I like Tiina Nunnally's translation of Olav Audunssøn's Vows. She makes it so readable that it seems as if Sigrid Undset was living now rather than when she wrote the story in 1902 with the first draft of Olav Audunssøn. The book stems from the two fathers of Olav and Ingunn making them bound by oath to be wed someday. Giving a ring to Olav as wedding present to Ingunn. Sigrid transforms this into something that affects the lives of Olav and Ingunn with everything that they do. It takes over 10 years to bring them together. We follow their lives with the deaths of the people who have allowed this to happen. And the people who put a stop to the union with their deaths. I was amazed how the lives of Ingunn and Olav had changed over the years and followed the story with wonder. I can see how in 1928 Sigrid Undset won the Nobel prize for this story. Many things stay the same.

I think I bought this set of books at a yard sale or maybe The Book Nook in Atlanta. I had no idea who the author was but liked the idea of historical fiction in both a century and a country that I knew nothing about. I was surprised at how much I liked this book, especially given the slower beginning when I wasn't sure I was going to finish it. The tone of this book is calm and simple, even with the violent and barbaric times of 13th century Norway. With that background tone, the author has the opportunity to give voices to her characters that come out so well. Her characters all seem to shine on their own, with limited dialogue. They develop and mature as characters, and, for the first time in a long time, I felt as if I started to really understand the characters and see them develop. Olav and Inguun are so complex in their own ways and battle with the issues of their time (which are both similar and different from our issues).

When you read a book written by a Nobel prize winner for literature you get a wee bit worried that the literature might be beyond your ken. No need to worry. There was a scattering of the words trow and fain but I trow you needn't worry you'll be fain to know.

This is a brilliant book. Olav Audunsson and Ingun Steinfinnsdatter are betrothed as children and the story starts from there. Will these two children eventually marry? There are some gruesome twists and turns ahead for these two. Some shocking moments from both that keep you wondering how they will ever get on and reconcile their Christian faith.

I especially loved the reference to the passing Christian festivals and the feeling of being immersed in the passing seasons. Undset description of the background weather is so brilliant that reading those parts paints a vivid picture of thirteenth century Norway that you imagine is out your window.

Undset's book is part one of 4 volumes and what more can I say than I am desperate to read the other 3. Brilliant.

I have heard of Sigrid Undset for many years, but just now got around to reading this after running across a very old copy at a book sale. She was a master of suspense, of setting, of characterizations. The love story could have been set in any time period, but Olav's fervent faith and his loyalty seem to be a product of the times. Morality in the thirteenth century didn't proscribe murder or other violence, and sexual mores were complicated. Children were often sent to live with a friend or relative who could provide a better future than their parents, even when they were not orphans. I'm looking forward to following Olav and Ingunn in the other three volumes of The Master of Hestviken.

This book is not something I would normally read or a book anyone who knows me would think I would read. I was ready for an escape, however, having read a few nonfiction works before this. It does the job in that---it's set in Norway of old, or should I write "olde." The country is Catholic, but as the blurb says, it is emerging from and still influenced by its pre-Christian past. The story focuses on one main character and then the other, literally, since the book is divided into Parts One and Two, with each bearing the character's name in its title. The one character I found most interesting, however, was neither of these two, but rather Teit, a roving and charming young man with a bad reputation. Undset was Catholic, a minority in Norway, and this work, and I suppose all her work, is didactic in nature--just guessing since this is the first book by her that I have read. The book is heavy with Christian themes of forgiveness and repentance, but also with honor and keeping one's word, which seem to hearken back to the old Norse ways. This is the first in a tetralogy. I'm not sure that I'll continue with the saga--perhaps I will if I need a break reading about the Vietnam War.

This is really plot-driven, so it actually reads very quickly for the first 296 pages of a 1000 page novel. Just like Kristin Lavransdatter by the same author, this story is set in medieval Norway. It has such powerful insights into the human struggle with sin, and the setting is depicted so vividly that it feels like a completely familiar place. Such a well written, thought-provoking story.

