By Magnus Hardeland

“Ragna Breivik og hennar verk,” from Frå Fjon til Fusa, Årbok 1966 for Nord og Midhordaland Sogelag, [From Fjon to Fusa, Yearbook 1966 for North and Mid-Hordaland History League, pp 111-130]. The article is also found in the Norwegian Digital Library.

Translation by Lisa Torvik, April 2023

A girl from Fana, Ragna Breivik (1891-1965), dedicated her whole life to the loom. She had a message to share which she conveyed through her tapestry weaving. It was the essence of Norway in color and design, the cultural legacy from ages past and the richness borne within it. It was especially dear to her heart to preserve traditions from rural communities. She had grown up in a farming community and knew its lifestyle. Spinning wheels and wool were familiar to her from an early age. The yarns she spun throughout her life were given colors and were shaped into designs which expressed her ideals.  As tapestry after tapestry began to emerge with powerful, purely Norwegian expressiveness, reports about her soon spread. If anyone asked her where she had learned her art, she had a ready answer: “Home was my academy and mother my professor.”  This revealed a lot. 

Her childhood home was on the Rød farm in the district of Fana.  Her father, Lasse Breivik, was a master pilot for shipping and mostly traveled along the long coastal channel.  But her mother, Marta Knudsdotter Breivik, cared for their home with the ability to take on any task, which Ragna marveled at to her dying day.

Her mother showed her the way around a loom at an early age.  By eight Ragna spun, dyed and wove by herself.  

What her mother most impressed upon her was integrity in the work.  Ragna learned the rich tradition of åkle [coverlet] weaving.  She also learned to dye wool. There were plant-based colors of different kinds, which gave the wool a particular aspect. Ragna Breivik was never familiar with the wide spectrum of chemical dyes which eventually came on the market; natural colors created the tonal effect she wanted.

Her mother’s mastery of the spinning wheel was her ideal.  She preserved yarns her mother had spun her whole life. That was the way spinning should be done.

When Ragna was of an age that her future should be planned, her father thought that teacher’s college would be good. But Ragna requested education in handcraft and this was taken into consideration.

With her fundamental knowledge of homemaking as background, she sought to learn more.  At age 19, she first took a weaving course at Bergen’s Home Craft Association [Husflid].  She further developed her natural dyeing skills under the direction of Hilda Kristensen and then attended the vocational school in Bergen. In the end, however, it was tapestry weaving that occupied her mind and attention.  She obtained her first technical education in tapestry weaving from Stefanine Oxås and Kristina Johannesen.

It did not take long before Ragna aspired to do more independent work.  The great Danish fresco painter Joakim Skovgaard had produced a work he called Danish Folk Song.  This picture formed the basis of her first independent design.  Then came The Five Wise and Five Foolish Virgins, composed by Sigurd Lunde, an artist in western Norway who eventually drew many of her weaving cartoons. In this way she started on the path that would become her life’s destiny.

However, making a living from tapestry weaving, with the lengthy patient work that each tapestry required, was highly uncertain.  So she became a teacher of handcraft at the county school of North Hordaland. Every free moment she had she sat at her loom, which never lost its hold over her.

Finally in 1917, she freed herself from all other work and traveled to Oslo in order to begin weaving in earnest. Augusta Kristensen took her in and put her on more independent projects.  Axel Revold drew several cartoons for tapestry weaving during this period.  In this manner, his designs for “Bjergprediken” [Sermon on the Mount] and “Jesus i Getsemane” [Jesus in Gethsemane] came into Ragna Breivik’s hands.

After that came one opportunity after another. The Husflid outlet in Bergen commissioned a tapestry with the title På havets Bund [At the bottom of the Sea]  by Arne Lofthus, and with that Ragna Breivik was on her way.

But it was Gerhard Munthe who helped propel her toward her life’s success. Munthe had developed a decorative style which was ideal for tapestry weaving. As he traveled around the rural areas to paint, along with his wife Sigrun, they saw many fine woven coverlets in the various localities.  His wife wished to try her hand at this weaving.  They acquired an upright loom of the old style [warp-weighted] and Munthe drew cartoons for her.

That led Munthe into what would become his life’s work: the decorative “Munthe style.” He became more and more focused on developing a strong Norwegian artistic expression, rooted deeply in the native culture.

