Top-rated
Mon, Mar 10, 1986
The priest Gösta Berling is forced to leave his office, because of his drinking habits. The Mistress of Ekeby offers him a place in her manor as one of her 12 Cavaliers. The Cavaliers don't work. Their duty is only to bring gaiety to this hardworking region. At Christmas night the Cavaliers have a party in the forge, when suddenly the wicked Sintram turns up. He assures them that the Mistress of Ekeby is cheating them all. At the big dinner-party at Ekeby at Christmas Day, the Cavalier Kristian Bergh reveals loudly that the Mistress of Ekeby got her seven foundries as a legacy from her secret lover Altringer. When her husband, Major Samzelius, hears this, he gets furious and drives her away from Ekeby. Instead he appoints the Cavaliers as the principals of Ekeby for one year. When Gösta visits the poor Uggla family, Sintram turns up, and tells them spitefully, that the wealthy Anna Stjärnhök is going to marry rich old Dahlberg instead of their son Ferdinand. Gösta promises to bring Anna from the ball at Borg to Ferdinand, but instead he falls in love with Anna himself.
Mon, Mar 17, 1986
When Gösta and Anna are on their way to Ekeby in a sleigh, they are attacked by wolves. The only way to escape is to go to the nearby Berga estate. When they arrive, they are embraced by the Uggla family, who think Gösta has kept his promise to bring Anna to them. Gösta himself thinks it's God who has told him that he is not the man for Anna. He begs Anna to stay with Ferdinand as a proof of their love, which she accepts in deep sorrow. At a party at Ekeby Gösta and Marianne Sinclaire fall in love. Her father, Melchior Sinclaire, gets furious, and when Marianne returns home late in the evening, he doesn't open the door for her. Later in the night the Cavaliers find her senseless in a snowdrift, and bring her to Ekeby. From her bed in the manor house Marianne suddenly hears the former Mistress of Ekeby telling a maid, that she and her men shall put the Cavaliers' building on fire, and send the Cavaliers away in their old sleighs. Marianne rushes away in the winter night to ask Major Samzelius to stop this, which he does with the help of his tame bears.
Mon, Mar 24, 1986
Melchior Sinclaire is waiting for his daughter Marianne to return home. After a month his pain and sorrow turns into anger, and in a fit of rage he organizes an auction at his estate, where all the family's possessions should be sold, so there is nothing left for Marianne to inherit. When the news reaches him that Marianne has actually been isolated because of having smallpox. he closes the auction brusquely, and goes to Ekeby to bring Marianne back home. When Gösta finds out that Marianne is gone, he feels betrayed and turns away from her. The countess Märta returns to Borg and her son Henrik Dohna after many years abroad. Like everybody else she finds her son stupid, and cannot understand why the lovely Elisabet agreed to marry him. The high sheriff Scharling hosts a big party at his estate, while the former Mistress of Ekeby happens to be incarcerated in a side wing. Elisabet Dohna asks Gösta Berling to help his former Mistress to escape. While Gösta pretends to abduct Elisabet, and all the guests pursue him, two of the Cavaliers open the door to the jail.
Mon, Mar 31, 1986
When Henrik Dohna is told that his wife has refused to dance with Gösta Berling, he orders her to kneel in front of Gösta and kiss his hands. He declares furiously that a wife must obey her husband. In that moment Elisabet sees the true character of him, his tyranny and his stupidity. Gösta starts visiting Elisabet at Borg. When Anna Stjärnhök notices that they are in love, she tells Elisabet that Gösta caused Ebba Dohna, Henrik's younger sister, to commit suicide. Elisabet gets angry and orders Gösta to leave Borg and never come back. The Cavaliers have neglected the maintenance of the Ekeby estate, and the strong spring flood breaks through an embankment, whereby several workshops are destroyed, leaving workers in poverty. Elisabet happens to hear that Gösta is going to marry a beggar girl. She walks in the twilight across the lake on the ice to stop this. Next day Märta and Henrik Dohna accuse her of infidelity, and pretend that Gösta has drowned. They punish her by letting her work with the servants. When she learns that they have lied about Gösta, she dresses herself in simple clothes, and disappears from Borg through the woodland eastwards.
Mon, Apr 7, 1986
The Witch of Dovre comes to Borg. When she is asking for a ham, Märta Dohna answers that she would rather give the ham to the magpies than to an old hag. Enraged the Witch condemns Märta Dohna, and declares that the magpies will eat her. Immediately the garden is overcrowded with magpies. They attack Märta. Unable to go outside anymore, Märta and Henrik leave Borg for ever. The marriage between Henrik and Elisabet is nullified. In a peasant's homestead Elisabet delivers their baby. She calls for Gösta Berling, and asks him to marry her, not because she loves him, but because the baby needs a legal father. She marries Gösta and moves to Ekeby. The summer is torrid, causing empty wells, crop failure and famine. The poor think it's the scourge of God, and accuse the priest for being the cause of it, because of his avarice. The people are searching in the woods for the poor girl that almost got married to Gösta, and now has disappeared. When they are told that she was driven away harshly from Ekeby some days ago, their wreath turns towards the Cavaliers, and they march to Ekeby to burn it down.
Mon, Apr 14, 1986
The enraged people are marching to Ekeby to burn it down. The Cavaliers try to mollify them by offering them food and drink for free. The dispute is interrupted by a new group of people, who in a silent procession are carrying the dead body of the poor girl that Gösta Berling once was going to marry. When Gösta sees the dead girl, he breaks down and flees into the wood. Suddenly the mansion house is burning. Everybody, the people as well as the Cavaliers, try to put the fire out, but in vain. At the same time the priest is praying alone in the church. He asks God to forgive his avarice and let the long torrid period cease. In a moment a bolt of lightning is seen in the sky, and the rain starts pouring down. Elisabet finds her husband Gösta tied up in a cabin in the wood. The crofters have stopped him from committing suicide. Eliabet orders Gösta to come home and help the Cavaliers rebuild Ekeby. The former Mistress of Ekeby returns to the estate at Christmas Eve. She is very sick and has just a few days more to live. She is bitter and vindictive, but is reconciled with Gösta and the Cavaliers before she dies.