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help but ask yourself whether Karin Ærø knew what she was doing. Did she know? That when one praises, one also judges. And then one does
something that has a profound effect. How much did they know? What did Biehl know?
    The spoken word had been one of Grundtvig's principles. It meant that you were given very few
books before Primary Six. Instead, the teachers recounted Danish history, Scandinavian history,
world his tory,
Greek and Norse mythology, Bible stories, the Iliad and the Odyssey to us—every day, five days a
week.
    It was a great many words. It called for the greatest
awareness. Often,
near the end of the day, it was impossible to remember any thing except that someone had been
talking at you.
    Ever since I came to the school I had been looking for
the rule behind the words, and at last I
found it. It happened when August had
been at the school for two weeks.
    Biehl taught world history, he knew it by heart. Normally
you kept quiet. Normally the spoken word was a stream that flowed down from the teacher's desk to
the class. Until, suddenly, he asked a
question.
    They came without warning—a handful of curt
questions—and then it was very important that
one could answer. When he asked a question it was as though, together
with him, one closed in upon something
crucial.

The questions always concerned an
event and a date. Those on the inside could often remember them, those on
the outside put their hands
up out of fear, without remembering anything, and sank deeper into the darkness.
    Personally, I had come close to
giving up. I had tried to write down the dates he mentioned, but it was
difficult, one could not know which ones would be the important ones, and taking notes in his classes was forbidden.
    I would not have discovered it without Katarina. Even though we had not spoken to
each other very often, and particularly not over the past few weeks. But she had been looking for something. When you
meet a person who is searching, you postpone giving up.
    And then there was August. He had a lot of trouble
remembering things.
During the first two weeks, not once had he been able to put up his hand. It seemed
necessary to support him. If you want to support others you have to stay
upright yourself.
    I hit upon the rule by sensing Biehl. I had tried before, just after I came to the school, but with no luck. One could
observe him only by letting go of time just
a fraction; by ceasing to listen to what was being said and instead observing the voice and the face and the body. And then you ran a big risk. Then you took
on a faraway look and lost all sense of time and did not hear what was being said
and could not be on the ball, just like that, if you were spoken to. That first time I had lost heart. Since then
I had seen Katarina looking for
something, so I gave it another try.
    As Biehl approached the key points it was as though he
became condensed.
There was a brief pause. Then it came, without any special emphasis, almost casually. But
condensed. Once I had felt my way to
this, it was unmistakable. Then I understood.
    The rule was: the
Battle of Poitiers, 732.
    At Poitiers the Prankish king
Charles Martel beat back the advancing Moors and thus saved Europe. A brilliant
personage exe cuted an
appropriate deed at exactly the right moment. This was the pattern behind
Biehl's questions. From then on I knew what I

had to look for. Which of the
overwhelming number of words one should
remember. Columbus, 1492; Luther
at Worms, 1521; Grundtvig's Kirkens
Gienmæle in 1825—in which it is established that truth is based not on
books but on the spoken word from God's own lips at christenings and communions, expressed in the Apostles' Creed.
    From then on I could, quite often,
answer correctly. It gained me some time. It
meant that it took longer for him to notice me.

 
           A fter Katarina had asked me about the car, I took to avoiding her; avoided
even looking at her in the playground.
    At the beginning of