His goal was to elevate it to the heights of serious artistry, which would measure up against all foreign examples. To this end he dedicated all his abilities and efforts.  He interpreted our long and glorious saga in the Elder Edda through his so-called Snorre sketches [Icelandic bard Snorre Sturlason].

Munthe was interested in stories and folk songs, and was particularly inspired by the folk song collections of Landstad [Pastor and folklore collector Magnus Brostrup Landstad].  In the 1890s, artist friends would gather at the farm of Christian Skredsvig in the summertime.  Munthe was among these guests.  They were intensely engaged with infusing cultural life with the ancient national legacy, and Landstad’s collections were also discussed.  They would sing these songs in the evenings when all were gathered together.  Munthe was part of this too.

Subsequently he recreated these inspirations in large decorative works such as Draumkvæde [The Dream Poem], I Trollebotn [in the far north country where trolls are thought to live], Åsmund Fregdagjeva [hero of the eponymous epic ballad], Nordlysdøtrene [also known as Beilerne, The Suitors, from the norse folk tale], Døren i Fjeldet [The Door in the Mountain], and many others.

This style was as if it was made for tapestry weaving. It became apparent that tapestry weavers began to focus on Munthe now.  Some of them gave him the courage to translate his style into weaving designs, but the result was often disheartening. Those who lacked the talent ruined his motifs more than they benefited them. In the end Munthe restricted their use, and it became difficult to obtain permission to weave from his cartoons.

It was in the middle of this “Munthe-fever” that Ragna Breivik felt the same pull toward the decorative Norwegian style which corresponded so fully with what occupied her mind and attention. She was young and shy at the time, but the compulsion was strong and kindled her courage enough to set off for Lysaker [Oslo suburb where Munthe lived.] It was no easy journey.  She didn’t know if she approached triumph or her “writing on the wall.”

As it was, Munthe did not have the heart to stop this young farm girl.  She was to take out whatever cartoon she wished from the Rasmus Meyers Collections in Bergen. As she walked out the door with his written permission, he called after her “You have my permission to disgrace it…!”

Ragna went home and wove Trollebotn. Her courage was possibly even more strained when she returned to Lysaker to present it for this finicky man. It would be success or failure.

He stood for a long time and looked at her work, and then said: “This belongs in a museum, and I don’t say that very often about such tapestries…”. And thus she had joined the foremost ranks of our artists, and the way was open for the goal she had come to set for herself.

She traveled home with new documents from Munthe giving her permission to weave all she wanted to from his decorative designs. After this came Bukken Bruse [The Billy Goat Gruff], and after that she started on one of her major works, Åsmund Fregdagjeva. This was a cycle of 10 large tapestries 

In between these she also began work on Draumkvede, another of her major tapestries, which was commissioned by Fana municipality, and now hangs in the Fana church. Together, it took her 25 years to complete all these tapestries.

She also received new tasks besides the weaving. In 1920 she was attached to Bergen’s Kunsthaandverksskole [School for Arts and Crafts] as a tapestry instructor, under the director dr. filos. Koren Wiberg. The director was well aware what Ragna was worth, and Munthe also followed her work closely.

Munthe wrote to a friend in Bergen, “Despite all the other weavers who have attempted to weave my motifs, she is the first who has expressed what I have felt for the subject.  Please tell her this!”

When Ragna Breivik began to teach, Munthe showed his full confidence in her there too. One of the documents he gave her read:

Ragna Breivik has my full permission to give her pupils an opportunity to use my decorative compositions in Rasmus Meyers Collections, under her direct supervision; – and decide for herself which among my works she might want for her own use.

In 1926 Ragna prepared for a trip to America.  Koren Wiborg told her that the tapestry class at the school would be opened for her as soon as she returned. He was himself a discerning art connoisseur and shared the same interest in our national cultural heritage. His recommendation for Ragna stated:

I hereby attest that Miss Breivik has been tied to Bergen’s School of Arts and Crafts where she has taught art weaving for 4 years.  It is well known that Miss Breivik is the most accomplished and most important weaver we have in Norway at this time, so a recommendation from me should be superfluous.

I will in any case add that while Miss Breivik has achieved so much in both technique, choice and manipulation of color and composition, the most fundamental is that she herself is an artist with an exceptional talent.

Christian Koren Wiborg, Phil.D.

