{"id":19424,"date":"2024-03-13T20:14:52","date_gmt":"2024-03-14T00:14:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=19424"},"modified":"2024-03-13T20:14:52","modified_gmt":"2024-03-14T00:14:52","slug":"kristin-lavransdatter-the-crown-by-sigrid-undset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/?p=19424","title":{"rendered":"‘Kristin Lavransdatter: The Crown,’ by Sigrid Undset"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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And it had been awkward and strange for them to sit together in full view of everyone; they had had little to talk about because they had shared so many secrets. A slight fear began to stir inside her\u2014faint and dim, but always present\u2014that perhaps, in some way, it might be difficult for them when they were finally married, because they had been too close to each other in the beginning and then had been separated for far too long.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve now finished the first book <\/strong>of Sigrid Undset\u2019s Kristin Lavransdatter<\/em> trilogy, The Crown<\/a><\/em>, in Tina Nunnally\u2019s translation. In spite of some criticisms I\u2019ve expressed about the translation, I have to state for the record that I found the book extremely moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The story of Kristin Lavransdatter is pretty well known, and I\u2019ve certainly described it here before. Kristin lives in Norway\u2019s beautiful Gudbrandsdal valley. She is the daughter of a highborn man who, due to political misfortunes, has lost his prospects, and is now a big man in a small community. But he\u2019s highly respected, and deserves it. He adores his daughters, especially his oldest, Kristin, who is very beautiful and whom he tends to spoil. He has betrothed her to a suitable young man, decent but somewhat dull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kristin loves her father and means well, but she\u2019s headstrong and doesn\u2019t understand the power she has over men. When she gets in a situation that ends in a young man\u2019s death, her parents send her to spend a year in a nunnery, until the gossip dies down. There she meets the dashing Erlend Nikolausson, who is a bona fide<\/em> knight, and very handsome. But he has a bad reputation, having had an affair \u2013 and fathered two children \u2013 with a married woman from whom he is now estranged. The two of them fall passionately in love, and vow to marry. Kristin sets out \u2013 through defiance and manipulation \u2013 to get her father to break her betrothal and give her to Erlend instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the great conflict of the book. Kristin\u2019s father is a wise and caring man, and he senses immediately that Erlend, for all his glamor, is utterly lacking in character. He knows that if he gives Kristin to this man, her heart will be broken down the line. But Kristin\u2019s willfulness \u2013 her fatal flaw \u2013 will defeat him in the end, to her own sorrow. That, however, is a tale for the subsequent books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have read this book as a young man, as a middle-aged man, and now as an old man. Like all great books, it speaks differently with each reading. This time out, I was impressed by the author\u2019s understanding of character \u2013 especially of sin. (Frankly, it stung a bit.) There are people in the book who are known to be sinners and recognize themselves as such, but the \u201cgood\u201d people are sinners too. They carry the seeds of their destruction inside them. Kristin means well, but she\u2019s immature and spoiled, and heedless of her power over men. Erlend is gallant in theory \u2013 a knight tested in battle \u2013 but in his private affairs he\u2019s a sneak and a coward. Even Kristin\u2019s father, though a man of great character, hasn\u2019t the sternness of heart he needs to protect Kristin from herself (though he seems to be in a no-win situation).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another thing I remarked this time out was the book\u2019s rich descriptions. Sigrid Undset had a lifelong fascination with botany. She names the trees of the forest and the flowers of the field as they come into the picture, and that enriches our imaginations, even if we can\u2019t picture them precisely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The medieval sexual morality of The Crown<\/em> must be a puzzle to contemporary readers. No doubt many of them wonder what all the fuss is about. But I suspect that even they can\u2019t help being compelled by the strong characters and their very human conflicts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Crown<\/em> is a tremendous book.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And it had been awkward and strange for them to sit together in full view of everyone; they had had little to talk about because they had shared so many secrets. A slight fear began to stir inside her\u2014faint and dim, but always present\u2014that perhaps, in some way, it might be difficult for them when … Continue reading ‘Kristin Lavransdatter: The Crown,’ by Sigrid Undset<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19425,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19424\/revisions\/19425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brandywinebooks.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}