How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Eric Seven does not believe in love at first sight.
He corrects himself.
Even in that moment, the moment that it happens, he feels his journalist's brain make a correction, rubbing out a long-held belief, writing a new one in its place.
He did not believe in love at first sight. He thinks he might do so now. (1.2.1-4)
This is, of course, the moment when Eric first sees Merle in 2073. He's a rational guy, but he can't shake the feeling that he's known this girl. Maybe he's even loved her before. He can't remember anything about his past selves, but he knows exactly how he feels about Merle. Love always finds a way.
Quote #2
Eric turns and holds Merle's hands. He looks at his hands, a little older than hers. He looks at her younger ones. What if it were the other way around? What if his were the younger hands? Would it matter?
He asks himself why this hand, is his hand. Could it have been someone else's? And why is that her hand? Does it matter? And what if she were different? No, he thinks, as these strange and somehow foolish questions roll around in his head. No, it wouldn't matter. Even if she were different, she would still be she. (1.10.40-41)
This is kind of a weird thing for Eric to be thinking, but it totally makes sense in the context of the story (even thought Eric doesn't know it yet). He wonders if he would love Merle if she were someone else, and decides that of course he would. Duh.
Quote #3
Suddenly Merle grasps Edward's hand earnestly.
"I love him so much. I'd do anything for him, you know? Do you have children, Edward?" He shakes his head. Thinks about her hand on his. (2.7.46-47)
Merle has a connection to her son, whom she loves dearly, but she is also developing a connection to Edward. Hey, Eric isn't the only one who can fall for her.
Quote #4
David hears him but ignores him, and ignores the burns he's inflicting on himself, as he turns his jacket inside out, searching for something as if his life depends on it.
Finally, he finds what he is looking for, drops the jacket on the ground, and sits back, speechless. (3.9.19-20)
This moment shows us David's love for his own family. He rushes outside not to stop Erik from burning his equipment, but to save a picture of his beloved daughter. It's a pretty important scene because it's a sort of turning point in David and Erik's relationship—Erik also had a daughter, so he understands how David feels. The two men are united in the love they feel for their children.
Quote #5
Every night, at dusk, Merle would wander from her house, like a ghost, a mere shadow of her former beauty, and drift to the graveyard.
Every night, she would sit at Erik's grave, waiting, waiting for him to return. Eventually, she would fall asleep, her tears lost among the steady autumn rains that pattered onto the freshly turned grave soil.
Every morning, she would stagger home to bed, a cold and fevered wretch.
Her father tried to stop her, but no matter what he did or said, Merle took no notice of him.
The days turned into weeks.
The weeks turned into months.
The months turned into a year.
And still Merle spent every night weeping at her lover's grave. As the year had passed however, something had happened to Merle, to her mind. It had grown tired, and been stretched beyond endurance, so that it tore, and so it was, a year and a day after Erik had been laid in the earth, that she went mad. (5.6.11-19)
Love has not been kind to Merle. This couple has been doomed from the start, but now that Merle can't even see her lover, even in secret, she's become inconsolable. Finally, she just snaps; her mind can't take it anymore. Is there such a thing as loving too much?
Quote #6
"But, you know, Herr Graf, Frau Graf. There is such a story, though I haven't heard it in a long time.…"
She stopped, looking puzzled.
"Only it was … rather different … from the one your children have just told us. It all happened just so, except that the reason their love was forbidden was not because Erik was poor. Merle was rich, but so was Erik. He wasn't a fisherman, and … well, he wasn't Erik. He was a she— Erika.
"She was a nobleman's daughter. Their love was forbidden, because, well…"
She broke off, looking at the children. It was not the sort of thing they should hear. (5.9.10-14)
A twist in our love story. Merle and Erika's love was forbidden because of their gender, not because of their social statuses. Now the story begs an interesting question: If it was so very wrong to keep two people apart because of money, isn't it just as wrong to keep them apart because of gender? Hm…
Quote #7
I felt for Eirik's hand and he felt for mine, just as our father's and our uncle's hands felt for each other's throats. (6.7.26)
Melle and Eirik are constantly holding hands. In fact, they were even born holding hands. These twins are as close and as loving as can be. But here, their love is juxtaposed to another set of siblings—their father is strangling his own brother to death in front of their eyes. Where's the love between Wulf and Tor?
Quote #8
I often think, though, about that grave down in the long meadow.
Surely now, surely now that I am an old woman, and soon to stop telling stories and to go to the other side of sleep, surely those bodies have become bones?
I like to think of those bones.
The large ones, cradling the small ones, in their arms.
Father.
And son. (6.11.25-30)
This is a pretty lovely memory. Tor was willing to murder and terrorize the village to get what he wanted, but he might have had good reasons. Was it just because he loved and needed to be with his children? Melle seems to find comfort in thinking just that.
Quote #9
"I will live seven times, and I will look for you in each one. We will always be together."
Gunnar raises the knife, and the moonlight gleams from its edge.
"I will look for you and love you in each one. Will you follow?"
Suddenly Gunnar sweeps the knife across Eirikr's throat, in a single long arc of silver.
He makes no sound now. There is no air to make the sound. There are only the lips moving on Eirikr's face, but Melle sees what the words are.
"Will you follow?" (7.3.57-62)
This is a pretty powerful love. King Eirikr adores his wife so much that he proposes to follow her throughout time and space. The guy doesn't let a little thing like death stop him from being with the woman he loves.
Quote #10
There is nothing now but the two of them, and their love, which has waited for centuries to be made again, and as their blood flows, first from Merle, and then from Eric, as their blood mingles on the table and in the soil of Blessed Island, they are no longer in love, they have become love itself. (7.5.53)
Eric and Merle have died together this last time, but even though they're done with their journeys in this world, they're united in the love the share. Do you think this is true? Can love keep us together even beyond the grave?