Torchlight to Valhalla [Paperback]

Gale Wilhelm (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1985

Morgen Teutenberg is an introverted 21-year-old woman nursing her dying father Fritz, who is a painter. She is developing a novel with her father's assistance. Out walking one day, she meets a very handsome young man, Royal St. Gabriel, a pianist who is quite taken with her. Royal pursues her romantically despite Morgen's lack of enthusiasm. Fritz dies very soon after Morgen meets Royal, and she is devastated by his loss and nonplussed by Royal's attention, not seeming to welcome it, but flattered by his gentlemanly manners and thoughtfulness. He buys her a radio and has it delivered to her house with a letter telling her when to tune in to a station. When she does, she hears a composition he has written for her that she imagines describes her perfectly. For five months they have a friendship characterized by Royal's unabashed love for Morgen, and her not sure how to tell him that she is grateful for his friendship, but does not want to pursue anything deeper with him. On Christmas Eve, overwhelmed with missing her father again, she turns to Royal, and they sleep together. Royal is overcome with gratitude, not believing she has given herself to him at last, but Morgen does not enjoy the experience and realizes she went to him out of loneliness. She tells him this and he is hurt by it. He travels frequently and leaves her again, unsure of how to reach her. In his absence, she meets new neighbors who have moved in to a house nearby. A 16-year-old, named Toni, lives with her aunt. They have known each other, as children and Morgen is thrilled to have Toni back so close by. In sharp contrast to her relationship with Royal, she and Toni find themselves kindred almost immediately. They spend several nights together, and are quite hesitant to leave each other. When Royal returns, he notices something with Morgen is wrong immediately. She tells him, "I am two and the other is Toni." He is stunned, but he accepts it, for the first time she realizes how much she likes him.

Product Details

• Paperback: 105 pages
• Publisher: Naiad Pr (November 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0930044681
• ISBN-13: 978-0930044688
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,017,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gently sparkling, September 17, 2000

By 

"blissengine" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Torchlight to Valhalla (Paperback)

Morgen is the daughter of a famous painter. After his death, she is adrift in life and is wooed by the eager Royal, a man determined to make her his wife. She doesn't love him, and doesn't feel complete until she meets a woman from her past, Toni. Only with her does she feel whole again. Written in a sparse and evocative style, Wilhelm's novel is a joy to read. Entirely compelling and beautifully crafted.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful story, October 24, 2003

By 

T. L. Walker "mortal_belleza" (Montgomery, Al, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Torchlight to Valhalla (Paperback)

Early 20th century (1938) lesbian literature. This was a painfully beautiful novella revolving around a young woman named Morgen Tuetenberg. In the beginning of the story, Morgen is caring for her sick father, the renowned painter, Fritz Tuetenberg. During a walk, she meets a pianist named, Royal St. Gabriel, who falls for her at first sight. The death of Morgen's father leaves her empty, and Royal wishes to fill this emptiness, but Morgen doesn't feel truly complete until Toni enters her life.

This story dragged a little in the beginning, but not for long. This story runs a gauntlet of emotions from love to grief to indifference. With this being so short, you seem to be watching strangers. You don't have much of a chance to get too intimate for the characters. You care for them, but only in that detached way.

I think the strong point in this story was the theme of human emotion and love. I was rooting for Royal. I really liked the guy, but love is capricious and Morgen had to do what made her happy. I think she did start to love Royal, but he still wasn't what she needed to fill that void.

There really isn't too much more that could be said about this book without giving it away, so I'll just stop trying to find the right words to describe it. If you ever get hands on a copy, definitely read it. It's a touching story.

5.0 out of 5 stars Torchlight and touchpaper., July 23, 2011

By 

dia tsung "inkbrain" (denver colorado) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Torchlight to Valhalla (Homosexuality) (Hardcover)

A brief song sung in a minor key is the musical equivalent of this slender offering presented in understated and mannered prose by Gail Willhelm in this stylistically elliptical unfolding of girl meets girl.
It could be claimed that Willhelm dwells rather a little too lingeringly on the ethereal beauty of her protagonist Morgan T, who is almost wraithlike in her lack of corporeality. A tall, slender, pale light haired woman of few words who sustains herself on coffee and cigarettes and to the exclusion of food except for an olive which she only bites but fails to eat.
Willhelm presents Morgen's feelings as being too deep for words.
She is the sole companion of her valetudinarian father with whom she has lived all her life with almost no other human contact.
Willhelm leaves unexplained all the mundane details of life such as how food appears in the refrigerator, or how the bills are paid.
The first three quarters of the book are about Morgen's rather drily sterile relationship with her would-be fiancé Royal, who falls slightly hysterically - but unrequitedly in love with her.
The book has a few non-sequitors for which I think the reader is supposed to supply the connective sense by reading between the lines. This may equally have been an oversight as a writerly assertion of a style that is based on lacunę and omission.
The appearance of Toni as a 'dea ex machina' carries the plot to its restrainedly optimistic ending, and this is a fortunate relief for what could have been an unendurably substance-less plot.
The portrait on the back cover of Willhelm herself, a darkly sculpted androgynous profile of chiseled features and a passionately still gaze, is one of the most dramatic things about the book. Her description of Toni ( I had wrongly supposed that the substitution of 'i' for 'y' in women's' names was a modern affectation ) could easily be a stand in for her own strikingly handsome dark hair and intense gaze.
The theme, that it is hopeless and misguided to expect that heterosexuality can be anything but hollow and unnatural to a Lesbian, seems obvious on the face of it, but the unspoken rule is that it can never be believably rejected without giving it every possible opportunity to take.
Nevertheless, after what was tried is found to be not true, we may permit ourselves to expect a tremulously happy ending.