Kristin Lavransdatter. How can Undset make 14th-century Norway so incredibly familiar? From the housing with no windows to the wimple of a married woman, Undset sets out to captivate you using very simple yet profound descriptions. Kristin Lavransdatter is a drama. From the very beginning of the book the town of Jorundgaard is teeming with gossip and rumors.
Firstly, I forgot how hilarious this book is. “But on that night, Lodin and Peter had a different kind of pleasure than they had counted on"pg58 (IYKYK)
The character Lavrans is treated with the highest respect, and it is quite a shock when the scandal of his perfect young daughter, Kristin, who falls in love with the much older Erlend, resulting in an end to her previous engagement to Simon Darre, comes out.
I think it is easy and often that we immediately jump to judging Kristin and her life decisions (to be fair, they are pretty terrible). Her tumultuous relationship with Erlend spans the next two books, and they are filled with regret, love, repentance, forgiveness, hatred, and every evil and wonderful thing about human beings imaginable. Undset does not sugarcoat the soul. She spells out exactly how and what Kristin is feeling. It can become uncomfortable at times and not a pleasant thing to read, so we frequently hate the lead character out of dignity for ourselves, often overlooking the fact that maybe there is a little bit of Kristin in all of us.

A quote, because it’s beautiful.
“Lavrans Bjorgulfson was still standing there, holding the crucifix. His arm lay across the arms of the cross, and he was leaning his head on the shoulder of Christ. It looked as if the Savior were bending his beautiful, sad face toward the man to console him.”

Oh so good! This was a fantastically written romantic historical fiction set in 14th century Norway. At first it felt like it was going to be a slow burn with lots of character and place development but little action. Boy was I wrong! Plenty of things happened and it was so well done that I was right there with them and felt for all the characters. Can't wait to start the next book in the trilogy.

Understated masterpiece - they don't hand out Nobel prizes for nothing you know! Wonderfully evocative of both time and place (comprising social conventions, descriptions of landscape), superbly realised characters (particularly the old priest Brother Edvin and Kristin's father Lavrans). Some soap-opera-like plot misunderstandings/tribulations blended with more serious/thoughtful /emotional passages. Success on every level makes this a remarkable achievement, and I still have the other two books to look forward to!
(P.S. I read the early Archer & Scott translation, which I found excellent, but if it's true that the more recent Nunnally translation is better then I would probably need more than 5 stars!)

edit - re-read: Nunnally translation this time - 5 Stars still correct ;o)

I have set out to read Kristin Lavransdatter several times, but I have an omnibus copy and the length always made me stop at some point. So this time I decided to just aim for The Wreath and go from there. A much better decision because I finished it in a few days and enjoyed every page.

Concurrently, I'm reading Anna Karenina for the first time, and though the books are set centuries apart in separate nations, they were published close enough to each other and consider some of the same questions, especially marriage and fidelity in society. We follow Kristin from childhood and get to know her family intimately, and her decisions regarding marriage. They're not exactly comparable novels in some ways, but they do talk to each other well.

After one point in the novel, I found it hard to like Kristin. She spends a year at a monastery in hopes that she can aid in the healing of her sister...and she seems to forget about that completely while making some poor decisions. However, those final few pages made me even more interested in the book than I was before, and I am eager to read the rest of it. I absolutely love the setting and Undset's talent for description. Tiina Nunnally's translation is marvelous and very readable.

Last night I finished reading Kristin Lavrandatter Book I, The Wreath. It is the fourth time I read this book. Is it beginning to become predictable or boring? Quite the contrary—I loved it this time more than ever. It is a different read than it was the first time when I read it mostly to find out what would happen. I now I know what becomes of the rest of Kristin's life. And with knowing, there is deeper resonance. Just as in our own lives, we can sometimes look back at earlier events and see value and meaning and order where we could not see it while we lived it, I can see these things in Kristin's early life, having seen all the years that follow. This is one of the great benefits of rereading: it is like a contemplated life. When we don't reread, it is a bit like living without contemplation; it is the contemplation that makes our life richer. Spending time thinking about events in our life can sometimes be as good or even better than the event itself. I am reminded of the great poem Tintern Abbey by William Wordsworth,

Though absent long,
These forms of beauty have not been to me,
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye:
But oft, in lonely rooms, and mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them,
In hours of weariness, sensations sweet,
Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart,
And passing even into my purer mind
With tranquil restoration

There have been many times, in the years since I first met Kristin Lavransdatter, that in my own hours of weariness, I thought of her, and sensations sweet, such as courage to continue faithfully on, were felt in my heart and passed into my mind. I can't wait to read the book again, and eventually, I'm sure, to read this again, too.




