Kristin Labransdatter

This book is such a remarkable accomplishment in so many ways that I must give it the highest rating. However, I did not always find it engrossing and sometimes had to slog on. Although it is a translation, the language is still quite often beautifully wrought--particularly in descriptions of terrain and weather. The book also gave good insight into medieval Christianity as it affected ordinary lay people. It also gets into the mind of a female character of those times from childhood to old age.

Why do readers keep flocking to this book? Because at its heart it’s a book about a woman, and the story of a marriage. The observations about the human condition are timeless, you could change the names and setting and the story would be just as relatable. Everyone can understand the feelings of a young couple newly in love/lust (When I married you I thought every day would be Christmas), the hopes and fears of parents for their children, and (unfortunately) the gradual unraveling of a marriage after years of bickering and resentments.

I think the one thing modern readers like myself will never fully understand is Kristin’s marrow-deep Catholic guilt over the sin she committed as a teenager, by sleeping with her husband and becoming pregnant before they married. Kristin stews about this her entire life.

The descriptions of life and customs in the Medieval period are fascinating, I’m sure they are what won the author the Nobel Prize for literature in 1928. I read a previous translation, but this new one by Tiina Nunnally is superior in every way, it captures the beauty of Undset’s prose and makes the mountains and fjords of Norway come alive.

I found this Nobel prize-winning novel to have truly breathtaking descriptions of the Norwegian landscapes. In addition, Undset was able to bring the emotional and physical lives of her characters to brilliant life without any false notes of anachronistic references. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was that her explanations about the familial and clan backgrounds was impossible for me to learn. The footnotes made clear that this material is based on historical facts. I suspect that her Norwegian audience would have grasped the references without difficulty. I confess I found myself having to skim these passages, as I was reminded mostly of all the "begat" sections in the Old Testament. The book is very long, but held my interest until the gripping end. (It was wonderful to have on a Kindle for all my summer travels.) I have to say that I particularly appreciated Unset's sophisticated portrayal of her characters as complex and conflicted.

This is a great story from Norway.You simply must get this book if you are interested in Norwegian History. This translation to english is just superb and uses the original spelling of names and places in norwegian.

I picked up this book after reading a review comparing it to Ferrante, one of my favourite discoveries of recent years. Also, I felt like an escape into medieval Norway might be a good cure for current events malaise. I did fall into the world Undset conjures so completely that I put the book down 1000 plus pages later and feel sad to let go of Kirstin, her people, mountains and forests. The calm, measured writing is nothing like Ferrante's passionate prose, but one thing they have in common is their ability to chart the growth of a woman's character over time - from early intensity to the wider perspective of later life, and their insight into the drama of marriage, a story which begins where most women's literature ends. Kirstin might be a Medieval Christian, but her struggle to overcome the limitations of her ego to find universal love feels fresh and contemporary. I am grateful to Tina Nunnally for her translation. Like Ann Goldstein, another brilliant translator, she offers a pellucid English which feels entirely original. Are these women contemporary literary heroes?

The following are three reviews of the portions of this trilogy:

The Wreath (Kristin Lavransdatter, #1) by Sigrid Undset

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 Wife (Kristin Lavransdatter, #2) by Sigrid Undset

This is the second book of the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy. In my review of the The Wreath , the first book of the trilogy, I indicated I didn't feel optimistic about the marriage that took place at the end of the first book. This second book of the trilogy focuses on their married life (about 16 years covered by this book) during which they have seven children. The husband ended up not being as bad as I had feared. Based on fourteenth century expectations he could be rated as a mostly good husband, but certainly not perfect.

As a matter of fact the husband ends up taking some very reckless action near the end of the book that causes him to be placed in prison by the king. He's headed for certain execution which causes Kristin to exert her influence on an old admirer who in turn lobbies people in power to spare his life. These actions by Kristin are something of a turnaround for her because her relationship with her husband had become distant and cold. But when his life was in jeopardy her feelings of loyalty kicked in.

This book is full of many varied characters with differing strengths and weaknesses. The level of detail regarding everyday life is impressive. The description of the delivery of Kristin's first child is about as painful and drawn out as a written description can be. The same can be said for the death of Kristin's father near the end of the book. Thus I credit the author with good writing.

This book is as close one can get to a time machine for a visit to fourteenth century life in Norway. The author received the 1928 Nobel Prize for Literature based largely on Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy.

The Cross (Kristin Lavransdatter, #3) by Sigrid Undset

This is the third book of the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy. Here are links to my reviews of the previous two books, The Wreath and The Wife . This book covers the final third of Kristin's life (circa 1299-1350).

The final years of anyone's life is full of endings, separations and goodbyes. The same was true for Kristin. First she is separated from her younger sister due to an insult given between their husbands. Then when her brother-in-law dies her sister quickly remarries and moves to a distant estate. Then a disagreement with her husband caused him to live separately from her. He is killed when he returns to respond to a rumored scandal. Then her seven sons disperse, get married, or join a monastery. In the end she feels unwanted at her home estate and joins a convent.

The story ends with her showing bravery and strong Christian faith in the face of The Black Plague. In the end she clearly deserves to be honored as a saint—if she weren't a fictional character.

Sigrid Undset won the 1928 Nobel Prize in Literature largely because of the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy. The trilogy provides a well written portrayal of 14th century Norway.

