3.5 - I'm a quarter through The Wife now and in hindsight this one was way more of a slow burn. Amazing world building. As soon as you read a couple paragraphs you're fully back in medieval Norway.

Die Neuübersetzung dieses Werkes möchte ich absolut nicht kritisieren. Auf Gabriele Haefs ist immer Verlass, wenn es um stimmungsvolle Bilder, Personenbeschreibungen und einen angenehmen Lesefluss geht. Schön, dass dieses Werk modernen Leser:innen wieder zugänglich gemacht wird.

Die Geschichte der Kindheit/Jugend von Kristin Lavranstochter Anfang des 14. Jahrhunderts interessierte mich sehr wegen des historischen Settings. Gerade die Konzentration auf die weiblichen Hauptfiguren zeichnet dieses Werk aus. Aber Kristin ist seit langem eine Protagonistin, die mich unendlich genervt hat. Dieses "sich fügen ins eigene Schicksal" und das ständige Lamentieren über "Schande und Sünde" - nicht mein Fall. Kristin kann einfach nichts aus eigenem Antrieb und lässt sich vom eigenen Vater und ihrem Love Interest einfach nur herumschubsen. Es zeigt außerdem auf schmerzliche Art und Weise, wie ekelhaft der Glauben/das Christentum in Skandinavien zu einer völligen Herabwertung der Frau führt und Kristin wirklich glaubt, dass alles Unglück nur ihretwegen passiere. NOPE Mädchen - es ist das fucking 14. Jahrhundert, ohne nennenswerte medizinische Versorgung - deswegen gibt es Fehlgeburten und im Kindbett sterbende Frauen. Es hat auf jeden Fall NICHTS mit deinen "sündigen" Gedanken zu tun oder dass du nicht ins Kloster gegangen bist. Argh.
Und die Sexszenen - nein, das ist keine Verführung - Vergewaltigung ist der richtige Terminus. Krass, wie das romantisiert wird und die junge Frau nicht schlau draus wird.

I had the story built up in my head before ever reading it and as much as I loved the setting, the side by side of nature, superstition and religion, Kristin just really wound me up and the love story in it, well I never bought it. I guess Kristin will have made herself a bed in which she will have to sleep rather uncomfortably.

It’s hard to know how to review this without giving any spoilers! It’s really well written and was an emotional rollercoaster. Nothing graphic at all but the themes are for late teens to adults I would say. I immediately started the 2nd one. (Oh! I also thoroughly enjoyed the little story a priest told her about the animals at Christ’s birth speaking Latin and I’m going to read it to my Latin students at Christmas time! Lol)

Helt otrolig och absolut min favorit av de romaner jag läst under sommarkursen nobelklassiker!

This is the first book in a trilogy set in Norway in the fourteenth century. The central character is Kristin Lavransdatter who we first meet as a young girl spending a good deal of time with her father on visits to various parts of their large estate farm in eastern Norway. Through the father-daughter interactions we, the readers, get an introduction to rural life, farming, social customs and religious beliefs of early 14th century Norway. We also fall in love with the sweet innocent girl that Kristin is at that point in the story.

Later, when Kristin has been engaged to a local notable man, quite a few years her senior, she is unsure about the marriage. Her understanding and caring father agrees with her plea to let her spend a year or so in a convent near Oslo. Through Kristin's experiences in the convent we learn about both 14th century city and convent life.

She may be living at the convent, but her life is certainly not cloistered. She is allowed to go into the city for market and social occasions. Through these trips she meets Erlend who becomes the love of her life. But she is betrothed to another man, so things get complicated.

Breaking the engagement of course has its own difficulties. But it turns out that her new love, Erlend, has had a wife and a paramour with whom he has two children. Kristin's parents think Erlend is an unwise choice for their daughter, so several years pass in which their marriage is forbidden.

They eventually become married by the end of this book, but by then Kristin is pregnant and has been an accomplice in the murder death of Erlend's former mistress. So their marriage begins under the cloud of guilt for grave sin. This is in contrast to the young innocence with which the book began.

