Kristin Lavransdatter read-along | 2025

[TimeforaGandT]

Following on from The Count of Monte Cristo read-along in the first half of 2025, we are reading Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset for the second half of 2025.

The medieval epic tells the story of a passionate and headstrong woman from childhood in three books : The Wreath, The Wife and The Cross.

It’s a majestic 1124 pages in the Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition which has been translated by Tiina Nunnally and this is the edition I am using for page number references. Kudos to anyone who is reading it in the original Norwegian.

There are 67 chapters in total (if I have counted correctly) and the consensus is to read three chapters a week / one every two days with Sundays off. I have ignored the Introduction as part of the read-along as, in my experience, there are often contain spoilers.

Starting on Monday, 7 July our first week looks like this:

The Wreath – Part 1 (Jørundgaard)

Monday / Tuesday – Chapter 1 (pages 5 to 21)
Wednesday / Thursday – Chapter 2 (pages 22 to 37)
Friday / Saturday – Chapter 3 (pages 38 – 47)
Sunday – day off

I will try and tag all those who have previously expressed interest.

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.

@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.

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

This week's chapters are:
Part III
Chapter 5 (pages 908 - 928)
Chapter 6 (pages 929 - 941)
Chapter 7 (pages (942 - 966)

Will Erlend and Kristin reconcile?

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.

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

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

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

@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..

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).

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.

Another turbulent period in the lives of Kristin and Erlend I this week's chapters ..back tomorrow to discuss!

Just discovered there is a Norwegian film (which you may all have know about already:
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/57438-kristin-lavransdatter

👀

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.

This is a Kindle deal atm. Before Kristin's time but might be interesting about the earlier Norwegian history and background.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Heimskringla-History-Norway-Snorri-Sturluson-ebook/dp/B00992AOT2/ref=books_amz-books_desktop_mfs_uk_a_academ_6?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=C70U0&content-id=amzn1.sym.ec37203f-53fb-4bbc-ba6a-fc3e10661d39&pf_rd_p=ec37203f-53fb-4bbc-ba6a-fc3e10661d39&pf_rd_r=F3T5HK7W9ETZM4FPZ6BY&pd_rd_wg=gKJWM&pd_rd_r=beb2fbed-57f1-49f1-80b5-4ec991fcbaa4

Might have to watch that.

It's been fun watching you all go through the highs and lows of the three books. Agree The Wife is the weakest of the trilogy but overall love how complex the characters.

I really felt for Kristin in this week’s chapters, not knowing what all her neighbours were saying about her, and her poor baby’s failure to thrive. How awful. At the same time, I want to knock her and Erlend’s heads

together - they are so stubborn with each other that even their sons are exasperated with them!

There’s another parallel with the first book with Erlend and Kristin being close and then Erlend disappearing. Only this time, Kristin is actually pregnant.

I still think Erlend is the one being more irresponsible expecting Kristin to leave their your children to live in a remote farmstead.

I agree @Benvenuto

Kristin is the only one holding it all together at home and he expects her to leave everything to some teenage boys and go and look after him.

Now she is in a fix, interesting that the Bishop believes her implicitly but doesn't trust Erlend to back her up! Yikes.

This has shades of the Ridley Scott film The Last Duel

This week's chapters went from one extreme to another. It felt like Kristin and Erlend had come full circle when they reunited and seemingly put their many issues behind them and rekindled their love and passion for one another. And then it all went downhill again when Erlend couldn't (or wouldn't) swallow his pride and recognise that Kristin couldn't abandon the boys and the estate.

Kristin obviously made a mistake in naming her new son Erlend as, think we were told previously, that you couldn't use an ancestral name unless the parent/grandparent was deceased. So, using Erlend's name was clearly a misstep which also seems to have signified to her community that Erlend was not the father when presumably Kristin meant it as a sign of her commitment to Erlend. Unbelievably harsh of Erlend not to visit when the baby was born.

It also seems very sad that no-one was prepared to tell Kristin that there was gossip about her and Ulf so that she was completely blindsided by it at the church. Surely it would have been kinder to speak to her about it rather than leaving her to be publicly shamed in that way. Ulf should have told her.

This week we are reading:

Chapter 8 (pages 967-980)
Part III
Chapter 1 (pages 983-1017)
Chapter 2 (pages 1018-1032)

Will Erlend stand up for Kristin?

Lots of drama this week!

Has everyone read this week yet? Don't want to post spoilers!

SPOILER

I haven't read the third chapter yet (very long chapters this week) but I'm feeling very sorry for Kristin. Now she has lost Erlend, and her sons are growing up it feels like she's losing everything. Then Ulf leaves too!

It will be interesting to see how she rebuilds hers life now and finds a new sense of purpose. The consensus is that she needs a new husband to do this. Will she defy the odds and manage on her own?