Most artists have in their blood a desire to see something of the wider world. For Ragna, it was America. In January 1927 she departed, with the best letters of recommendation one could wish for, and with an introduction by Arne Kildal (at the time chairman in Nordmannsforbundet, a leading Norwegian association in the United State) in the publication American Scandinavian Review. They introduced her further to the Metropolitan Museum and the Brooklyn Museum, where she had her first exhibitions.

The critic Christian Brinton used words of high praise for Trollebotn and Åsmund Fregdagjeva. He had never seen such powerful expressiveness before in tapestry weaving.  The particularly Norse aspect made a strong impression in the new world.

Among others attending these exhibitions, Mr. Allen Eaton, director of Art and Social Work at the Russell Sage Foundation, New York City, began to know her work and soon invitations came to The Newark Museum of Art, Montclair Art Museum, The Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, and others.

Trollebotn, Bukken Bruse, and Andrehallen [The Second Hall] of the Åsmund Fregdagjeva cycle made triumphant rounds in the museums and all the critics agreed on the high quality of Norwegian tapestry weaving.

It was reasonable that Norwegian-Americans saw benefits in this. A critic in Nordisk Tidende on February 23, 1928 wrote: “Mrs. Frida Hansen wrote in an article in Tidens Tegn a while ago that Norwegian tapestry weaving was in rapid decline. The present reviewer is at this point in time not in a position to have any divergent opinion, but now after having seen Ragna Breivik’s tapestries in the exhibition at the Architectural League, 215 West 57^th Street, New York City, we boldly assert that Norwegian tapestry weaving need not fear any degradation as long as such magnificent weavings come from Miss Breivik’s hands…”.

Knut Gjerset, director of the Norwegian American Historical Museum, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa wrote to Miss Breivik: “I am glad to have had the opportunity to see your tapestry weavings in the Brooklyn Museum. These tapestries are the most beautiful I have seen. You have a great artistic gift Miss Breivik, and it is a shame that you cannot use all your time for weaving.  But so often has Norway treated its greatest sons and daughters unfairly….”

Ragna Breivik could not just put up exhibitions, however good ambassadors her tapestries were. She had to have something to live on too. She obtained a permanent position at Edgewater Tapestry Looms (a gobelin-type workshop) in New Jersey, and took over all the wool dyeing for the workshop. All her flair and sense of color were useful here too.  She eventually developed quite an index of colors.  In a single tapestry she noted up to 6,112 different colors.  It was all plant dyed.  In just the skin color for a face she used over 40 shades of color.

Ragna’s early knowledge of heather and foliage and mosses from her home area became very important now. The Americans soon discovered her comprehensive abilities and she received many good offers from weaving schools around the country.  There was so much she could teach them.  But, with every offer that came there was something that said “no.”

Duty was calling her home to the old country.  She was nowhere near finished with the large “Åsmund Fregdagjeva” cycle.  If it was to be finished, she had to go home. She had been working on Tredjehallen [The Third Hall, part of the Åsmund Fregdagjeva tale] in her free time, but it was not going fast enough because of her other work.

When her mother died in 1931 it became clear to her that she now had to go home.  In 1932 she was back at the [Bergen] School of Arts and Crafts, as promised.  Her schedule at the school permitted her to throw herself into her large projects again.

In the midst of work on “Åsmund” she received yet another large project:  “Draumkvæde” [The Dream Poem] from a cartoon drawn by Gerhard Munthe.  As mentioned before, this was commissioned by Fana municipality. This powerful visionary poem, which is certainly the apex in all Norwegian medieval verse, has inspired many Norwegian cultural historians and artists.

[The folk music collector] Landstad and [folklore collector with partner Asbjørnsen] Jørgen Moe learned of the Dream Poem in Telemark in the middle of the 19^th century.  The song-poem also wandered widely elsewhere and variations of it are found in different areas of Southern Norway.

Some believe that the Dream Poem originated in the Lyse monastery [Lysekloster, near Lysefjord, south of Bergen] in the 1100s.  That lay in Ragna Breivik’s home region.  In the song, the visionary’s name is Olav Åsteson, but several researchers have speculated that it was actually the first leader of Lysekloster, Abbot Ranolv, who accompanied Bishop Sigurd home from England in 1146.  Ranolv was Norwegian.  He was a poet, and had visions and dreams, like the ancient prophets.

