören Qvist

Foreword for the First Swallow Press Edition

xvii Foreword for the First Swallow Press Edition the story of the Parson of vejlby is famous in Denmark. Steen Steesen Blicher (1782–1848), himself a Jutlander and a Parson, tells it in his Knitting room Stories. i first came across it myself in a volume by Phillips called Famous Cases of Circumstantial evidence. the only date i have been able to find for Phillips is the year 1814, when “Chief Baron Gilbert was superseded as an authority on the english laws of evidence by the books of Phillips.” he may have found his account in the story by Blicher, although i think, from certain differences of detail, that he had another source, possibly the same one Blicher had. at all events, i am sure that the story of Sören Jensen Qvist is, in its main facts and in many of its details, and even in some of the speeches of important characters, history rather than fiction. it would be impossible as well as foolish to attempt an archeologically correct version of the legend. however, i believe that there is nothing in my account of the Parson of vejlby which might not have happened as i tell it. he is one of a great company of men and women who have preferred to lose their lives rather than accept a universe without plan or without meaning. xviii Janet Lewis there was said to be, before the presence of the Germans in Denmark, the cross in aalsö churchyard which the Parson of aalsö raised to the memory of his friend. i trust that it is still there. J.L. April 11, 1946 ...