Kristin Lavransdatter read-along | 2025

Youtube said it had the full movie with subtitiles, but I couldn't get them to work. 3h 7m is quite impressive really. Looks like there was also a theatre production.

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To be honest, even with all the description of Simon I still imagine him to be somewhat dashing, but just not as dashing as Erlend.

One of the things I have found most interesting, is because we are focussed on Kristin and her relationships and her own battle with her virtue and piety, she isn’t really at all unusual in the narrative - there are many women behaving as she did, plenty of children being born out of wedlock and married men and women having affairs.

I have to say this has really picked up for me, I am still behind but really enjoying The Cross, though I can see that at least in some part that is because of book 1 and 2.

Simon does have nicer hair than Erlend though (according to Ramborg). I think Kristin was just unlucky in that she met Erlend in a way that allowed him to appear as a hero. If he had lived in the next valley and she had been aware of Eline and the state of his estate she might have seen through the glamour. It does show that for medieval morals to work, parents needed to watch their children like hawks. Kristin’s fate was determined first by sneaking out to meet Arne (which she was able to do because Ragnfrid was preoccupied) which sent her to the convent where she sneaked out to meet Erlend (because the nuns were lax).

@TonTonMacoute haha! Or maybe Barry from Auf Wiesersehn Pet, aka Timothy Spall…

Whereas if we’re into who-would-you-cast-in-the-film territory, Erlend gives me strong Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn vibes - without the principles - but with the horsemanship and hotness..

@MotherOfCatBoy for some unexplained reason I have always pictured Simon as looking like Barry from Last of the Summer Wine - complete with glasses

@TonTonMacoute usually because he’s hot! Poor old Simon was never a looker…

It's the classic dilemma, why is the unreliable bastard always more attractive than the stolid hard-working and loyal chap?

It’s interesting to compare Erlend’s behaviour on Kristin’s estate with Simon’s behaviour on his first wife’s estate. Simon worked hard even though he had no guarantee of an jnterest in the estate unless he and Halfrid has a child (which seemed unlikely). In contrast, Erlend is absolutely guaranteed of an interest in Kristin’s estate with the 7 children, but he does nothing to improve the estate.

I’m not sure Kristin is being entirely honest when she says that she would have taken her knife to bed with her had she married Simon, as there are hints in Book 1 that she doesn’t find him unattractive (although clearly not as attractive as Erlend). I think that is what is so sad in the Simon-Kristin relationship, as they are clearly compatible in many ways and had things been otherwise might have had a chance of happiness. Kristin was unlucky that she met Erlend so young and away from home - it’s tempting to think that things might have been different had she met Erlend at home with Lavrans and Ragnfrid with full knowledge of Erlend’s history. It’s also striking that while Simon’s hard work can confer public respect in his idle wife, Kristin is dragged down by her idle husband.

I think she expected him to come home and say sorry, and he expected her to come to him and say sorry.

There's a lot of misunderstanding between them, even over relatively minor things like the pelts. He clearly sent them to her as a peace offering, she unthinkingly gave them away

@TimeforaGandT I think at church Kristin expected Erlend to come to her. So she dressed up in order to play the part of “wife” presiding over hearth and home when her husband came home to his family. Except he didn’t - he was expecting her to talk to him there and then and assumed she didn’t want to see him. I think she expected a big homecoming. Oops.

As soon as we heard about the injury I had a bad feeling that this was going to be the death of Simon! I thought it was very touching that he wanted to tell Kristin how much he loved her on his deathbed but decided against it.

Just wanted to say that I'm still here though very behind! Really struggling with work and haven't had enough time to read. Hope to catch up with you all over the next few days. xx

I do think Erlend was weak to walk out on Kristin though. He might have lost his estates, but he still is the head of his family living in a fairly violent society and he should be there to protect his children even if he isn’t getting on very well with his wife. It’s a completely different situation to when he left in the last book when his absence could be excused because he was furthering his family’s interests. The book has a lot about the role of the chieftain, and Erlend fails at this as much as he fails as a husband because ultimately he just doesn’t shoulder his responsibilities (as noted earlier, his sloping shoulders are very apt).

Simon’s death I wasn’t expecting - I do think Sigrid Undset was very uncompromising in describing how his relationship with Kristin ends, in that she recognises that he has everything that Erlend lacks, but she still can’t love him. Another author might have allowed Kristin to end up with him (eg if Erlend died and Ramborg ran off) or Kristin to realise her true feelings for him on his deathbed (I think one of Thomas Hardy’s novels (the Woodlanders?) ends like that). With his death, Kristin has lost her protector.

I had a lot of sympathy for Ramborg in this part - the rift between the households is clearly better for her marriage, but she also tries to protect her sister by still talking to her. She also clearly recognises Simon’s true feelings, but she remains affectionate towards him.

Very sad chapters, this loss has really left Kristin without her rock, even though she kept her distance since the falling out between the men, Simon was always there in the background.

Although she is by no means perfect, and does have a tendency to take things too much to heart, and analyse her own level of sin and wrongdoing, find it irritating that it's expected that she has to do all the forgiving and make the first move to make amends with Erlend, when he has flounced off and just left everyone.

So sad. Reminds us how easy death was in those days. 42, no age at all, and so much unfulfilled. Poor Simon. A good man. Who even managed to speak well of Erlend on his deathbed.

I agree with the poster upthread who said they like Erlend better than Kristin at the moment. Erlend has done nothing wrong here (although he did plenty and failed to do plenty in the past); he was wise about the knight and stopped Naakkve going off with him; Kristin is allowing her anxiety to get the better of her and projecting it all onto Erlend. She is a good advert for the perils of ruminating and over thinking. By the end of this section she seems completely isolated.

I have caught up.

😢

Can we talk now?

I have finished this week’s chapters too - very emotional as well as eventful (so much so that I kept reading into next week).

Great comments @AgualusasL0ver .

I have finished this week's chapters and it was quite eventful.