The Virgin Spring

Based on a 13^th Century Swedish ballad (“Töres dotter i Wänge”), Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring tells a tale of revenge, faith, morality, and justice. It won the 1961 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar and has become one of Bergman’s most famous pictures. Interestingly, the movie was banned in Fort Worth, Texas, over controversy dealing with the pivotal rape sequence.

Bergman’s picture is couched in religious belief and the clinging that people do to their traditions and concepts of reality. As with many of his movies, The Virgin Spring questions the conception of deities and highlights the confusion that many feel in practicing religious beliefs. The tale is thoughtful and intimate despite feel rather large and expansive at times, owing a lot to Bergman’s skill as a filmmaker in taking the medieval genre and creating something as small as a standard modern setting. At no time does he attempt to make an “epic;” this is a small, spiritual story about revenge and justice.

Set in medieval Sweden, The Virgin Spring tells the story of a deeply religious time in Swedish history. There was a continual shift between the worshipping of traditional pagan gods and the newer one god of Christianity. Bergman’s characters set this up nicely, with the film opening with Ingeri (Gunnel Lindblom) praying to Odin as a god who stands for war and death. Ingeri is a foster child and she is pregnant, presumably against her will. She is the outcast of a rather wealthy family and is jealous of the family’s daughter, Karin (Birgitta Pettersson).

Ingeri is useful as an entry point to the tale, as her Norse beliefs clash with the family’s Christian beliefs. Christianity is new to the region; most of the family has not even seen a church, as the closest one is quite far away. Karin is, as a virgin, dispatched to take candles to the church and to the Virgin Mary. Ingeri goes along, but the two are separated thanks to a creepy man in the woods. Karin is set upon by a trio of herdsmen and is raped and killed.

Bergman then concerns himself with the concept of revenge and how it meshes with the family’s Christian beliefs. The herdsmen, it is presumed, are savages. They don’t care about what they’ve done and, when they show up at Karin’s family’s house looking for shelter and work, they aren’t aware of the situation they’ve put themselves in. Karin’s father, Töre (Max von Sydow), and his wife, Märeta (Birgitta Valberg), discover the truth about the herdsmen and their revenge is set in motion.

On its surface, The Virgin Spring functions as a tale of vengeance and ultimate horror. It has been adapted somewhat in the revenge fantasy film Last House on the Left, but Bergman has more at work here than simple comeuppance. This is a picture about the collision of “compassionate” Christianity and the root beliefs of a pagan culture. Ingeri prays to Odin, hates Karin, and feels ultimately responsible for her prayers being answered by the Norse god. Töre struggles with forgiveness and returns to violent roots, later begging forgiveness from his god.

The Christian characters are essentially filled with grace and mercy (outside of the obvious vengeance, of course). Karin is innocent, like a lamb to the slaughter, and shares her food with the herdsmen before meeting her end. All the same, Märeta compassionately serves travellers from her food storage and cares for the sick and weary.

There, too, is a sense of reluctance on behalf of Töre. Through Max von Sydow’s beautiful portrayal, we get the sense that his reaction is beyond that of a simple broken man. We get the sense that he is perhaps a recent, unwilling convert to Christianity. Perhaps he has followed the faith of his wife or the changing tide of the land. Regardless, that Töre attempts to make it right before his new god at the conclusion of the picture is telling of his true spirit. Confused as he is, he swears to build a church.

Bergman is unrelenting in his approach to every concept in The Virgin Spring. He does not allow us the respite of turning away during the awkward, fumbling, violent sequences and he does not allow us an escape during scenes that require deeper contemplation. The film is short, clocking in at 89 minutes, but it is groundbreaking and staggering in its ultimate impact. A beautiful, quiet, moving piece of work, The Virgin Spring is superb.