Karin's Death; An Axis Mundi

In the Virgin Spring, the scene of Karin’s rape and murder serves just as an axis mundi for the rest of the scenes in the movie, and for the emotions of the characters. Even before it takes place it is foreshadowed and referenced.

Karin’s mother was constantly anxious because of a dream she had about her daughter, implied to be violent. Ingeri prays to a pagan God, usually the introduction of paganism in stories precedes some kind of unfortunate event. Ingeri even makes a comment to Karin saying something about a man grabbing her by the waist behind a bush, when Karin said she was remaining abstinent until marriage. It is also important to notice that at this point in the film we can understand Ingeri does not care for Karin.

Then of course Karin is murdered and nothing was the same. From now on everything is resulting from, and revolving around Karin’s death. Shortly after we see some humanity in the small boy when he attempts to bury Karin, then separating him from his awful brothers. Then they show up needing to stay at Karin’s parents, how unlikely. It is revealed to the mother that Karin has been murdered when the speaking brother offers her their “sister’s” clothes (Karin’s) covered in blood. After this we see a change in Ingeri, when she tells Tore everything that happened, that she had wished for it, and that she’d like him to kill her because she feels so guilty, a change that would not have happened obviously had Karin not been murdered. Then we see the father act out his vengeance and kill the first two brothers, we can’t say for sure if Karin’s death changed his typical behavior because we don’t know too much about Tore, but it could be assumed he’s not typically so violent in his reactions. Regardless he killed them, satisfying his need for equal blood to be shed for his daughter’s which he doesn’t realized unfortunately until after he also kills the small boy, then triggering another change we will see next. Ingeri brings them to the spot where Karin is, and Tore vows to God to build him a church right there. Then miraculously a spring erupts randomly next to the spot where Karin was killed. The spring symbolizes the rebirth of the physical location, Ingeri’s emotions and possibly spirituality, and Tore’s emotions and spirituality as well.

The one scene of Karin’s death ties together all other scenes in the film, as well as the emotional and spiritual changes of the characters.