Sequels are always hard, and the midpoint of the story is always where it's tested the most. I do not, however, want to say this is in any way bad. Undset is the best fiction writer I've yet come across.

This is a painfully frank reflection on the ageing process, human weakness, remorse, bottled up contempt, the supernatural, and self-justification.

There's something much like calvary in this stretch of Olav and Ingunn's life together. What had been the most romantic of dreams for them as children and young adults materialises in the baron (spiritually and physically) reality of the harsh wind-battered landscape at Hestviken.

As always with Undset, there is an enormous sensitivity to the supernatural- which never seems forced but perceptive to how such things actually work in the course of normal human life. You'll always walk away from her books a more mature person.

While full of misery and trial, and thereby making it a less joyous read, Undset makes you live with the characters and grow as they grow. I could well have given this a 5*, and perhaps I will depending on how the trilogy finishes. It is only the more (quite intentionally) joyless part of the characters' journey. This being so, it nonetheless doesn't rob the book of a single ounce of beauty, truth, or profundity.


UPDATE: I did return to give it 5*. The tetralogy is a window into a man's life. Life in reality is not a highlight reel, it is often a gruel. And this joyless part of Olav's life is woven into the whole beautifully.

For anyone interested in medieval history, Undset is your woman. Her books should be included in every course on the Middle Ages. Undset will dash all of your ideas about castles and courtiers and replace them with images of gritty, realistic medieval life, complete with oppressive religion and awful class and gender roles. I am so glad I was not born during this period.

Providence is the second book in the Olav Audunsson series. It is the story of Olav’s life a sweeping historical look at medieval Norway. In this installment, Olav returns home, brings home his bride, Ingunn, and starts his married life. However, his conscience eats at him, as he killed a man for raping his wife. He contemplates morality and his faith in God and his sins loom over his life. His wife is depressed, having sent her son, the product of the rape, to a foster family. She misses him dreadfully. Her depression is made worse because of the numerous miscarriages and the death of her children.

Undset’s writing is lyrical and expressive—this translation was flawless. You feel the pain and suffering of each character, their moral dilemmas, and the weight of their sin. If you have not read Undset, I would recommend reading her books. There is a clear reason why she won a Noble Prize in writing. However, her books are raw and real. Providence really contemplates the role of sin in the characters’ lives. It’s depressing. Nevertheless, it is a glorious historical look at medieval Norway.

Thank you to NetGalley and the University of Minnesota Press for providing me with an ARC.

Trigger warnings: death (adult and child); miscarriages; depression and trauma (as a result of rape, which happened in the previous book)

Well written, but not as engaging as the first in the series.

The second of four volumes, this continues the story of Olav and Ingunn as they settle at Hestviken, and try to build a life together. They are both haunted by misdeeds earlier in life, and the tensions that arise from those travails dominate their ostensibly bleak experiences.

I couldn't put it down! Nunnally's translation is so clear and precise. This is a beautiful but hard reckoning with sin, mercy, love, humanity.

n  All the talk about misfortune plaguing certain estates and families. . .I’m willing to accept it may have been true in heathen times. But you are surely wise enough to place your life and fate in the hands of God the Almighty and not believe such things. May God have mercy on you, my Olav. I wish you both happiness and bliss in your marriage. And may your lineage be known as fortunate men from now on!n

The second volume in Sigrid Undset’s Olav Audunssøn series, Providence shows how the title character suffers the consequences of his unrepented actions from the first volume, Vows; and suffer he does (“Providence” is an appropriate title for the theme of this volume [and is a direct translation of Undset’s original] but I find it interesting that the first translation into English in 1925 named this novel “The Snake Pit”; also metaphorically appropriate, if melodramatic). Once again, Unset’s writing is immersively informative on time and place (Fourteenth Century Norway on the Oslo Fjord) without being didactic, and the pressures she puts her characters under allow for an organic exploration of the laws and customs of the day. As a middle volume (there are four in this series), I didn’t find Providence to be quite as fascinating as the premise-building in Vows — and as most of the struggle in this book is between Olav and his conscience, there is a corresponding drop in action — but I still enjoyed this very much and am looking forward to the next in the series; I’m rounding down to three stars only in comparison to Vows. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms. Spoilers from here on.)

