Gösta Berling's Saga (also translated as The Saga of Gösta Berling) is the debut novel of nobel prize winning Swedish author Selma Lagerlöf. The story follows the disgraced minister Gösta Berling who is picked up by Majorskan (the Major's Wife) to join the illustrious pensioners of the Cavaliers' Wing at her estate of Ekeby. During a Christmas celebration the Cavaliers are visited by a man who claims to be the Devil (but might be the evil Ironmaster Sintram) who claims that the Cavaliers are the unwitting parts of a supposed Deal with the Devil: each year a Cavalier is to die and have his soul claimed by the Devil in exchange for Majorskan to keep control of Ekeby. Gösta Berling offers a counter-scheme to take power of Ekeby.
The plot is told in chapters that exist as independent stories that tell of a grander Myth Arc. Some chapters flesh out single characters, while other simply flesh out the setting. Often there are smaller events and details revealed which become important later on.
Has been turned into film several times, most famously a silent film staring Greta Garbo.
Gösta Berling's Saga contains examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: The cavaliers that are mostly background characters get a chapter devoted to them which fleshes them out.
- Big Bad: Sintram, who may of may not be the Devil or his servant.
- Big Fancy House: The Ekeby estate.
- The Casanova: Gösta Berling.
- Deal with the Devil: The supposed agreement between the Devil and Majorskan to sacrifice a cavalier each year to allow Majorskan control of her estate. The scheme is a Shout-Out to Heimskringla.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Lagerlöf throws the reader off by presenting several stories were the characters question magical moments as hoaxes, like when the Devil shows up at the cavaliers' Christmas party, but the text never makes it completely clear if that was true or not. Then there is the episode were the saint statues of a church seemingly comes to life, only for turning out to be the cavaliers dressing up while returning the rejected statues. Then there is the episode were a unambiguous Skogsrå shows up and grants a cavalier the ability to basically invent anything.
- Magic Realism: One of the best examples in Swedish literature. The environment of the story is a realistic, at times unflattering portrait of Värmland in the 19th century. There is also obvious magical forces at play through out the story.
- Loop Hole Abuse: In one chapter Kevenhuller is granted the ability to create any invention he can think up by a Skogsrå. The caveat is that he can only make one of it. He ends up creating the first car, a flying machine and ultimately an artificial sun. The problem is that he can't replicate these inventions and end up destroying them in frustration. At the end of the chapter the Skogsrå shows up and mocks him for not using the very obvious loop hole that he could let others copy his inventions instead of making more of them himself.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The 12 Cavaliers of Ekeby.
- Satanic Archetype: Sintram, the evil Ironmaster.
- Sinister Minister: The priest of Broby, famous for his penny pinching.