I liked this one even more than the Kristin Lavransdatter series, which is really saying something, because I love Kristin Lavransdatter. Olav Audunsson has all of the immersive historical detail, emotional heft, and overall richness and mystery and depth of KL, but I think Sigrid Undset had arrived at a greater certainty in her moral worldview when she wrote these books, and it comes through as such (in a good way).

Tiina Nunnally's translation is masterful. She's just top notch, and I'm intrigued by anything she puts her skill to.

Olav, the orphan, has an axe called Fintree. Ingunn is a daughter in the household that raises and houses young Olav. The two are joined first in a drunken betrothal as children, and then in a moment of passion as young adults. The deaths of each of their fathers curtail their options, especially the option of consumating their love in legitimate marriage.

Olav spends a great deal of time making mistakes, and being banished. Ingunn spends a great deal of time pining for Olav, making fewer mistakes, but when she does they are whoppers. At story's end, and ten years in, the two are still unmarried, and are now making plans to tie the knot. But something is out there, a baby in the woodchopper's shack, waiting to trip them up again.

It seems like something, death, a bad swing of the axe, a bad tempered word, a poor judgement on Olav's part is always tripping up these lovers right into Ingunn's old age of twenty something, as Ingunn's more conventional younger sister has already produced a respectable brood.

I have mixed feelings on these folks. I wish for stronger women, smarter men, and less wailing and waiting.... my sympathies are not very engaged, and I almost feel like I can tell what's going to happen in the next book. Not a good sign.

Much like Shōgun does with Japan, this book transports you into the Norwegian culture of the 12th century so thoroughly it is like reading a documentary.

I love Sigrid Undsets writing and am grateful for Tiina Nunnally’s translation.

The story was great, and Undset’s ability to capture emotion and thoughts of various characters throughout various stages of life is stunning.

A 10/10 book. I absolutely loved it.

Finally I read this New transleted version of a less know work of Sigrid undset . Set again in Medieval Norway, about two young people trapped in a world of social hierarchy, tradition and costumes injustiça and violence,their blood laws,rites of transition to adulthood,marriage,honor,vows and death. INGUNN AND OLAV are children who carries all that weight ,destroying their pueril love and future happiness. Undset describe this emotional rollercosters beautifully and relatable to the reader of XXI century. She merges all her knowledge in history,archeology and deep human psychology to create interesting and real characters.
I'M A ferverous admirer of Undset's work and style, she is a Master of telling about the complexity of mind and soul of men and women whatever the age or century/place they born.
I can see easily the characters of this book set in a modern times.This is a re-read to me and now I can appreciate much more and eager to read the next book,even if promise more misery and sad feelings for the destinies of Olav and Ingunn .

"But the human heart never changes as times go by.”

Another one that feels like a dagger to the heart by Sigrid Undset.

Recently, I was asked to name my favorite classic novel. After running through "Madame Bovary," "Anna Karenina," "Crime and Punishment"--all novels I love--I settled on Sigrid Undset's "Kristen Lavransdatter." I can't think of a work of fiction, classic or contemporary, that so fully inhabits a character as "Kristen Lavransdatter." I'm not a particular fan of historical fiction. But for all its ethnographic and historical detail, at its heart this novel simply and naturally relates the life of a passionate woman who happens to have lived in 14th-century Norway. I was hooked from the first page.

An early draft of "Olav Audunsson" was Undset's first (unpublished) novel, although the revised version was not published until 1925, 30 years later. The novel follows the tribulations of a young couple in 13th-century Norway who had been promised to each other as children by their fathers, both of whom died before they legally married. Marriage between Norwegian landowners was a financial transaction used to forge alliances and build wealth. The young couple's relatives do not favor their marriage, which sets up a series of misfortunes for both. As with "Kristen Lavransdatter," the story is related simply and naturally--which Tiina Nunnally, who also translated "Kristen," renders similarly in English. We're allowed to live through Olav and Ingunn, privy to their innermost thoughts and feelings.

This novel didn't quite reach the standard of "Kristin Lavransdatter" for me, I think because the story line is sometimes melodramatic; neither Olav nor Ingunn are quite as compelling as Kristen either. Still, I'm eagerly awaiting Nunnally's translation of the other 3 volumes.