n  By now he’d given so much thought to every aspect of the matter that he could hardly remember anymore what he was thinking when he chose to remain silent and erase all trace of the deed, but he’d fooled himself into believing that the shame could be concealed. No one must know that he had gotten rid of Teit Hallssøn; then no one would find out that Ingunn had been disgraced by Teit. It seemed to Olav incomprehensible that he could have imagined anything so utterly foolhardy.n

Providence picks up where Vows ended: After killing the man, in self defense, who raped Ingunn (his betrothed since childhood), Olav Audunssøn returns to his “allodial estate” of Hestviken to become its new Master. When Olav goes to retrieve Ingunn from where she had been staying with kinfolk, he learns that she had given birth to a son by her rapist and had sent the boy off to live with a foster family. Although these events had brought Ingunn much shame up in the north, Olav was able to offer her a fresh start as the Mistress of Hestviken, where no one knew of the unwed pregnancy or the “wayside bastard” that resulted. The pair is young, beautiful, finally living together as they had expected to their entire lives, and although their future seems assured of happiness, the past insists on holding them back. Anxious to continue the family line (of which Olav himself is the last living member), Ingunn suffers a series of stillbirths and miscarriages, and when Olav realises that Ingunn is pining for her missing son, he retrieves the boy and claims him as his own. Olav eventually believes that because he had killed the rapist Teit without making a confession to the priest (and risking the priest forcing him to make a public confession as well and opening himself up to legal repercussions), God was punishing him. But when Olav suggests to Ingunn that he should finally clear his conscience, the weak and wasted woman fears what consequences would befall her and her son Eirik if her husband were jailed or exiled; Ingunn makes Olav promise to never make that confession and he agrees to live with a burdened soul, watching his beloved wife slowly fade away.

n  It felt like he was swimming with a drowning companion clinging to his neck, and to be deemed worthy of calling himself a man, he would either have to save the other person or drown as well. Yet it was possible to feel a certain failure of courage at the thought that the end was inevitable; he would be dragged under, no matter how hard he strove to do his utmost, because a man could do no less.n

While most of the action in this book takes place at Hestviken — and most of that inside the smoke-filled, sparsely-furnished main hall that served as the living quarters for this rich family of landowners — there are a few scenes of Olav fulfilling his duty to join in a leiðangr against the Danes; much history and social custom was relayed in this way, but I wish there had been a bit more about the supernatural beliefs of the people: the nøkk, the hulder, Ættarfylgja (Olav’s axe that sang before a killing), the ghost story that Olav’s aged kinsman Olav Ingolfssøn told about how he ruined his leg and which had caused another relative, Dirt Beard, to go mad. For the most part, however, the characters are trying to forget their pagan pasts and follow the teachings of the Church; and it is the disconnect between Olav’s religious beliefs and the accepted code of honour of the community that causes him so much unhappiness (that and his beloved wife wasting away in her bed with frequent bouts of diarrhea and suppurating bedsores). I am very much looking forward to the third volume (Crossroads) and hope that poor Olav finds some happiness there.

The second installment of the Olav Audusson epic takes off where Vows ends and does not disappoint. The relationships, struggles and victories of this growing family are heralded within. The old Norse ways come to life and keep you holding on for whatever happens next with Olav’s family.

"The Snake Pit" probably deserves 5 stars, but I found it so excruciating to read...I'd forgotten how Undset can really skewer a mother's heart, especially. I can't think of another book I've read in which despair is so tangible -- and has affected me so much. That said, the darkness only makes the theme of redemption all the more powerful. As I told a friend who'd read "The Axe" with me but couldn't finish this second book -- I'll press on, but the payoff had better be good!

