Schrøders Tavern is a place of ordinary food and conversation that becomes a setting for the murder inquiry. Harry Hole invites Kaja Solness there after a discussion of loyalty and betrayal; later, over breakfast, they watch Mikael Bellman make a public appeal connected to the night at Hävasshütte and talk through the killer’s profile.

Setting and Use

The tavern is presented through practical details rather than a description of its wider surroundings. Its daily special is farmer’s breakfast, served with a fried egg and raw onions. A television hangs on the wall, making the room a place where public news can interrupt a private meal. Harry orders coffee with a brief gesture, while Kaja eats and drinks water; the investigation unfolds amid the routines of a shared table.

A Meeting Place for Harry and Kaja

After Harry suggests that friendship can lose its value when the offer is good enough, he asks Kaja to come with him to Schrøders Tavern. The invitation places the tavern at the edge of a conversation about compromised loyalty, though the evidence does not establish that the exchange itself takes place inside. In a later scene, the two are together there for a meal, and their partnership shifts back to the case.

News, Evidence, and Discussion

The television carries Bellman’s request for anyone present at Hävasshütte on the night of November 8 to contact the police. The broadcast brings the remote mountain-hut inquiry into the tavern, where Harry watches Bellman’s lips before the sound comes on. After the appeal ends, Harry asks Kaja to give him a profile of the murderer, following the discovery of Adele Vetlesen. Kaja points out that they will be working on other cases from the next day; Harry frames the exercise as a matter of pleasure, and she questions whether profiling a serial killer can be enjoyable.

Narrative Significance

Schrøders Tavern gives the investigation a deliberately everyday setting: a meal, coffee, and television share space with the unresolved question of who was at Hävasshütte. The public appeal supplies a fresh investigative prompt, while Harry and Kaja’s conversation shows them continuing to reason about the crimes even as their formal attention is about to move elsewhere. The tavern’s significance lies in this contrast between ordinary social life and a case that persists beyond the news segment.