This is a difficult book to review. Translated from Norwegian, this first book of a trilogy follows Kristin Lavransdatter through her childhood and adolescent years in medieval Norway. Deeply moving and profoundly spiritual, this can be a heart breaking book to read at times. The crux of this story is Kristin’s pre-marriage sexual intimacy, which is clearly, without reservation, called sin. Though the book handles sensitive issues, it is never graphic.

Martin Cothran of Memoria Press cited this book as one of twelve fiction books that Christians should read. I can see why and will finish the trilogy to get the absolute full picture of Kristin’s story.

This first book of the trilogy was slow at first but by the end, Undset had me hooked.

A tale set in Medieval (14th cent) Norway. A tale of the unflowering of a gentlewoman, Kristin,and the emotions and effects this causes her and her family. Undset focuses on the beliefs of the time and the religious torment caused because of sin. Filled with daily activities amongst inner turmoil this is a book that opens up a time period that seems both distant and yet understood by common themes we find today; family relationships, responsibility and duty, hardship and joys of everyday life, love and shame, guilt and grief.

My thoughts on characters in the book and the author:

Ragnfrid, Kristin's mother also carried guilt/shame into her marriage which being unable to divulge seemed to have grown deeper. Depression is in large measure both repressed anger, lack of control in one's life and self loathing. All these things Ragnfrid felt in large measures.

Lavrans I think he has been a good husband and father. He tried his best and is open to learning and wants to be a good husband. What more can a woman ask of a man?

Kristin cares what others think about her sin but most importantly she cares that she has brought this sin upon those who love her the most. Kristin is not a hypocrite and wants to be true but is bound on all sides by tradition and the rule of others. She would be a submissive wife to a good husband but she has fire and intelligence and to a man not worthy of her, as Erlend, then her fight for something better for those she loves will cause her to be dominant when she needs to be. Erlend is weak and has no self-control and as this will effect her life and her children's lives, I can see she will not be able to follow Erlend. She seems to me to be more in tune with spiritual things than the spiritual mentors around her. She would rejoice if she had a good spiritual head but it seems that Kristin is going to learn that we must find our way to God and truth ourselves if we truly seek to be enlightened.

Undset:
I think she has shown that women would prefer a strong male head but that in the main both men and women are flawed and that ultimately we must strive together side by side.

I believe what she is showing in the novel is that the journey to enlightenment is a personal journey that can at times be very lonely. I personally do not think that any one group of people are fit for this journey but rather a type of people. Be they free or slave, black or white, male or female, it is the heart and desire of the person for greater understanding and communion with higher spiritual things. It is who the person is inside and who they want to be that determines. Kristin strikes me as being a genuine seeker.

I think this trilogy will be a favorite for me. The world of 14th century Norway is so well-drawn, the writing is so good (translated from the Norwegian), the characters are so human.

När jag gick i högstadiet rekommenderade min modersmålslärare trilogin om Kristin Lavransdotter till mig. Jag kom mig inte för att läsa den, den verkade liksom lite ålderdomlig och svår. Förlåt, Marlene, att det tog mig sådan tid – men nu har jag läst första boken och älskat den. Så fascinerande tidsskildring, ja – men allra mest gillar jag den psykologiska skildringen av människorna i boken. Personerna är så skickligt tecknade att det känns som om de finns på riktigt och satt bredvid mig i rummet.

I have nothing against love affairs and romance in books, but then I, the reader, have to feel and experience at least an inkling of that love felt by the characters.

I must point out that the copy I read, the only Kindle version available to me in Europe, has ISBN number 978 0 307 789716. Unfortunately it was NOT translated by the talented Tiina Nunnally. Don't expect wonderful prose. Probably Tiina Nunnally has succeeded ; choose her translation instead.

You do perhaps get a feel for the era.

I read through Part 2, chapter 6, i.e. half of the book.

The three volume set of Kristin Lavransdatter has been on my currently reading shelf since 2016. :-( I finished book one, and started book two at that time, but there it sat. So I'm deleting the set from my shelves, and separating them out, as I re-start book 2.

The Wreath enchanted me. I loved the story: the complex emotions of the family members, the intensity of their feelings, the descriptions of their work and their rituals. I wish I could write a real review, but too much time has gone by. I just know I loved spending time in this world.

