The video above shows the farm and neighborhood landscape which Sigrid Undset appropriated for the setting of the second novel in her Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy — The Wife.

This is not the kind of Norwegian scenery that generally gets promoted in the world. This is in the Trondelag, one of Norway’s best agricultural areas. The Viking kings made the town of Nidaros in the Trondelag their capitol — today it’s called Trondheim. Stiklestad, where Saint Olaf was killed, is also in the Trondelag (that will be described in The Baldur Game, and I promise I’m working at it as fast as I can). I had some ancestors from that area myself.

The farm where Kristin and her husband Erlend live in the novel is called Husaby. This is a significant name — historians note that many farms belonging to kings were called Husaby (it means “house town,” I think). So when Erlend brought Kristin to a farm called Husaby, we’re meant to understand that it was a place that carried some prestige, regardless how poorly he’d been managing it.

Yes, thanks for asking, I am still reading The Wife. Got some distance to go.

Have a wonderful weekend.