Gerhard Munthe, who was deeply affected by the visions in the poem, learned of it from Landstad’s Norwegian Folk Songs. In the song, Olav Åsteson falls asleep on Christmas Eve and does not waken until the 13^th day of Christmas [January 6, Epiphany in the western Christian calendar].  He then rides to the church and tells of his dreams.  He has been up in the clouds and down to the bottom of the sea, has seen hell and part of heaven.  

Only the righteous soul manages to come through great hardships.  He describes the evil and the good souls. Punishment is horrible for the sinner, but the reward is great for the good. The thoughts behind these words are dramatic and imaginative with gripping images, revealing a close connection to old norse literature.

When Ragna accepted the task of transferring this into weaving, she immersed herself intensely in the material. The colors were given “tones” in accordance with their expressive content.  Each bit of heather, each bunch of leaves and every clump of moss and lichen had its task in the color palette.

She planned the work from when she roamed the mountains to find raw materials for her dyes, as she put them in the dye baths, as the white wool absorbed the colors, and in the blending of colors in the carding and spinning on the wheel – in her innumerable variations. No colors have as deep traditions as these – the green, brass gold, and the many shades in between, natural white, natural [“sheep”] black, indigo and dyer’s madder, etc.

For such a monumental weaving she had to have raw dyestuffs that were entirely reliable. And so the “Gjallarbrui” in the weaving was called forth.  [Gjallarbrui, the bridge over the river Gjoll which led north and down to Hel, the kingdom of the dead in Norse mythology.]

Thread after thread was woven with determined patience.  She sat in her loom from morning to night, as long as other duties did not call upon her. The weeks went by, months and years passed, and the Gjallar bridge appeared over the bottomless, gusting deep. The wandering souls, the watchful angels with flashing swords, the redeemed souls above the bright cloud banks, shining heaven with Jesus Christ and the Archangel Michael and hosts of angels around them, it all came from the wonder of creation in her hands, with certain mastery.  The work was done, and it hangs now in Fana church. 

Ragna Breivik lived in this kingdom of the imagination.  This was poetry and dreams on a grand scale. Her own material demands were minimal.  All of her riches were to be found in the world of the arts.  But her creative ability was also realized in other ways.  Her students could attest to that.  She had a remarkable ability to inspire her pupils.  Her teaching style was very personal and effective.  She first set about to instill in the pupil confidence and pleasure in the work.  Ragna created an atmosphere of enthusiasm as soon as she entered the weaving studio.  She praised more than she criticized, and she wanted the pupils to strengthen their belief in themselves.

However, if she ever witnessed anyone bungling in the work, however well concealed, she viewed it as a flaw in their character and it took a lot to win back her trust. Honesty in handwork, which her mother had drilled into her, was a categorical imperative which could not be shaken.

The hours with Ragna Breivik were lively, with her inspiring personality. She led her pupils purposefully on the path she followed herself.  “Modernistic” movements in the art world made no impression upon her.

There were times when our distinctive national characteristics were overshadowed by foreign influences which poured into our visual world so that our nationalistic aspirations lost their status. Most of our people who studied art and came home from Paris were full of the latest and greatest which was prevalent in the high bastions of art, and the standards subsequently shifted here at home in Norway. It meant to not be “provincial.”

Before she knew it, Ragna Breivik felt the forces against her.  While she sat with her moss, heather and leaf colors, and created her “saga-style” in the spirit of the old Norse, chemistry had developed synthetic dyes which in many ways matched the new vision of color.  There were points of conflict where Ragna and her pupils maintained their fundamental opinion.

Several of her pupils eventually departed [orig.-fell off the wagon!] from this view and followed the crowd, but Ragna had an amazing hold on them as long as she had them under her tutelage.  She would not budge, herself. She became more and more isolated because of this and had to experience that those who before had supported and praised her began to fade away. One of her best advocates, Koren Wiborg, died and many others after him.

The battle for Norwegian identity continues on many fronts.

While målfolk [people supporting nynorsk and dialect use in language] stand together in organizations and strive for more Norwegian roots in language use, Ragna stood practically alone without organizations to support her.  She had a small group who shared her views but there was no popular movement to come out of it. She had long relied upon rural people and målfolk because her ideal was another side of the same issue.

