Profane and Sacred Choreography

As Eliade says, space is either sacred or profane, with profane space being chaos and disorderly, and sacred space is cosmos and orderly.  Choreography in profane space mimics profane space itself in the sense that it is chaotic.  After Karin's death becomes known to her family, their actions become far less practiced and controlled, but instead lost in grief.  These actions are most obviously demonstrated in the father, Tore.  When his wife, Mareta, wakes him in the middle of the night, saying that the traveler's brought him Karin's bloodstained garments, he realizes that the travelers are also murderers who took the life of his daughter.  He leaps out of bed and begins rummaging around in a chest nearby.  He starts removing things distractedly and barely seems to hear Mareta when she speaks to him.  Mareta has had her own loss of control as demonstrated when she collapses and sobs outside of the dining chamber where she received Karin's dress and makes the same realization her husband makes when he looks at the dress. Upon exiting the bedroom, Tore encounters his other daughter, Ingeri, who begins to confess to him that she witnessed the death of her sister and did nothing to stop it.  Like her mother, Ingeri collapses and begins sobbing.  Her guilt causes her confession to coalesce into senseless babbling.  Her father is still distant and seems to barely acknowledge her emotions, instead commanding her to warm the water for his bath.  Tore goes to the dining chamber to kill the travelers while Mareta is there with him.  After Tore leaves the room, his primal bloodlust satisfied, Mareta flings herself upon the boy and weeps in what seems to be emotional confusion at the uncontrolled state things have taken, her husband destroying a child because his own child was taken.  After all of the travelers are killed, the entire group of people living in Tore's house begin trudging through the woods.  Again, the actions are not well planned out, as they do not seem to be following a well cleared path or are moving in measured motions.  Instead, they allow their clothing to be pulled by tree branches and unceremoniously splash through high water. 

 Finally, they reach the site of Karin's body.  It is obvious that this space is different from the rest of the woods. Here, it seems that the woods have grown silent, and the birds are not singing.  They all gather around Karin's body and begin weeping for her.  After the initial grieving, it seems that they have found some degree of peace, and begin behaving as humans again.  Mareta begins clearing the dirt from her daughter's face and seems to recognize the world again.  Tore stares at the sky and vows that he will construct a stone church where his daughter lies, promising to build it with his bare hands

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He then looks at his hands as if staring at them for the first time.  Mareta and Tore acknowledge each other and work together to lift their daughter from the ground.

 

 Ingeri stares in awe at the spring that has bubbled up from where Karin was lying, and then begins to wash her face in joy, as if clearing away the spiritual guilt she had suffered from.  

The scene here is hierophanic and "wholly other" as the characters seem to finally regain control of themselves.