October

October is a precise but consequential time marker in the novel: it frames Matteus’s promising ballet audition and, later in the month, the bleak recognition at the sluice that Johnny Beskow’s story has reached its end.

October and Matteus’s Audition

As October arrives, Matteus auditions for Siegfried in Swan Lake, a rare chance to attract the attention of influential people in the ballet world. Late that afternoon, he appears at Sejer’s door with his Puma bag over his shoulder. His smile and eyes seem promising, but the outcome is not disclosed in this moment. Sejer presses him to say whether he has won the part, while Matteus enters the flat and drops his bag with a small thump. The scene makes October a point of expectation, with the audition’s result still pending.

Mid-October at the Sluice

Later, at the sluice, Sejer and Skarre consider the water pouring through a black pipe and the local tradition of graduating students jumping there in mid-May. Sejer emphasizes the mismatch: Johnny was not graduating, and it is now mid-October. The calendar therefore helps rule out the tradition as an explanation for Johnny’s presence at the site. After Skarre asks what Sejer is thinking, the inspector concludes that this is where Johnny Beskow’s story ends. October’s second appearance turns the month from a setting for possibility into a marker of finality.