Out Stealing Horses

A reflective tale on destiny in the beauty of Norwegian wilderness

Destiny is a powerful undercurrent here. Petterson suggests that a single moment – a choice made or not made – can echo across a lifetime. Near the end of Trond’s reminiscences, we learn that as a 15-year-old he faced a literal and figurative crossroads, a point where “there were lines going out in several directions … the different roads [he] could take” . In that instant, Trond’s decision about how to respond to pain and disillusionment essentially determined the course of his life. As one insightful reviewer observed, the young Trond “grew up that day” and “made a decision which led ultimately to the 67-year-old man we have met… Any other decision at that crucial moment would have taken him on an entirely different… direction through life” . This notion of fate hinging on personal choice is handled with remarkable subtlety. There is no grand proclamation of destiny in the novel; instead, Petterson allows the weight of that moment to dawn on us gradually, much as it dawns on Trond in hindsight. The result is a deeply affecting portrait of a man taking stock of his life’s trajectory. By the final pages, Trond’s self-reflection yields a kind of quiet acceptance – not a dramatic catharsis, but a gentle reckoning. “Out Stealing Horses,” as both book and film, ultimately suggests that while we “decide for ourselves when it will hurt,” we cannot always decide “for how long” . Trond’s story is about making peace with that truth: accepting the indelible imprint of youth on one’s soul and finding dignity in that acceptance .

“Out Stealing Horses”: A Pivotal Thread Between Past and Present

The novel’s title refers to a brief episode in the summer of 1948 – an adventure that lasts only a morning, yet becomes the lynchpin of Trond’s memories. Early one dawn, Trond’s friend Jon urges him to go “out stealing horses.” The phrase is colloquial – not an actual theft, but a mischievous child’s game in which the boys sneak into a neighbor’s pasture to “distract and ultimately jump on” the farmer’s untamed horses for a wild bareback ride . In the novel this prank is recounted in exhilarating detail, and in Moland’s film it is brought to life as a stunningly visceral sequence: hooves pounding the earth, the sun-dappled forest whipping past, the teenage Trond and Jon laughing in pure, reckless glee as they cling to the startled horses. “This first theft scene is stunningly visceral, [the] horses’ hooves crashing down with the same thunder of fallen trees,” as one film critic observed of Moland’s tactile direction . The moment radiates the intoxicating freedom of youth and possibility. **** A still from the film captures young Trond in the forest with one of the horses, bathed in golden light – a visual encapsulation of the novel’s pivotal memory. Both the novel and the film allow us to revel in this rare moment of unalloyed joy and innocence, conscious that it will soon be shadowed by tragedy.

The significance of “stealing horses” extends far beyond the thrill of that ride. In Petterson’s narrative, this episode becomes the fulcrum on which the entire summer turns. Immediately after their wild horseback romp, Trond is jolted by Jon’s inexplicable emotional breakdown – the normally confident boy becomes distant, “alien and potentially violent,” leaving Trond confused and concerned . Only later does Trond learn that on the day before their dawn escapade, a horrific accident befell Jon’s family: Jon had left his rifle unattended when he was supposed to be minding his 10-year-old twin brothers, and one twin accidentally shot the other dead . The innocent fun of “stealing horses” thus gains a heartbreaking context – unbeknownst to Trond, Jon was in the throes of guilt and trauma even as they chased horses through the woods. The childhood prank suddenly becomes a pivotal thread connecting to far weightier events. Because Jon cannot forgive himself, he soon leaves the area, and Trond effectively loses his first close friend at the same moment he loses his father.

For Trond, “out stealing horses” is forever intertwined with that summer’s cataclysmic turns: it’s the last carefree memory before innocence shatters. Decades later, living in his cabin, Trond recalls that morning with crystal clarity. It is as if by recollecting the “pulsing, visceral” sensation of the horse beneath him and the sight of Jon’s face contorted with inner turmoil , he can begin to unlock everything that followed. The titular phrase itself takes on symbolic resonance. It echoes in Trond’s mind as a token of youth’s promise and its sudden dissolution. In one sense, “out stealing horses” represents the youthful freedom Trond longs to recapture in his old age – the reason he returned to the wild to live simply. Indeed, the aging Trond admits that he “idealized [this] solitude in his youth” and now seeks to “rekindle” that harmony with nature and self that he once felt  . But the phrase also carries the weight of all that came after: it is a trigger that connects Trond’s 15-year-old self to the 67-year-old man he has become . By the end of the novel (and film), “out stealing horses” is no longer just a boyhood lark; it is shorthand for the moment a boy’s life changed forever. Petterson uses this motif masterfully, threading it through the narrative so that a single adventurous phrase comes to embody the novel’s central link between past and present. What begins as a secret game between friends evolves into a poignant metaphor for the irrevocable passage of time and the lingering imprint of memory.