The following is a quotation from this book that demonstrates the ability of Undset (the author) to describe internal human thoughts and emotion. It is Kristin anticipating the fact that her sons are approaching adulthood and will soon be leaving her care. These are feelings with which most parents can identify.

"Was this how she would see her struggle end? Had she conceived in her womb a flock of restless fledgling hawks that simply lay in her nest, waiting impatiently for the hour when their wings were strong enough to carry them beyond the most distant blue peaks? And their father would clap his hands and laugh: Fly, fly, my young birds."

They would take with them bloody threads from the roots of her heart when they flew off, and they wouldn't even know it. She would be left behind alone, and all the heartstrings, which had once bound her to this old home of hers, she had already sundered. That was how it would end, and she would be neither alive nor dead.

A beautifully told story of life and morals in the thirteenth century in Norway. Religion is strict, judgments are severe but people have not changed. Young people fall in love and sometimes that is an inconvenience all around. In Kristin Lavransdatter's story we first meet Kristin as a child and we follow her until she is a grandmother. It would be a great injustice to give away what happens in her life, but suffice to tell Kristin Lavransdatter goes through much spiritual and emotional growth.

One criticism I have have for the way to the story is written is the names. My friends who do not come from Scandinavia have a challenge understanding the names.

This book is actually all three books in the series. The story is timeless with the backdrop of historically accurate 14th century Norway. This is one of those books that will stay with you for the rest of your life. I read this for the first time as as part of a book club 12 years ago, and we are still talking about it.
Two words of wisdom: Get the Tiina Nunnally translation , and this is a must read for young women . I wish I read this when I was 16.

Read the older translation 30 years ago. Enjoyed it then and enjoyed it all over again this time round with the more modern translation. Much better too. To think the author struggled so long to get this fascinating novel published.

Sigrid Undset is a master at character and place. She seamlessly draws you into medieval Norway while captivating you with the depth and humanity of her characters. I read them breathlessly captivated. No wonder Ms. Undset received a Nobel Prize for these historical novels--among the best I've ever read. Bravo, Sigrid Undset.

One of my most favourite books. Had read it about 20 years ago and it didn't disappoint second time around. The characters were well written and you could almost feel like you lived in the same historical time frame with them. Details like brewing, weaving, cooking and sewing made their lives feel authentic. The relationships were real and I felt for Kristin. Would recommend it.

Kristin Lavransdatter is a book unique in its scope, telling the tale of a woman's entire lifetime in Medieval Norway. Undset educates us in great detail as to what everyday life was like in 1300's Norway, and covers all aspects of our heroine's life and the rich variety of relationships in her life. This new translation from the Norwegian is much more accessible to the modern reader than the original translation of this 1929 Nobel Prize winning novel. (I recommend the older translation to fans who are willing to spend a little more time reading the beautiful archaic language for an even greater immersion in this epic story). Every time I read this book, I find more meaning at different stages of my own life in Kristin's tale. A romance, a study in life long ago, of customs and kinships, Kristin Lavransdatter is a grand read.

Excellent writing and story. It transcends geography and time. Touching issues of the human heart now and then... The time and place; Norway & Sweden in around the 1400's, are written of beautifully but move further than the setting of the story into our own human wrestlings.

Kristin is a wonderful, fully-realized character. The book gives a great picture of medieval Norway. I liked the older translation, but the newer one, in The Wreath, is more modern and sounds as if the novel had been written in English.

I really wanted to like this book. I love historical fiction, and my family is Scandinavian. When I tried reading this twice: the first time, I made it maybe 50 pages. and the second time I made it to around page 400. While Undset's descriptions of life in medieval Norway were evocative and interesting, her characters and plot just fell flat. None of the primary characters has much of a personality, and none of them are sympathetic. The title character makes decisions (or has decisions made for her), fairly quickly regrets them, and then proceeds to spend a significant amount of time obsessing over the sins she's committed. It doesn't seem to deter her from new sins, though. Amazingly, the other characters manage to be even less well-developed. The plot is at turns dull as mud and melodramatic to a fault. I found that, after 400 pages, I didn't care much what happened to anyone in the book and decided it was time to move on to another book.

I read this book years ago on the recommendation of a friend and loved it! Now available on Kindle ( but unfortunately not recorded for audiobook) this is a classic tale of a passionate woman of the early 15thC Norway. I read it again forty years later, from the perspective of an old woman and wished the author had not let her die quite so early. Rustin Lavransdatter had the potential for a deeper spiritual transformation, perhaps unimaginable to the author at the age at which she wrote it. Yet, such is life and of all novels, this is one that is psychologically true to the inner life of a girl swept up in love against the wishes and plans of her family, the faces the tension between love for her husband and love for her many sons. Read it if you interested in historical fiction (Nowway's Catholocism and political struggles in 14-15 th C) and the inner world of a woman.

Sigrid Undset puts you right in the period. After I finish one of her books I feel like I've left home. I also enjoyed the Master of Hestviken which is set about a century earlier than Kirstin Lavransdatter but both novels fit together in tone and style. Both are sets of novels and quite long but somehow they didn't feel long enough. For anyone who enjoys historical novels I think these are books that must be read.

Great saga. Loved the history lesson on life during the 1300's in Scandanavia. God, family, and an unforgiving environment dictated every facet of life: except for those brave enough (or foolish enough) to march to the beat if their own heart.