There is something so refreshing about the stark simplicity of Undset's language. It's just so clean! And yet the simplicity of language gave us quite beautiful descriptions, particularly of the natural world. I’m not sure I ever realized that simplicity could be so lyrical. Her ability to lead us by the hand into the mindset of the middle-ages was fascinating. She leaves us asking, in the end, which is more worthy, love or traditional obedience and morality? And we are so immersed in the morality of the middle-ages by that point that the answer is not at all clear to us. Reading this was a beautiful experience!

Kristin – why the hell are you so high maintenance?! In a time when parents could barely keep their children alive you need, need, need the love and attention of everyone! Oh – and then you toss it away as it suits you. And we love you for it.

This is one of the favorites that I’ve read in my lifetime. There are three (but probably more) reasons for this:

1)tKristin. You drive me crazy but I’ve been you (many of us have). I’ve been a carefree child with a father who would have given me the world if he could. I’ve fallen in love with the perfect boy for me (yes, Arne) but moved on because there had to be more to life. And I’ve fallen for the boy that I knew would not be good for me. But I am alive 700 years after you and I gave myself the time to evolve. My story ended much better than yours, Kristen, thankfully.
2)tNorway in the 1300s. Well – maybe ANYWHERE in the 14th century. How did people function? It’s such a curiosity to me – no running water, no electricity. Just getting water for coffee would have taken forever – why even care about coffee by the time it’s brewed. And honestly, wasn’t the BO a big turn off?
3)tNorway – at any time. Sigrid Undset had an amazing talent for revering the beauty of the Norwegian landscape. I could breathe the clean Norwegian air, see the fjords and the bright green foliage, feel the fresh, cool air. This book transports the reader to the time and the place.

I will read this book again and again and each time I will gain something new from the experience, appreciate Norway anew and learn more about myself and women, in general, by reading and understanding even more about Kristin Lavransdatter.

This is the first of a trilogy I probably will not complete. Unfortunately I chose what is a dated and execrable translation (early 1920s), stilted and stiff. I’ve read that more recent translations (1990s) are much smoother and don’t use language to make the 700 years between the story’s setting and modern times that much harder to bridge.

Kristin is a beloved child of an affluent Norwegian nobleman farmer and his melancholy wife who have lost three sons (as children, all older than Kristin). This is her story, against the restrictions of 1300s era Christianity, social expectations, and cultural taboos against willfulness in the female gender and sexuality.

Much of the story is pretty straightforward, some of it juvenile (forbidden teenaged love). The early section of the third part that focuses on Sigrid’s father is the best part, the burdens he bears and his integrity. Religion has twisted his joys though, and this is painful and sad.

Maybe for its time the story was radical and remarkable, but I don’t feel it’s aged well. The Nobel that year (1928) could surely have been better bestowed.

An interesting, splendid historical fiction taking place in the XIV century in Norway. There was all that makes a 5-star historical fiction, the complex characters (not good or bad, simply humans), everyday life, difficult decisions, sorrow, and happiness. You can learn more about medieval Norway, you can better understand those who lived then and there, and you can see that at the core they were not much different from people in other times and places. In other words, a must-read for every fan of the genre.

PS It wasn't the end I rooted for, but perhaps it was more real, for sure more remarkable.

Ooph. That was painful.

Kransen = The Wreath (Kristin Lavransdatter #1), Sigrid Undset
Kristin Lavransdatter is a trilogy of historical novels written by Nobel laureate Sigrid Undset. The individual novels are Kransen (The Wreath), first published in 1920, Husfrue (The Wife), published in 1921, and Korset (The Cross), published in 1922.
Kristin Lavransdatter is the daughter of Lavrans, a charismatic, respected nobleman in a rural area of Norway, and his wife Ragnfrid, who suffers from depression after the loss of three infant sons and the crippling of her younger daughter Ulvhild in an accident. Raised in a loving and devoutly religious family, Kristin develops a sensitive but wilful character, defying her family in small and large ways. At an early age, she is exposed to various tragedies. After an attempted rape raises questions about her reputation, she is sent to Nonneseter Abbey, Oslo, a Benedictine nunnery, which proves to be a turning point in her life.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: دوازدهم ماه فوریه سال 2001 م
عنوان: کریستین؛ نویسنده: زیگرید (سیگری) اونست؛ موضوع: مجموعه داستانهایى درباره سده هاى میانه نروژ - سده 20 م
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