The Legend of the Christmas Rose

The Legend of the Christmas Rose Summary | Detailed Summary

"The Legend of the Christmas Rose" is Selma Lagerlof's short story about Christian beliefs, and the positive possibilities or unfortunate outcomes when those beliefs are followed loyally or disregarded.

At the beginning of the story, a woman named Robber Mother and her five children who live in Robbers' Cave in Goinge Forest, have come into the local village to beg for food and clothing. Robber Mother's husband, Robber Father does not accompany them. He was labeled an outlaw for stealing a cow a few years ago and was banished from the town. The villagers would occasionally leave parcels outside their doorsteps for Robber Mother and the children, but would never come out of their houses to speak to the woman.

On this day, one of Robber Mother's children enters an open garden gate at the Ovid Cloister, where the monks live. Robber Mother follows the child into the lovely garden and is approached by a lay brother, chastising the intruders and imploring them to leave immediately. Robber Mother refuses to leave, until she has seen the entire garden. The lay brother is increasingly agitated and seeks the help of two monks, who are also unsuccessful in removing Robber Mother and her children from the garden.

Finally, the abbot of the monastery comes out to speak to Robber Mother. She tells the elderly gentleman that, although the garden is lovely, it is not as beautiful as another one she knows about. The abbot is skeptical, because his plants have come from all over the world. The garden is tended lovingly, year round.

Robber Mother is incredulous that the holy man does not know about the beautiful garden that springs up in the Goinge Forest every Christmas Eve. The abbot, anxious to see this miraculous garden, asks Robber Mother to send one of her children to him on Christmas Eve to guide him to the exact spot where the garden grows.

Robber Mother hesitates at first, for fear that her family's hiding place will be betrayed. Ultimately, she concedes. As a gesture of good faith, the abbot promises to ask the bishop for a pardon for Robber Father in exchange for the abbot's Christmas Eve visit to the garden in the forest.

The abbot shares the story of the Christmas Eve garden with the bishop and asks the bishop to pardon Robber Father should the story prove to be true. The bishop is skeptical but agrees to the pardon, if the abbot can provide a flower from the Christmas Eve garden on the next Christmas Day.

At last, Christmas Eve arrives and Robber Mother's oldest son meets the abbot and the lay brother at the edge of the forest to lead them to where the garden will bloom. The abbot is very happy about the excursion, but the lay brother feels the trip is an exercise in futility and has joined the expedition only out of love and respect for the elderly abbot.

The boy leads the two men along the perilous trip to the cave home of the Robber family, where a watery pot of gruel serves as the family's holiday meal. Robber Mother encourages the abbot to sleep after his trip, promising to wake him when it is time to view the garden. The lay brother tries to stay awake to guard the abbot from this family, but ultimately succumbs to sleep himself.

When the lay brothers wakes, he sees the abbot and Robber Mother in discussion about the holiday preparations in the village, a conversation which frightens Robber Father into thinking that the abbot is trying to take his family away from him. The abbot tries to calm Robber Father by telling him about the bishop's agreement to a pardon.

Soon, church bells from the village announce the arrival of Christmas Day. The abbot and the lay brother are led into the forest, where they watch in awe as a spectacular springtime floral display appears, complete with singing birds and newborn animals. The abbot can even hear the voices of angels singing.

The abbot considers the garden to be a miracle. However, the lay brother thinks that the garden cannot be a miracle, because it was revealed to a thief and his family. The lay brother thinks that the garden is the work of the devil, as a form of delusion. Suddenly, birds begin to circle the abbot and light on his arms and shoulders. All but one bird are too wary of the lay brother to perch on his arm.

One tiny dove flies toward the lay brother to rest her cheek against the man's face. The lay brother, thinking the dove to be a bird sent from the devil, swats the dove away and demands that it return to hell. At this edict from the lay brother, the angels cease their singing. The earth is covered in darkness, and the flowers and trees in the Christmas garden shrivel up and die.

The abrupt turn in the weather forces the Robber family and the lay brother back to the Robbers' cave for shelter, but the abbot is frozen in his place at the sudden loss of the beautiful garden. The abbot succumbs to the cold and falls forward, managing to grasp a handful of earth.

The lay brother returns to the site of the former garden. He retrieves the abbot's dead body and returns to the village. At the cloister, the monks take two root bulbs from the abbot's hand and give them to the lay brother, who plants them in the abbot's beloved garden.

The bulbs do not sprout until the next Christmas Eve, when the lay brother walks in the dead abbot's garden and sees a cluster of white flowers growing in the spot where the bulbs had been planted. The only other time the lay brother had seen this particular flower had been in the Goinge Forest.

The lay brother takes some of the white flowers to the bishop, who realizes that the abbot's dream had been a reality. The bishop extends a pardon to Robber Father. The lay brother visits the Robber family to deliver the good news, and the family returns to the village to live among their old friends again.

The lay brother remains in the Robbers' cave as a form of self-punishment for his lack of charity and faith. The Christmas Eve garden never blooms again, but the little flower in the abbot's garden blooms each year on Christmas in honor of the birth of the Christ Child.