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Giving this 4 stars in faith that when I read all four books, the heartbreak will be worth it. Why are her books so good?
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The Master of Hestviken #1
The Axe
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Set in thirteenth-century Norway, a land racked by political turmoil and bloody family vendettas, The Axe is the first volume in Sigrid Undset's epic tetralogy, The Master of Hestviken . In it we meet Olav Audunsson and Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter, who were betrothed as children and raised as brother and sister. Now, in the heedlessness of youth, they become lovers, unaware that their ardor will forge the first link in a chain of murder, exile, and disgrace.
Soaringly romantic and psychologically nuanced, Undset's novel is also a meticulous re-creation of a world split between pagan codes of retribution and the rigors of Christian piety--a world where law is a fragile new invention and manslaughter is so common that it's punishable by fine.
Soaringly romantic and psychologically nuanced, Undset's novel is also a meticulous re-creation of a world split between pagan codes of retribution and the rigors of Christian piety--a world where law is a fragile new invention and manslaughter is so common that it's punishable by fine.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1,1925
This edition
- Format
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304 pages, Paperback
- Published
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November 29, 1994 by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- ISBN
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9780679752738
- ASIN
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0679752730
- Language
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English
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Rating(4 / 5.0, 99 votes)
5 stars
29(29%)
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37(37%)
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33(33%)
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Only made it about 15 pages into this before I had to put it down. The style was just too awful; it read like a bad fanfiction. It was just a litany of confusing names and events passing by at the speed of light. I thought it was perhaps just the beginning, and then it would turn into a better, more narrative style, but I paged ahead and it didn't.
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This might be a 5 for me upon further reflection and after I've read the other books in the series, but I'm giving it a 4 for now. It's so similar to K.L. (1920-22) and with echoes of G.D. (published 1909) that I'd probably need to read them all in a row and in publication order to give a fair evaluation. (Project for the rest of 2020?) The beautiful setting and depiction of the religious/moral struggles of the characters keep me coming back for more of Sigrid Undset, even if I'm not sure yet what she's doing here that she didn't already do in K.L.
"Mea culpa - she had been afraid of being saved from doing what she wished and accepting what she had brought upon herself. Now it dawned on her that, when she received God's forgiveness for the evil she had done to herself and to Olav, she would no longer desire to escape her punishment. The mere sight of Olav had been enough to make her see the nature of Love...And behind it she caught a glimpse, as in an image, of the origin of Love. In the cup which our Lord was compelled to receive that evening in the Garden of Gethsemane He had seen all the sin that had been committed and was to be committed on earth...And since God had suffered, because of the suffering her own fault would bring her, she too would desire to be punished and made to suffer every time she thought of it. She saw that this was a different suffering from any she had suffered hitherto; that had been like falling from rock to rock down a precipice, to end in a bottomloss morass-this was like clibing upward, with a helping hand to hold, slowly and painfully; but even in the pain there was happiness, for it led to something."
"Mea culpa - she had been afraid of being saved from doing what she wished and accepting what she had brought upon herself. Now it dawned on her that, when she received God's forgiveness for the evil she had done to herself and to Olav, she would no longer desire to escape her punishment. The mere sight of Olav had been enough to make her see the nature of Love...And behind it she caught a glimpse, as in an image, of the origin of Love. In the cup which our Lord was compelled to receive that evening in the Garden of Gethsemane He had seen all the sin that had been committed and was to be committed on earth...And since God had suffered, because of the suffering her own fault would bring her, she too would desire to be punished and made to suffer every time she thought of it. She saw that this was a different suffering from any she had suffered hitherto; that had been like falling from rock to rock down a precipice, to end in a bottomloss morass-this was like clibing upward, with a helping hand to hold, slowly and painfully; but even in the pain there was happiness, for it led to something."
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This is the first book in a multi-volume family saga set in 13th century Norway. This book focuses on the marriage of a young couple amid scandal.
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I had read the first volume of Kirstin Lavandstater when I was a teenager after my mother told me the trilogy was her favorite book. I remember being annoyed and rebellious at the enormous restraints placed by church, family, superstition and custom. The Vows deals with the impact of customs, pagan and Christian beliefs and caste. Yet now I am aware of how beliefs, class, social customs etc continue to plague us and often form our most important decisions. Looking forward to the next volume of the series.
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Undset does such an impressive job of making a pretty over-the-top dramatic story seem believable and painful and very human. I'll withhold judgement until I read at least one more of the series, but I think I may be on track to prefer this over Kristen Lavransdatter, which is pretty high praise.
I first started to read this in the earlier translation (titled The Axe) and I highly recommend reading this edition with Nunnally's translation instead.
I first started to read this in the earlier translation (titled The Axe) and I highly recommend reading this edition with Nunnally's translation instead.