Sigrid Undset won the 1928 Nobel Prize in Literature largely because of the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy. This book provides a well done descriptive portrayal of 14th century Norway. But the plot itself impresses me as a soap opera sort of romance novel. At this point I haven't read the second and third books of the trilogy so it's possible my appreciation of the story may improve as I advance through the trilogy. It's clear to me that guilt is going to be part of the coming plot of the next two books. Also, I'm pretty sure her new husband (in my opinion) can not be trusted to be a faithful companion. We'll see if my suspicions are correct.

The first book in the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, a classic in Norwegian literature by a Nobel prize winner author (and a book that I have been postponing for years).

From the beginning, Undset’s descriptions of rural family life in Gudbrand Valley create a colorful portrait of 14th century Norway, showing a society ruled by centuries-old traditions and by the Catholic Church strict precepts. I was not particularly gripped by the story itself, which is the courtship and engagement of a strong willed young woman from a well-respected and devout family to an older man of tarnished reputation but from wealthy and noble backgrounds.

I liked the father-daughter relationships between Lavrans and Kristin, and it’s a pity that her mother, Ragnfrid, is almost absent (only at the very end the reader discovers more about her past).

The religious aspect of the book was interesting; with the author showing the big influence of the church and its representatives on the small rural communities, for example the division of time and farm labours in terms of religious festivities, etc. Other interesting aspects are the Norwegian medieval feudal system, the relationships of kinship and the heavy weight of family reputations in early 14th century society.

The flow of this novel is uneven. There are long lyrical passages and virtually no actions, filled with Kristin’s reflections on her condition and moral struggles, sprinkled by few and brief dramatic scenes e.g. the attempted rape, Arne’s death, the accident that leaves her sister crippled, the death of Erlend’s mistress, the fire at the church etc..

To be honest, I didn’t feel a strong connection with the protagonist. Kristin is a sensitive woman, but I wonder if her insistence on marrying Erlend is an indication of a strong back bone or simply stubbornness towards her father’s opposition and comes out of moral obligation once she has promised herself.

She seems aware of Erlend’s weaknesses and often ponders the wisdom of becoming his wife and sharing a life with him. Moreover, she insists that Erlend is the love of her life and yet she is swayed by Simon’s decency and nice appearance, showing even some jealousy towards Simon’s new wife.

Erlend is cast as an unreliable and fickle character. I felt sympathy towards Lavrans, and share his concerns for Kristin’s future as the wife of a weak and reckless husband with shaky reputation. Aashild is a complex character that I would have liked to know better as well as Simon, Kristin’s neighbor and former betrothed.

Having reached the end of the first book, my feeling is that trouble is brewing and that there will be consequences for Kristine’s love choices and actions, as any good saga will tell you. There are too many loose threads to be otherwise; too many secondary characters with a secret past that I’m sure will feature later on in the trilogy, one of the interesting ones is Aashild’s partner, Bjørn (who helped with Eline’s body).

I can see challenges ahead for Kristin once she takes residence in Husaby, for example, will she be accepted by Erland and Eline’s children, what will their legal status be? How will Kristine’s own child feature in Erland’s extended family hierarchy and inheritance ladders?

Unfortunately, although I liked The Wreath, I didn’t fell in love with it like so many readers have. My expectations for this book (having been described as reminiscent of Norse saga with “its echoes of Old Norse legends”) remain largely unfulfilled.

The enjoyment of a translated book depends on the quality of a translation, but also on whether its style matches the reader’s personal preferences. The language style of my edition (Penguin’s classics translated by Tiina Nunnally) is simple and easy to follow, but I was expecting something richer. This is not to say that it wasn’t engaging, only that I found the language plain and its “echoes” of the Nordic sagas remain a mystery to me. According to the experts, Nunnally’s translation is preferable, being closer to the original Norwegian’s rhythm and flow. As far as I know, there is an earlier version, supposedly more poetic in style, and perhaps that one might have been a better choice for me. At the moment, I am not compelled to continue with the second book, but we’ll see.

Can't remember when I read this, but I LIVED in the Kristin Lavransdatter books! Such a spirited heroine in medieval Norway. ALWAYS get the Tiina Nunnally translation -- the older one is much clunkier.

