Hare

Hares are the hunted animals at the edge of Jon and Trond Sander’s summer life, but their most consequential appearance is in the farmhouse: two dead hares hung beside Jon’s gun, both brought home after an exceptional morning. They embody the routine skill of Jon’s hunting while also marking the circumstances that precede Lars’s fatal shot at Odd.

Quarry in the summer routine

During the summer of 1948, Jon repeatedly draws Trond Sander out into the countryside for shared adventures. Their activities include shooting hares, fishing for trout, walking through the forest, and balancing on logs moving down the river. Hare hunting is thus one part of a larger pattern of movement through the woods and along the water, a familiar pursuit within the boys’ friendship rather than an isolated episode.

The narration presents hares from the hunter’s perspective: they are small and swift, difficult targets against which Jon’s ability can be measured. Trond does not understand why Jon is so keen on shooting them. He also does not know whether Jon’s family eats the animals, allowing that they might grow tired of so many. That uncertainty matters: the account establishes the pursuit and its results, but not a practical household use or a settled motive for Jon’s enthusiasm.

Jon’s unusual success

Hare shooting has become Jon’s specialty, and he is described as good at it: ordinarily, he hits one target in two shots. The previous morning, however, he fires twice and hits with both shots, a rare triumph even by his own standard. He returns with two hares dangling by an ear from a cord, pleased with the success and intending to show his parents what he has brought home.

The paired animals make the achievement visible. Jon has not merely been out hunting; he carries home the evidence of a morning in which each shot found its mark. Yet the account places this satisfaction beside a lapse in the care he usually gives his gun. In his haste to find his younger twin brothers, he puts the weapon down in the hall instead of making it safe and storing it as he normally does. The hares do not cause the accident, but their presence helps set the scene: they hang on a peg beside the carelessly placed gun.

The farmhouse accident

When Jon cannot find Lars and Odd in the house, yard, or by the river, he panics. The twins have in fact been playing in the basement. On coming upstairs, they see the hares on the peg and Jon’s gun leaning against the wall. The narrator describes Jon as a hero to his younger brothers, whose games could imitate what he did. The hunting trophies and the firearm therefore appear together as objects associated with their admired older brother.

Lars grabs the gun, swings it around, and pulls the trigger while imitating Jon. The shot kills Odd at close range. It is not aimed at the hares, or at any other target: Lars wants to hold the weapon and play at being his brother. The sequence turns sharply from Jon’s marksmanship—two successful shots against hares—to a child’s uncontrolled shot that kills his twin. In one case, skill is measured by hitting quarry; in the other, the gun’s discharge brings irreversible loss.

Narrative significance

The hares are not given an independent point of view; the account shows them as hunted animals and as the visible result of Jon’s skill. Their importance comes instead from how the narrative positions them. They carry the ordinary satisfaction of a successful outing into a domestic space where the gun, left unsecured, can be reached by the children. The contrast does not make the hunting itself equivalent to Odd’s death. It reveals how a familiar practice and a moment of carelessness converge in a tragedy no one intended.

The episode is narrated through Trond Sander’s later recollection. He acknowledges that he cannot know whether every detail of the scene came to him at once or was filled in over the years, while insisting that the underlying facts cannot be disputed. Within that reconstructed memory, the hares retain a precise place: they are the two trophies Jon brings home after a rare success, hanging in the same hall where the gun is left within reach. Their modest, concrete presence anchors the movement from everyday hunting to the sudden death of Odd.