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Fabulous. Every bit as good as Kristin Lavransdatter.
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This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 4.0 of 5
It is interesting for me that I just purchased a set of Sigrid Undet's Kristin Lavransdatter series because it looked very interesting to me. And shortly after doing so, I find out that translator extraordinaire Tiina Nunnally has translated a different series by Undest. My ancestors are Scandinavian (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish) and I've been doing a lot of ancestry research lately, so literature that gives me a feel for life in medieval Scandinavian has a special appeal for me.
Olav Audunssøn's father is dying and the father asks his old friend, Steinfinn Toressøn, to raise his boy when he passes on. Steinfinn agrees to raise the child as his foster son and also promises that Olav will be betrothed to Steinfinn's daughter, Ingunn. Olav and Ingunn then spend their youth as both siblings, knowing they will be husband and wife as they get older.
But Olav and Ingunn couldn't be much more different from one another and the medieval time in which they live is turbulent as church rules and law clash. There are some in the community who don't believe they are legally married but for Olav and Ingunn all that matters is that they've been intimate and they believe they are married.
But when Steinfinn passes away, Olav and Ingunn travel to the city of Hamar to ask the church to bless their union. The Church, however, is trying to enforce more control over religious behavior and makes this difficult.
Olav does some traveling and is gone for a decade and Ingunn combats her loneliness by being extra friendly with a young man who works for a local priest. This has Ingunn and Olav examining their relationship upon his return.
Undset's writing, and Nunnally's translation, is beautiful and extremely accessible. We get drawn in to the story by the language, we are held in the story by the remarkable characters who are ordinary and real and fascinating.
In many ways this reminds us that everyone has a story to tell. You don't need to be a superhero or the leader of a rebels in a dystopian world to be worth reading about. You can be a young couple in medieval Norway, looking to find your own way and dealing with the changes going on in the world and have a story worth sharing.
But there's so much going on here. In addition to the story of these two people, we are getting a story about a country going through a religious revolution and a Church finding itself in a position to influence its beliefs into a government, through the people. The title "Vows" is incredibly apt here, telling not only of the vows people make to each other, but the religious significance of vows.
I enjoyed this and am eager to dig into the Kristin Lavransdatter series but will wait until I've read the rest of the books in the Olav Audunssøn series.
Looking for a good book? Olav Audunssøn: I. Vows by Sigrid Undset and translated by Tiina Nunnally is a book you don't just read, but experience, and this is well worth experiencing.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
It is interesting for me that I just purchased a set of Sigrid Undet's Kristin Lavransdatter series because it looked very interesting to me. And shortly after doing so, I find out that translator extraordinaire Tiina Nunnally has translated a different series by Undest. My ancestors are Scandinavian (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish) and I've been doing a lot of ancestry research lately, so literature that gives me a feel for life in medieval Scandinavian has a special appeal for me.
Olav Audunssøn's father is dying and the father asks his old friend, Steinfinn Toressøn, to raise his boy when he passes on. Steinfinn agrees to raise the child as his foster son and also promises that Olav will be betrothed to Steinfinn's daughter, Ingunn. Olav and Ingunn then spend their youth as both siblings, knowing they will be husband and wife as they get older.
But Olav and Ingunn couldn't be much more different from one another and the medieval time in which they live is turbulent as church rules and law clash. There are some in the community who don't believe they are legally married but for Olav and Ingunn all that matters is that they've been intimate and they believe they are married.
But when Steinfinn passes away, Olav and Ingunn travel to the city of Hamar to ask the church to bless their union. The Church, however, is trying to enforce more control over religious behavior and makes this difficult.
Olav does some traveling and is gone for a decade and Ingunn combats her loneliness by being extra friendly with a young man who works for a local priest. This has Ingunn and Olav examining their relationship upon his return.
Undset's writing, and Nunnally's translation, is beautiful and extremely accessible. We get drawn in to the story by the language, we are held in the story by the remarkable characters who are ordinary and real and fascinating.
In many ways this reminds us that everyone has a story to tell. You don't need to be a superhero or the leader of a rebels in a dystopian world to be worth reading about. You can be a young couple in medieval Norway, looking to find your own way and dealing with the changes going on in the world and have a story worth sharing.
But there's so much going on here. In addition to the story of these two people, we are getting a story about a country going through a religious revolution and a Church finding itself in a position to influence its beliefs into a government, through the people. The title "Vows" is incredibly apt here, telling not only of the vows people make to each other, but the religious significance of vows.
I enjoyed this and am eager to dig into the Kristin Lavransdatter series but will wait until I've read the rest of the books in the Olav Audunssøn series.
Looking for a good book? Olav Audunssøn: I. Vows by Sigrid Undset and translated by Tiina Nunnally is a book you don't just read, but experience, and this is well worth experiencing.
I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.
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