Und ewig singen die Wälder (1959)

The stubborn landowner Dag and his two sons have been at odds for many years with the neighboring noble family von Gall, who own the Borgland estate. When Dag’s hot-tempered son Tore makes advances to Gall’s daughter Elisabeth at a village festival in Björndal, he is killed in a sword fight by her jealous boyfriend, Lieutenant Margas. Tore is unarmed, and he falls into a waterfall. At first, Tore’s disappearance cannot be explained because his body is never found. Adelheid Barre, the sensitive daughter of retired Major Barre, overhears a conversation between Elisabeth von Gall and Lieutenant Margas and learns that Tore was murdered. She leaves Borgland early with her father because she no longer wants to live under the same roof as Elisabeth. On the journey home from Borgland, Adelheid Barre finds Dag junior, the old Dag’s younger son, badly injured during a bear hunt. She decides to stay in Björndal for a while to nurse the young Dag back to health. In doing so, she falls in love with the gentle, thoughtful young man. When the old Dag learns from Adelheid Barre that his beloved son Tore is dead, he swears bitter revenge on the noble family. As the story progresses, there are repeated occasions when the old Dag expresses regret that his beloved, daring son Tore is dead and that only his sensitive son has been left to him. When Dag invites Adelheid and her father to Björndal for Christmas, she marries him at his father’s urging. The old Dag claims his daughter-in-law for himself and shows her how to manage the estate. As a result, father and son grow estranged. The young couple temporarily withdraws from him so they can lead a normal married life. The old Dag guarantees a bank loan to Colonel von Gall, to whom no one else will lend money because he is financially ruined. In return, the old Dag has the Borgland estate mortgaged to him, thereby gaining leverage over von Gall. He makes the merchant Holder, his brother-in-law, whom he entrusts with the deal, promise to keep it strictly secret from the von Gall family. When the bank informs Elisabeth von Gall, she has the Björndal timber rafts stopped from being floated down the river that runs through her land, enforcing the blockade by threatening armed force. The old Dag therefore has the logs, still covered with bark and branches, hauled over the mountain and sent down a waterfall, an undertaking that requires great exertions from his workers. This allows him to have them transported farther downriver in time and avoid a contractual penalty. When a man is killed in the process, the young Dag is outraged by his father’s ruthlessness and harshness. His father refuses outright to negotiate with Colonel von Gall for permission to pass. The young Dag therefore leaves Björndal to go to sea as a sailor. Meanwhile, the old Dag arranges an auction of the Borgland estate to take revenge for Elisabeth’s behavior. In response, she sets the manor house on fire before the auction is due to take place and dies in the flames, as she intended. Adelheid, too, leaves the old Dag because he took malicious pleasure in the death of “the old witch” Elisabeth, and returns to live with her father in the city. Dag senior is now lonely and cannot enjoy his triumph over the von Gall family, which has cost him dearly. In his loneliness and grief over the loss of his family, he reconciles with Colonel von Gall and lets him continue living at Borgland. He is shaken when von Gall tells him that his daughter Elisabeth had actually loved Tore. He also learns from von Gall that Dag and Adelheid have been back at Björndal for some time. His housekeeper, Miss Kruse, confirms that his son Dag junior and his daughter-in-law have returned so their child can be born in Björndal. They are staying in a mountain hut. Despite the cold and deep snow, the ailing Dag attempts the climb to the hut. His son finds him dying outside its door. With his remaining strength, the old Dag asks the name of his grandson, who has by then been born. Although the “young Dag” has been humiliated by his father all his life as an unloved son, faced with his father’s impending death he gives his newborn son the name of his late brother Tore, whom their father had always preferred. The old Dag accepts this with satisfaction and dies.