Else Meiner

Else Meiner is a girl of about ten whose sharp teasing turns her from a familiar presence on Rolandsgata into the target of Johnny Beskow’s violence. Her encounter with him culminates in a solitary attack on the Love Trail: she resists, bites him, and survives the theft of her red plait. At the novel’s end, with short red hair, she again appears as an alert observer, watching two men at the dam without being seen by them.

Identity and Setting

Else is the youngest child of Asbjørn Meiner, whose family lives in a large yellow house on Rolandsgata in Bjørnstad. Their driveway, visible to Sejer and Skarre when they observe the house, contains several broken-down Mercedes. Else herself is first introduced on a small rocky knoll near Henry Beskow’s house, at the end of the street. She is thin, pale, freckled, and about ten, with a striking red plait down her back. The knoll and the street are familiar territory to her: she watches people pass and is rude to them, acting as though the road belongs to her.

Her characteristic vehicle is a blue Nakamura bicycle, and she also carries a trumpet case. Later, she wears a Hauger School Band pullover. These details place her teasing encounters with Johnny in the ordinary pattern of a child moving around her neighborhood and going about her activities. Against that everyday setting, his decision to watch and attack her turns a local quarrel into a serious act of violence.

The Feud with Johnny Beskow

Johnny first notices Else while riding his red Suzuki moped past Henry’s house. She calls out an insult about his red helmet; he responds by fixing her with a threatening stare and privately promising to return for her. When he asks Henry who she is, his grandfather identifies her as Else, the youngest Meiner. The exchange establishes both the neighborhood familiarity of their conflict and its imbalance: Johnny is an older, armed aggressor in waiting, while Else’s taunting is the immediate provocation he chooses to magnify into a grudge.

The hostility continues when Johnny returns to Rolandsgata after buying a gorilla mask and a stuffed white rabbit. Else is on her blue bicycle and calls him another insult. He restrains himself, telling himself that he will get her when the time is right. On a later visit to Henry, he sees her again, now with new bicycle tyres, and interprets her grin as proof that she knows he slashed the old ones. He decides they are even, although the episode shows how readily he recasts her expressions and actions to fit his own private contest. Else gives him the finger and calls him another name; her continued defiance does not make the situation safe, but sharpens the resentment he has been nursing.

Attack on the Love Trail

Else chooses the Love Trail while alone, humming a song and riding her bicycle. Johnny, wearing the gorilla mask and carrying an army knife, has hidden in the undergrowth and waits until she approaches. He rushes her from behind, grabs the bicycle rack, and knocks her trumpet case onto the path. When he catches her around the throat, she does not submit passively: she thrashes, kicks, twists, and bites his forearm hard enough to make him lose his grip briefly. The physical struggle overturns the helplessness Johnny expects from his surprise attack, but he continues to overpower her.

Johnny pins Else down, straddles her back, and cuts off her red plait with the knife. He puts the braid in his pocket and holds her in place as a threat, making clear that he could do worse. After wrenching her hair and shoving her once more, he runs into the woods. Hidden in the bracken, he watches her recover. Else is pale and unsteady, but she gets upright, raises her bicycle, puts the trumpet back on its rack, and feels for the missing plait. Johnny treats the assault as a warning and imagines escalating it further; what the scene establishes about Else is her survival and her capacity to resist even when badly outmatched.

Aftermath and Final Appearance

The attack brings Sejer and Skarre to the Meiner home. They have been watching the yellow house from a distance, and Sejer warns that Johnny has become an easy scapegoat for anything that goes wrong in Kirkeby, even while deciding that they should speak with Else about this particular incident. The distinction matters: suspicion surrounding Johnny is not, by itself, proof of every accusation, so the investigators approach the household rather than treating rumor as a substitute for inquiry.

In the closing scene, Else has short red hair and is near the water when two men walk back from it. She does not know them. From concealment, she takes note of their appearance and clothes, then records their car: a Toyota Land Cruiser with golden paint gleaming in the sun. She crouches by a tree and waits, afraid to breathe loudly, while the men look around and then drive away without noticing her bicycle in the heather. Only when they are gone and the surroundings grow silent does she get back on her blue Nakamura and ride off. The scene does not identify the men or explain their presence; instead, it gives Else a final, quiet act of observation. Earlier, Johnny watched her as a target. Here, she watches others, remains unseen, and leaves under her own power.