The flames and the smoke are being sucked up into the sky, or so it seems; there are creaks and groans, like distant responses. It is frightening, it is terrible and it is beyond comprehension. And it is almost beautiful.
-- Gaute (Part 1 paragraph Page 10, 4)

Importance: This passage captures the terror and beauty of fire.

Next came the lament, or the tone, or the song, or whatever one might call it. A loud, high-pitched, singing tone that did not exist anywhere else but in the middle of a burning house.
-- Gaute (Part 2 paragraph Page 47, 1)

Importance: Young Dag would accompany his father, the fire chief, to fires. He would anticipate when the collapsing house would make a sound that was like a “song.” Dag was mesmerized by this and the other elements of a burning house.

Every now and then I have the feeling that I am living two parallel lives. One is secure, simple a life without so many words. The...
-- Gaute (Part 2 paragraph Page 74, 2)