The bitterness in this story was mighty depressing! Excellent for what it was but not particularly to my taste. I have little sympathy for jaded characters.

With a theme not far from the one found in "Kristin Lavransdatter" I was surprised to find this just as engaging (and not nearly as time consuming!). Reading Sigrid Undset's works I return to my own life just a little more grateful, forgiving, and perhaps even... loving. While you feel such pain for the characters locked into their (often) self-induced tragedies, you sometimes find hints of the same things in your own life. You realize you can't change their lives and choices, but you can change your own, by grace. Undset is always a page turner for me; I don't know exactly why, but I'll be working through the story for weeks and the characters for years. How does she do that with so few words?

Lettura totalmente alla cieca per completare più sfide, però direi che mi va bene, con quello che scelgo. Lettura interessante, è il primo libro che abbia mai letto ambientato nel medioevo nordico: interessante perché non c'è alcun tentativo di modernizzazione dei personaggi come ci sono a volte avviene con bestseller più famosi. Il mondo vichingo viene dipinto qui con realismo e una certa crudezza stilistica.

Vigdis è la bella figlia di un capotribù, Gunnar di cui Viga-Liot, un vichingo islandese giunto nei luoghi dove vive la ragazza come ospite, si innamora a prima vista. Benché ella lo ricambi, la sua richiesta di attendere per richiedere la sua mano al padre e i comportamenti stupidi di Viga dettati dalla gelosia (attacca baruffa stupida con un altro dei pretendenti, compone canzoni sui momenti teneri spiattellandoli al mondo, crede al clan rivale di ancora in faida con Gunnar perché la ragazza ha rifiutato il loro campione, che mette in giro voci che la ragazza in realtà sia un po' troppo di facili costumi per rivalsa)... Viga è un cretino, diciamolo. Per completare il quadro, invita Vigdis a parlare nei boschi per assicurarsi che con lei sia tutto a posto e approfittando del momento di solitudine la violenta. E parte e se ne va. E complimentoni, Viga. Vigdis ovviamente - ma che stiamo a dirlo - rimane incinta ma riesce abbastanza a nascondere la gravidanza, decisa ad abbandonare il bambino subito dopo la nascita, ma dopo qualche tempo scopre che i suoi servi lo hanno salvato e decide di crescerlo lei, sebbene all'inizio non voglia affezionarsi perché ancora incazzata come una iena col padre del bambino (e ci mancherebbe). La serie di disgrazie continua perché la faida con l'altro clan degenera, arrivando alla morte sul rogo del padre e della nutrice di Vigdis, la ragazza fugge col bambino nel bosco in pieno inverno, viene salvata da dei banditi che poi per sua intercessione ottengono la grazia dal re, che le restituisce anche le sue terre e punisce gli assassini di suo padre. Nel mentre Viga (all'oscuro della nascita del figlio) viene convinto a sposarsi con un'altra e pur non riuscendo a smettere di amare Vigdis mette su famiglia. Una serie lunga e oscura di disgrazie anche qui... E sul finale Viga, Vigdis e Uslar, il figlio, si ritrovano, ma Vigdis ancora desiderosa di vendetta mette su un bel quadretto da Oresteide: Viga viene ucciso dal figlio (anche se ormai è d'accordo, non avendo niente per cui vivere se non quel figlio ritrovato in vecchiaia), ma davanti alla testa mozzata dello stupratore Vigdis comprende che la vendetta non le porterà nulla.

È sicuramente una ricostruzione della vita di quel periodo ben fatta, cruda e crudele in maniera realistica, e lo stile asciutto dell'autrice calza qui a pennello. I personaggi forse sono un po' prevedibili ormai (non so descrivere la voglia di prendere Viga e sbattergli la testa contro un sasso, anche se paradossalmente più che per lo stupro per tutto il resto... cialtrone) , però c'è da considerare che questo libro ha già più di cent'anni.
Ho letto che questo romanzo breve si considera una sorta di prova generale per il capolavoro di questa autrice... Ci potrei fare un pensierino.
Comunque la consiglio, mi è piaciuta e di certo è un punto di vista diverso dal solito.

Undset takes no prisoners and makes no concessions in this echo of Norse saga. Vigdis, the titular daughter of Gunnar, falls in love with Ljot. When stumbling blocks emerge, Vigdis meets Ljot in the woods, where he rapes her. This sets off a grand chain of events that eventually sees Vigdis' (mostly) righteous vengeance consume her and wipe away all others. Ljot emerges a noble man consumed by regret and loss while Vigdis becomes a powerful and independent woman who ends up destroying herself in her vengeance. Both main characters are killers who nevertheless compel our sympathy and admiration.

The prose is spare and measured, a dramatic contrast to the powerful emotions and dramatic actions that make up this story.

I had never read a book set in the Viking era before this one, and it left a strong impression. The narrative is beautifully crafted, capturing the journey of Vigdis, a woman whose story is both poignant and powerful. The author excels in portraying the raw complexities of personal and familial relationships, providing a nuanced view of the struggles faced by individuals during that time. I particularly appreciated how the book addresses the profound grief and depression a mother endures after losing a child. Despite its age, the storyline feels incredibly relevant today, offering psychological insight that I believe differs from many contemporary works.