I finished reading this for the third time March 25, 2014. God willing, it won't be the last.

The Wreath, part one of Sigrid Undset's trilogy of fourteenth century Norway, sets the stage and introduces the main characters of this masterful epic--Kristin Lavransdatter, her loving, pious father Lavrans, her rather mysterious mother Ragnfrid, and the handsome and dangerous Erlend Nikulausson, the man she falls passionately and faithfully in love with, regardless of everything demanded of her by her family and the rules of the society she lives in.

I highly recommend this novel. It is definitely worth the time spent.

3.5 stars rounded down

I am happy to have finally gotten to this first in the trilogy of Kristin Lavransdatter this year, although I am struggling with how to rate it and review it. This was published in 1920 and originally written in Norwegian and I could sense a formality to the translation that sometimes slowed me down and kept my flow of reading from being as smooth as it could be. I have just learned that a newer, easier translation is available. I read the original translation done between 1923 and 1927 by Charles Archer and J.S. Scott. All that aside, the story of Kristin was one that took a little time to draw me in.

We meet Kristin in childhood and follow her all the way to her wedding day. The story takes place during the Middle Ages, specifically in the 14th century Norway. The landscape is prominent as well as the rural lifestyle of this period. It was very interesting to read about the culture and the way they lived in the Jorundgaard communities. The depiction of medieval life has come to be viewed as accurate which always enhances the authenticity of an historical novel.

This is something of a coming of age story and at the same time it is a romance. Kristin is the eldest daughter of Lavrans who is a well-respected nobleman. His wife, Ragnfrid is often moody and withdrawn from the family and Kristen is doted on by her father. The family is devoutly religious and follow the Catholic faith raising Kristin to live according to the rites of their religion. Yet, evidence of the old pagan rituals and beliefs still linger throughout the culture. Kristin’s willful personality, however, puts her into some situations that change her life’s trajectory. She is betrothed to a good match set up by her father but when tragedy occurs she cannot come to grips with getting married. She is sent to live for a year with the nuns at Nonneseter Abbey in Oslo where her life is further transformed when she meets and falls in love with a reckless but charming man. Kristin is caught between her vow of betrothal and her feelings of true love and the guilt and shame she endures for the many sins she has committed.

The Church seems to be another character and Kristin befriends a kind monk called Brother Edvin, a person she looks to for counsel. His insights and advice are always loving and helpful. Life at this time was centered on Church traditions as well as the conventions of their society. Modern readers may not enjoy reading about how a father has complete control over his young daughter but that was the way it was.

Sigrid Undset won the Nobel prize in 1928 for her portrayal of life in medieval Norway.

I plan to return to the continuing saga of Kristin Lavransdatter at some point in the near future.

My thoughts on Erlend: yikes…

The gorgeous and emotional writing elevates it from Nordic soap opera to work on a higher plane. I want to read the next installment, soon.

This took some time for me to get used to the writing, but once I got through the first part of the book the story seemed to come together a bit more and I felt a little more invested. I’m struggling to know how I feel about this book, and whether or not I’m ready for the next one.

A brilliant cautionary tale. I loved the 14th century Norwegian setting, which I was completely unfamiliar with. I feel like I understand the medieval mindset a bit more. I loved the character development and look forward to seeing where the author takes us from here. Will Kristin grow in wisdom through what is shaping up to be a painful life? Or will she continue to make foolish, selfish choices?

This is a book (and very likely the whole trilogy) that I will hand to my teenage daughters in hopes that they will learn what giving in to temptation and reaping the consequences feels like so that hopefully they will be better prepared to avoid that fate in their own lives.

Basically a series of terrible decisions by a beautiful daughter, the fidelity of her father, and the consequences of mortal sin on a soul…

My missionary heart was actively frustrated seeing the disconnect and malaise Kristin experienced, and the complete naivety towards the goodness of her father. Selfishness, numbness, and attunement to faults and imperfections. It was painful to read, and I think that was the whole point.

There were awesome discussions in family book club, including the moral culpability of parents in the decision making of their children…cool stuff. Not a 5 because I desired more of the characters thought processes in their decisions (more Tolstoy, basically)…but that’s simply a preference…still definitely reading the second one though lol.

Den utspelar sig för 800 år sen men den är så bra! Så vackert språk, så levande människor... En klassiker i ordets rätta mening; en bok som lever i en medan man läser den och som finns kvar när man lagt ner den.