The glorious and dramatic finale of the tetralogy, in which Olav's daughter marries and his son Erick tries a few different vocations. The sins of Olav's past erupt, however, in the vagaries of his children's lives. By the end, we see a mixture of justice and mercy, of partial redemption, and we strive to identity the thread of grace slowly burning away at the intransigence of ancient sin. It's more dramatic than the previous books, and contains surprise turns at a surprising pace. Undset's typical richness of lush description of locale and the inner movements of the psyche and heart are on full display, bringing the series to a satisfactory close.

If you have not yet read the Olav books, do yourself a favor and dig in. You are transported by the story with all of its twists and turns, and the ending is positively triumphant!

The fourth volume is a satisfying conclusion to the 1000 page epic story of Olav the “Master.” I did enjoy that this series focused on a male character since a female had already been done so well in Kristin L. Except for a brief time in the third volume, I always found the series compelling. Although I am not a religious person, I find the characters’ religiousness and how it affects their actions, especially as it contrasts with their more primal urges, to be fascinating and true to the times. I enjoy examinations of such issues even in more modern books such as The End of the Affair.
With its clearer translation, I did enjoy the Kristin L. series more than this one. However the more archaic language of the Master series translation was, truthfully, not as much of a hindrance as I would have thought, It may be that I preferred the Krisdtin story since it my first Undset. The surprise I experienced at how much I enjoyed it certainly enhanced the pleasure of the reading experience.
The Master series does more successfully portray the second generation characters. The daughter is an interestingly drawn and complex, though secondary, character. The last volume even centers more around the ‘son avenger’ Eirik than it does Olav, the Master at the center of the overall series. In this book, Eirik is fleshed out and is a more complex and successful person than anticipated, although I was slightly disappointed in the end of Eirick’s story.  in that it ends up mirroring Kristin’s end story
As with Kristin L. I found great pleasure while immersed in middle age Norway. I will read more Undset.

Loved this final book. It was jam packed with twists and turns and resolutions and endings. Lots of endings. God is good, even when we are not. Mercy abounds.

"The Son Avenger" ended the tetralogy about the journey of Olav Audunsson's soul.

"You must remember these words of St. Ambrose...'God knows all things, but He waits to hear your voice, not to chastise, but to forgive.'"

I loved how she talked about Simon of Cyrene; the way he likened himself to an oak tree with an "...inward hurt (that) had only cankered the pith in him, so that he had become hollow and withered and barren,"; as well as the image of the seeds (corn) in the field and the weeds and the final harvest...

I had formed opinions about Eirik based on Olav's perspective, but Undset spent a lot of time in this book writing from Eirik's point of view, which made me like a him a lot more.

I especially found the phrase near the end of the book to be enlightening about Olav's life, "This person's only thought was to gather up and save the withered grain from among the thistles." Olav did good and "bad" things in his life, all grew together like the parable of the weeds and good grain in the Gospel. Olav struggled with his decisions and found redemption - through his children and through his own religion and beliefs.
I am still so moved by Undset's descriptions of the countryside in all the books in this tetralogy!

#3 was so-so, but she stuck the landing. Beautiful reflection on many of the same themes as Kristin Lavransdatter like generational effects of sin and refusal to confess, redemption, and marriage but with a focus on two male characters, father and son. The image of Eirik walking Olav's metaphorical untended fields and finding the one healthy stalk to harvest

Nunnally, whose lauded translation of the epic Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy in the 1990s helped to revive widespread interest in Nobel Prize–winning Norwegian author Undset (1882–1949), translates the final installment in Undset’s subsequent medieval Olav Audunssøn tetralogy. Undset’s own favorite among her works, this weighty saga transports readers to 13th-century Norway, where clannish Old Norse traditions vie with newly ascendant church doctrines, nowhere more poignantly than in the lifelong moral struggles of the title character. Betrothed in his youth to his adoptive sister Ingunn in the first installment, Vows, Olav’s fated and impetuously consummated marriage unleashes a tumultuous chain of trials, betrayals, and violence, with consequences destined to outlive their marriage. His happiness achieved at long last, Olav ultimately reaps the whirlwind in book two, Providence, followed by Crossroads, which delves into our antihero’s reckoning of his sins, as he falteringly seeks to set his own children on a better path. Having been roused to bloody combat with invaders from the North, in Winter, Olav enters his final season facing one battle which he can never win, as he strives for a grace that cannot be grasped, but only received with open hands from a merciful God. Brushing away the cobwebs of the slightly fusty, century-old British translation, Nunnally’s straightforward, unadorned telling makes for smooth reading, no small thing in an epic tetralogy that stretches to well over 1,000 pages. Inspired by the dire, fatalistic mores of the Norse sagas and Undset’s own devout Catholicism, her towering achievement is made less forbidding in Nunnally’s welcome new translation, which is very much in keeping with the novelist’s project of deromanticizing the past, resulting in a vivid, painstakingly researched historic re-creation, less akin to the lush swashbuckling of Dumas or Scott than to the harsh, immersive naturalism of Zola.

Good Lord.... it's left me crushed. Olav and the destruction and misery he sows is one of the most fascinating and memorable characters I've ever come across in literature. I find myself wanting to pray for him at Mass, like I'd heard the tragic story of my taciturn grandfather for the first time. Except he never existed beyond Undset's imagination--and now mine.

I won't say more. This, friends, is literature.

Glorious.
Makes me want to start the tetralogy all over again.

I absolutely loved how the last quarter of this epic saga ended. While the first three volumes were filled with drama, suspense, violence, honor and duty, this volume takes a turn and focuses on Olav watching the world - his children, grow up and looks at settling them down. He is just on this side of his fifty but already world worn and sunken cheeks.

Olav lived a life of misery, lost love, duty, and regrets. But there is dignity and honor. There is a legacy left behind. The conclusion marks end of an era, of the Master of Hestviken estate.

Thanks to University Of Minnesota Press and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was the best of all the volumes of this book. Fabulous! I think of it often.