Può essere una storia ambientata ai tempi dei vichinghi un romanzo moderno e quasi femminista?
Può.
Vigdis ama Ljot che ama Vigdis, ma non lo può sposare perché (è pur sempre una storia medievale) Ljot è un attaccabrighe e non ha la benedizione del padre di Vigdis, Gunnar. Una sera, durante un incontro clandestino, Ljot pensa bene di prendersi quello che considera comunque di sua proprietà, violentando Vigdis.
A questo punto per la protagonisa comincia un'esistenza da ricostruire: senza più la possibilità di difendere il suo onore, madre di un figlio illegittimo, dovrà imparare a sopravvivere al suo mondo e anche al suo amore, che vuole trasformare in vendetta.
Sigrid Undset è stata una grande scrittrice norvegese che ha ambientato la maggior parte delle sue storie in epoca medievale, pur scrivendo a inizio '900. La cosa curiosa è che le sue protagoniste - quasi sempre sono i personaggi femminili a prendersi la ribalta -, sono dei personaggi estremamente moderni.
Qui vediamo Vigdis affrontare un dilemma straziante: come si fa ad andare avanti quando l'uomo che ami e che diceva di amarti ti offende nel peggior modo possibile?
Una lettura che in relativamente poche pagine condensa un tema piuttosto importante e lo fa da una prospettiva femminile.

depressing. didn't care for it 2 _ stars

Thou liknest eek wommenes love to helle,
To bareyne lond, ther water may nat dwelle.
Thou liknest it also to wilde fyr;
The moore it brenneth, the moore it hath desir
To consume every thyng that brent wole be.

A one-way travel to early eleventh century Norway and Iceland written in the simple prose and exploring some of the major themes of old Norse sagas. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more from Sigrid Unset.

I’ve never quite read a book like this before. I wasn’t as sucked into their world as I would have liked, and because the story was set in such a different age I wished there were more details surrounding their world and customs. However, I enjoyed the unique love story and idolized the strong female lead.

4.5/5

The journey by which I found out about and then acquired a copy of this work is nothing short of magical, and is why I so deeply miss the reserve of used book sales I somewhat took for granted back in the day. You see, way back when, I took on Undset's Kristin Lavransdatter due to my habit of 'go big or go home' when it comes to underrepresented demographics in various awards, in this case the Nobel Prize for Literature, and ended up discovering a favorite. Through some whim of circumstance, I had actually committed to this, one of Undset's lesser known works, two years prior to my first reading of her, and if one knows anything about literary publications of women in translation, you know that not even a Nobel can save their less lauded works from obscurity. So when I went through the motions of the often thankless process of searching through the section devoted aged hardbacks largely of works long out of print and stumbled upon this long familiar title, I was more than a little chuffed. After so many years of intensive reading, I knew not to expect an author up to measure up in their second engagement to the level they set in the first, especially with as awe inspiring an introduction that Undset struck. However, this work is a masterful portrayal of desire, revenge, and unfulfillment, splayed out on the field of the Nordic Middle Age, the Vikings still reaping and sowing in the vein of pagan fulfillment but just on the verge of being fully converted to Christianity. It's the opposite of experimental and has no interest in subverting expectations, but if you're in the mood for a tale of in the style of old that zings just as sharply in the modern day, you're in for a real treat.

There's a lot going on these days, and yet, because of capitalism, so much of it looks the same. Sure, freedom of speech and all that, but if something doesn't become the next cash cow and pull in the consumers past their credit limits, good luck convincing someone who doesn't already participate in an open access project (fanfiction, Wikipedia, game modding, etc) that it's worth bringing into existence. Due to its inherent physical characteristics and position in society, literature can more easily escape the hegemonic specter that is the superhero movie where no one really dies and thus no one really matters, but if you asked yourself whether a work like this one here could be published to the wide acclaim it deserves today, you'd probably tell yourself that the plot is nothing new, the characters do not for a single moment quip, and the world building really doesn't sustain itself without any high fantasy thrills. And yet, this text thrills without proselytizing, immerses without overwhelming, and for the most part takes me back to the days where I would hold my breath while reading the last few pages, the conclusion impossible to predict and the tension thick enough for a knife. It didn't end up ranking as highly as Kristin Lavransdatter, but it did further confirm my labeling Undset as a favorite. For sometimes the humans are drawn so well in both their sanctity and their sins that one must know what happens, the conflict is so familiar in their horrid complexity that one cannot help but painfully relate, and the setting is so enticing in its possibilities and dire in its consequences that one simultaneously yearns for it while being more than relived that one is in the 21st century. As stated, it's likely too simplistic and 'done before' to win any prizes today, but sometimes what one needs on these dreary days is a ripping good tale, and the fact that the tale is about a woman who happens to be a human is an added bonus.

A few months after I relocated for work, I decided that, in order to balance being unwilling to drive 70+ miles for a potential handful of used books and yet fervently missing the experience nonetheless, I'd permit myself a regular monthly amount to spend on Bookshop.org. Now that my finances are much more stable, I'm in a better position than I've ever been to actually indulge in that scheme, but after my experience with this work, I know for a fact that getting that shipment in the mail, all nice and neat and easily collated, is never going to be as gratifying as the thrill of the successful hunt. Thoughts of eventually moving again to a more booksale-friendly area aside, I'm grateful that the fervent commitment to literature that I've dedicated nearly two decades of my life and an untold amount of my money to cultivating has made for experiences like these, where a used book that I pick up for a buck ends up being the bridge between a fraught past and a vibrant future. Indeed, upon looking back on my logged tag updates for this, I realize that I so fortuitously acquired it a mere five days before I got the offer of the full time job that has taken me farther on my love affair with bookishness than my younger, much beleaguered, engineering undergrad self could have ever imagined. The fact that it happened with a work of Undset's is, honestly, to be expected. In any case, I'm sure at some point I'll read one of her books and not have it be coupled with a cataclysmically life affirming event, but to find that out, I'll simply have to read more of her books. And if worse comes to worst and my life is totally typical from beginning to end, I'll have yet another masterful book by a damn good author who deserves far more contemporary acclaim than she gets under my belt, and that's hardly the worst thing to settle for, no?

The updated saga form further proves to us how little the fundamentals of human nature change over the centuries. I respect brutal truths.