Sigrid Undset is a writer for the ages - her themes cover the most basic of human needs - I finished the first 2 books of KL but could only start the third - MoH I find far more interesting - one gets a sense as to why SU converted to Catholicism - the Lutheran Church (as I remember from my youth) has no Latin liturgy and no Mary worship - from this tetralogy I sense SU found both to add much to her religious experience and she made me feel the same - I'm not religious in the sense of church going and am somewhat surprised how fascinating I find the books - of course her detailed knowledge of Norwegian medieval history does much to enrich the books.

Man, things just don't get much better for Olav and Ingunn, do they. And then guess who shows up....Lavrans Bjorgulfsson!!

This second installment of the quadrilogy is much more domestic than the previous volume, but to me, just as engrossing. There were definite echoes of Dostoyevsky. Olav and Ingunn are finally together, but what happened during their years apart make their marriage a sad one. Both carry much guilt, but because their guilt relates to actions very painful to the other person, neither can be honest with each other or with anyone else, though both are given opportunities to take a purgative path toward honesty. Like the first volume, the historical detail and realism is simply first-rate. I've never read anything that so convincingly and naturally brings this historical period to life. I am very interested to read what Olav's future holds.

(Caveat Lector: Olav and Ingunn face sorrows particularly regarding miscarriages, stillbirths, and early deaths of most of their children, which might be painful or difficult for some readers.)

This review originally published in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 4.5 of 5

Olav Audunssøn and Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter were betrothed as children and raised together as foster children. They are madly in love with each other, though Ingunn was raped by another man while Olav was absent. A child came from that event, Eirik, which Ingunn gave to a foster family. But Olav sees the depression Ingunn suffers from and brings Eirik back to Ingunn and adopts the boy as his own child.

Now they are returning to Olav's ancestral home and Olav looks forward to settling in and putting the past behind them. Here, no one knows about the shameful, unwanted pregnancy or Eirik's actual parentage. But a moment from the past haunts Olav - something he hasn't even confessed to his priest.

Olav is the last of his family line and he and Ingunn would like to have children of their own, but Ingunn suffers from a series of miscarriages and stillbirths. Olav is convinced it is punishment for his secret.

Ingunn does finally deliver a child from their union - a girl, Cecilia. But Ingunn doesn't recover after child birth, instead she grows sicker and bedridden,, but lives in her weakened, sick state, for years. With his wife bedridden, Olav finds himself desiring and taking one of his servants, but he has to send her away when she begins to show that she's carrying his child. Ingunn, no fool, knows what is happening and holds no grudge, apologizing for hanging on so long and, on her death bed, insists on meeting the infant.

Olav's world, three children from three different circumstances, is conflicted.

This is the second book in the Olav Audunssøn four-book series. As with the first book, I really felt comfortable in this fourteenth century world. Author Sigrid Undset (and translator Tiina Nunnally) captures the nature of a kind-hearted man who truly loves and is devoted to his wife (despite some later actions) and is trying to do his best in a world that is moving beyond him in some ways, and pulling him backward to a world of different morals.

This isn't an action-oriented novel and it isn't a historical fiction romance. This is great human interest drama set during a time of change for Norway. The themes of fidelity and commitment and community expectations is still as timely today as when this was written (in the 1920's) and for the period in which this takes place. Olav seems almost unusual in his commitment to Ingunn and her rape-produced child. And his response to the man who raped her is more than relevant given the news as write this ... actor Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on live television for what Smith thought was an insult to his wife.

So Olav seems almost too good to be true, then he he has his own affair while his wife is an invalid. While Ingunn forgives him and almost seems to encourage him to follow his manly urges. But as readers, we're torn ... 'he's been so good, so faithful, how could he? ' and 'totally acceptable in the circumstances, especially if his wife is okay with it'.

I am really caught up in this high middle ages drama and I look forward to the next two books.

Looking for a good book? Olav Audunssøn: II, Providence by Sigrid Undset and well translated by Tiina Nunally, is great period fiction and shows, once again, that humans haven't changed all that much over the centuries - even our societal mores have held relatively stagnant.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.