I think this trilogy will be a new favorite of mine. Full of haunting religious imagery, The Wreath begins the story of Kristin Lavransdatter a young woman growing up in 14th century Norway and is her spiritual journey. In this volume we see Kristin's life and soul destroyed by her all-consuming desire for sin. Being so drawn in and taken by what she wants she is willing to sacrifice everything else - her family, her reputation, and her chastity in order to have something she knows deep down will not bring her true happiness. This is very much so not a politically correct book and I don't know what those who are offended by Christianity would think of it but I loved this first volume!

I was truly not expecting to like this book and definitely not expecting to love it. It was our long term bookclub read and it took me until the month before we met to start it. I’ve never read anything set in medieval times and definitely not Norway. It was fascinating to reach back in time to see the inter workings of family lineage, church history, and humanity and culture melding together. Kristen was a hard character to love and I don’t know that I liked her anymore at the end but she was a very human character which made me appreciate her for all that she represented at such a tender time in life.

This is a historical fiction set in Medieval Norway that brought Sigrid Undset her Nobel prize.
The best part of the book for me was the first part. The part about Kristin’s childhood and her family. Her incredibly kind father and her poor chronically depressed melancholic mother.
Kristin is growing up, she is promised in marriage to a boring and portly Simon and then suddenly her life trajectory is shattered when she meets a beautiful guy Erlend and all her problems start from there.
And that’s where I started to lose interest. And I do mean they are suddenly deep in love, this is no slow burn. I felt I was missing something, that’s how quickly they start with their vows of love and fidelity. Then we get a lot of wanting Erlend, being with him, wanting to marry him, battling her father over him etc.
Some people hate her choice but it was telegraphed in the first part of this book.

“Fru Aashild looked down at the child, smiling. “You mean because now I’m separated from all those things?” She laughed quietly and then she said, “I’ve had my glory days, Kristin, but I’m not foolish enough to complain because I have to be content with sour, watered-down milk now that I’ve drunk up all my wine and ale. Good days can last a long time if one tends to things with care and caution; all sensible people know that. That’s why I think that sensible people have to be satisfied with the good days—for the grandest of days are costly indeed. They call a man a fool who fritters away his father’s inheritance in order to enjoy himself in his youth. Everyone is entitled to his own opinion about that. But I call him a true idiot and fool only if he regrets his actions afterward, and he is twice the fool and the greatest buffoon of all if he expects to see his drinking companions again once the inheritance is gone.”

And I see where the story is going in the next two books. There will be a lot of paying for what she's done in this book and repenting and procreating I guess.
I don’t know whom to recommend this book. If you want beautiful prose this is not it. If you want a romance - this is not it. Here are a few samples of romance:

Kristin was trembling—she thought it was because her heart was pounding so hard—and her hands were clammy and cold. When he kissed the bare skin above her knee, she tried powerlessly to push him away. Erlend raised his face for a moment, and she was suddenly reminded of a man who had once been given food at the convent—he had kissed the bread they handed to him. She sank back into the hay with open arms and let Erlend do as he liked.
****
But he had taken her, partly by force, but with laughter and with caresses too, so she has been unable to show him that she was serious in her refusal.

If you want epic saga - better try  Independent people or The Greenlanders, those are really epic. I’ve read a little about Sigrid Undset, and she basically “married” a painter who was already married and gave him 3 kids while he was a bigamist. So I guess this book is Sigrid working on her devout catholicism and marriage issues. And to think she was a contemporary of Jean Rhys. It’s like they wrote in different centuries. Where Rhys’ prose is alive and experimental this one is dour and bleak.

In the end I just don’t care about Kristin or Erlend or their story enough to continue.

A good page turner set entirely in its 14th century. As much as I liked the prose, I found that the characters didn't connect to me at a 4 star level of enjoyment. It's about faith, and it's about choices. And it is truly embedded in its locale sublimely. But I found the women difficult and some of the men distasteful. It's rather dated in style, but that is certainly not in a bad way at all. I would have liked it far more if the women had been less moody. Kristin tends to whine. And I don't think her raw rebellion is an empowerment to being a female in her time at all. In fact, the big surprise to me was the rather blatant level of immorality to the standard of the time. Happy outcomes rarely pair with this reality. It's not a trilogy I would continue with despite the excellence of the writing. Too many heartless manipulators for me.