But whatever theoretical agreement was there had no deep resonance within it. This part of being Norwegian received a rather cold and passive reception without purposeful commitment.

The reason is probably that most people lack contact with the visionary sector of our cultural life.  There was no comparison in other work to promote the Norwegian culture.  The large monumental work Åsmund Fregdagjeva, which tied her so long to the loom, was more and more an urgent symbol for her.  Åsmund Fregdagjeva was the only one who did not fail in his ideals.  As it says in the song, he was ordered by the king to go into the mountain blue and save Princess Irmelin from the magic spell.

One after another his helpers disappeared as they approached the trolls’ lair. 

In the end, Åsmund stood alone. With sword in hand he forced his way into the halls.  There he dueled with all the evils which the different trolls represented. They were lust for power, envy, cowardness, falsehood, arrogance, and all the other contemptible sides of humanity. It took him through one hall after the other. Poisonous snakes danced on the tables and animals [sheep?] snuck up on him wherever he went and stood.  But Åsmund struck them down without mercy.

How much of this Munthe intended to symbolically represent and how much Ragna read into his design is not easy to say, but for her this was deadly serious and she experienced it all so intensely that she shuddered many times while working on it. But when she had worked her way through the long dramatic series, when Åsmund finds Irmelin, together with piles of gold and silver, the victory was won. Ragna breathed a sigh of relief after the years-long struggle with this monumental work.

After the invasion of Norway in 1940, Åsmund Fregdagjeva also became a symbol of our liberation forces, and all the evil they fought against. Ragna’s wish was that this series would be hung in a memorial hall for the battle to liberate Norway. Ragna shone like a beacon for her great ideas. The ten large tapestries were shown in exhibitions in Bergen and Oslo. In addition to this she received inquiries from rural areas, where she especially liked to present them.

She was often present herself and told of Åsmund and his quest.  Her personal inner sources of strength were also evident in her talks.  She swept people away.  It was the battle between the powers [of good and evil] she wanted to spotlight. An evening with Ragna Breivik could be quite an experience.  As impulsive as she was, she did not know herself what kind of remarks would be made before the evening ended.

She could walk along the row of tapestries with pointer in hand and tell of the witchcraft in arrogance, lust for power, cowardness, demagoguery etc. and about Åsmund, with right and truth behind him, and the merciless battle between them. But, in the next moment, the pointer could be laid upon the shoulder of one or another in the hall: “Are you Åsmund?  I think you are!”

This pointer was the same for Loke [i.e. evil] as for Tor [good.] She could get the entire audience to chuckle and laugh, and in the blink of an eye summon their deepest seriousness. She had a remarkable ability to admonish and incite people to action.

In that respect she resembled the great women in our saga literature. All who possessed idealistic sensibilities were easily persuaded by her. Her moral and cultural viewpoint stood like a steadfast pillar in the middle of shifting movements.

She could have turned the Åsmund Fregdagjeva series into money in several ways. She could have sold the tapestries in American dollars and improved her economic situation.  But she would rather be without the money than to let the series go out of Norway.

They could hang in Oslo City Hall and represent the country, together with all the other monumental works collected there. But the space they had assigned “Åsmund” to did not meet with her expectations.  Better to be without gold or honor than to disappoint her plans.

The only task of Åsmund Fregdaggjeva would be to relate the story of our national heroes. It takes a strong back to bear such uncompromising ideals. It was so difficult to find understanding for her plans.  It was like rowing constantly against the wind.

Just the same she took on work without thinking about monetary compensation.  When her brother, captain Nicolai Breivik, went down with his ship one stormy day – the ship Elfrida – on December 9, 1959, it made, as would be expected, a heavy impression on her.

Right away Ragna took to her loom – to create a memorial for him.  It took her a half a year [to complete.] A skip in danger at sea.  An angel with the crown of life hovers over the ship.  She wove in the inscription:  As sail you must, the angel places the crown upon you. The Norwegian Seaman’s Church in Copenhagen held a memorial service after the sinking of the Elfrida [it was the ship’s home port.]  Ragna gave the church this tapestry in memory of her brother, and she traveled there herself to make the donation.

If she sold a tapestry, she would not ask for a very high price.  She was more concerned about where it would be hung than what she would earn.  Now and then she appeared to be tired. She was happy for anyone who shared her views, and who helped her face the opposition

Her workroom hosted a steady stream of visitors from all levels of society.  Her personality impressed anyone who came to see and hear her. It was best for her however when she was alone with her weaving and the great symbolic imagery of the world she wove in with her many-colored threads.  Time and space disappeared.  She was in her rightful element and the world outside could go on its merry way.

And so she created her artistic treasures. It was love of country and the ancient culture heritage which was so precious to her. As the years went by, she reached retirement age as a teacher at the school of arts and crafts.

In one respect, this was liberating but living also has its minimum requirements.  About this time she hoped for a stipend which would allow her to continue on a grand scale, to reach her objectives.  A comfortable economic independence would pave the way for several large projects.

Many of her friends rallied to her cause with the authorities, trying to obtain more secure and flexible working conditions for her.  Applications for an artist’s stipend sent [on her behalf] from housewives leagues and the league of rural women and other organizations did not succeed.

For several years she had received a work stipend, which helped somewhat.  This was even increased in the last few years.  But not so much that her economic anxiety was relieved now that she was to quit working at the school. Among her friends were many who were in management and administration in various sectors. They worked faithfully and purposefully for her cause, and hoped for proper resolution to these problems.

If Ragna had herself conceded to all the new style demands, it would have gone easier with the recommendations within artistic circles. But her objectives were life itself for her and here she could not compromise. The path she had set would be followed no matter what it cost. Ragna Breivik was a strong individual.

To her friends it appeared that she had unlimited powers.  But eventually even these began to fail. One day in February 1964 the time came that she had to lay down the threads.  A Munthe-tapestry was in the loom, and she had only a small corner left to complete it. But, this was to be her last tapestry.

The little studio at number 2 Håkonsgata in Bergen stood empty after she left.  Her siblings took her back to their childhood home, where the foundation of her life was laid, and they cared for her with love. She died at home at Rød in Fana on March 10, 1965, 73 years old.

The work she did all her days stands witness to a creative power we so seldom meet. When she stood as a young girl in Lysaker with the first of her tapestries, she received Munthe’s exhortation:  “Go home and begin something even greater!” Ragna promised to do that and she did.

The wheel of time turns ever slowly.  But she always worked it out so that which was genuine and true rose like cream to the top. The art and culture of our time is constantly changing in this amazing process. Artists do not always get see the final objective for their work.  It is therefore not finished for them, though they have passed away.  Ragna Breivik’s work has its future.

She did not get to see Åsmund Fregdagjeva in a memorial hall for our heroes.  At her death, the series of tapestries still lay in a trunk in her studio.  She knew that her time had to come some day, and therefore she wanted to be certain that they would be handled correctly, as was her goal.  According to her wishes, they were turned over to the Munthe heirs, who knew her life’s work, and who would value them as she deserved.

With that the circle was complete. Munthe’s work and her work were two sides of the same cause:  “Despite all the other weavers who have attempted to weave my motifs, she is the first who has expressed what I have felt for the subject.” Together they created Norwegian-ness of the purest kind.

Ragna Breivik has left behind a legacy which benefits our entire culture.  It stands as a monument to the whole-hearted contributions of all Norwegians whose lives were dedicated to preserving the most valuable [cultural] things we have.

Ragna Breivik was a hero on our cultural home front, and for that she has earned the highest glory and honor.

If at all possible, be sure to visit the exhibit of Ragna Breivik’s work at  Bryggens Museum in Bergen, Norway. A review of the exhibit is in this issue: Tales in Thread – The Tapestry Series “Åsmund Frægdagjeva” by Ragna Breivik.

To learn more about Ragna Breivik and her work:

Enerstveit, Åse. Ragna Breivik: Et Liv med Veven. [Ragna Breivik: A Life at the Loom]. Bergen, Norway : Eide, 1991. The book has brief English synopses of each chapter, and includes beautiful color reproductions of many of her tapestries.
Ottesen, Birgitta Frostad. Livet i veven – Nye perspektiver på norsk tekstilkunst i perioden 1900-1960 med utgangspunkt i Ragna Breivik, 2022. A Masters thesis from the University of Bergen. In Norwegian.

[Editor’s note: A version of this article is found on the website, digitalmuseet.no, and it includes different photos. See: Ragna Breivik og hennar verk.]