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.

I have read chapters three and four.

The plan for Kristen's stay at the convent has really gone off track. Safeguarding my eye! There's no-one looking out for her. And this Erlend guy seems like bad news. There's trouble ahead <taps nose in a wise manner>

Where did the leopard come from anyway??

I am astonished by the lack of care taken by the convent over the girls. Not only not failing to chaperone the girls properly but also taking no action when Kristin is missing at bedtime after the celebrations. It seems very remiss and not at all what her family would have envisaged I suspect.

Kristin seems to have had her head well and truly turned and I suspect it’s all going to end in tears. I think she is deluded that Lavrans will support her - he would not have forced her into a marriage with Simon if she had been revolted by him when they first met but he's not going to let her break a betrothal otherwise.

Erland is either a real romantic or a womaniser - either way it's not going to end well.

I hope Kristin doesn't do anything she will regret. She seems quite immature for her age when you think girls were often wed very young then and she could easily be wed herself and running a household. Presumably it's because she has led a sheltered life.

I think the leopard had come off a boat - what it was doing there or where it was going, I have no idea!

There are more red flags than there are red ribbons in Kristen's thick blonde hair.

It throws Ingeborg in a slightly more favourable light. She obviously knew about Erland's dodgy past so maybe that's why she never passed on his messages to Kristin. However, I can't even convince myself about this theory, if she had really wanted to protect her friend she would have alerted the nuns to the fact that Kristin had gone awol. I'm thinking frenemy, though maybe through silliness rather than malice.

There was a big religious festival (they seem to have a lot!) so that had attracted fair people to the town, one of them had got wild exotic animals.

I have read to the end of this week's chapters. I am quite surprised at the degree of freedom that Kristin has! She even gets to sleep on her own in the loft when her uncle's family goes off....hmmm....doesn't seem very responsible of them!

I've just caught up as well. I'm surprised at how fast things are moving! I wasn't expecting Kristin to be seduced quite so quickly. And I agree @FuzzyCaoraDhubh about Erlend and the many red flags. He completely minimises his relationship with his previous mistress Eline, but they were together long enough to have TWO children, come on!

The legal punishment of Erlend for committing adultery is interesting. I suspect it's because women are seen at least to some degree as possessions, and he's stolen another man's wife, which is unacceptable.

Kristin does seem very emotionally immature - not so different to a modern teenager! She's completely head over heels.

The portrayals of the nuns and priests are sympathetic on the whole (apart from Eirik earlier in the novel). Fru Groa seems firm but fair, and Brother Edvin is also kind and humane.

I have a terrible sense of doom and foreboding 😯

Kristin wanting to be pregnant is also disconcerting. An unwed, pregnant teen: what are you thinking, Kristin?!

I’ve caught up too. Also not a fan of Erlend - the risks for Kristin are terrible. I suppose the best slant that can be put on it is that her only chance of escaping the marriage that her parents are arranging is to have a de facto union with someone else.

I liked the bit a few chapters ago about the convent and how terrible it is that families now will only send unmarriageable daughters to become nuns, unlike in the good old days of real piety.

I also felt a sense of doom and foreboding reading this week's chapters.
Kristin being happy to be Erlend's possession is disturbing.

Ah, good point @CornishLizard about how a pregnancy would effectively put an end to the possibility of marrying Simon.

And yes, that's interesting (and a bit comical!) about the lack of good convent novitiates.

Erlend has behaved incredibly badly towards Kristin and I wonder if he will desert her. A real wrong un. He knew how much harm it would do to her, and knows he would probably be punished again too. Is he really in love? Or one of those blokes who means it when he says it?

I don't think Kristin realised how stupid she had been until she saw how shocked Edvin was.

Well that went wrong fast!
I think Kristin has been incredibly sheltered and has now fallen hard in the worst possible way. Sexual infatuation can be very powerful.
But she starts out thinking of Erland as Fru Aashild’s handsome nephew as she described him to her, but then we count up the red flags: excommunicated, committed adultery, father of two children whom he doesn’t see, has effectively abandoned his mistress and if his « romantic » faults weren’t enough, he’s wasted his property and inheritance and seems completely deluded as to what his family think of him and dangles great future prospects in front of Kristin! Omg, what would the Relationships board make of all that?! He’s a complete waster and fantasist!

Agree that she wanted to be pregnant so that he might be forced to recognise her; without that she has no hold on him at all.

This really brings it home how important in the last century it has been for women to have financial independence (the only thing that saved Fru Aashild too) and to be able to shift for ourselves when the chips are down. Kristin has none of that.

(I am off on a quick holiday and then visiting relatives. Unfortunately KL just looks a bit too heavy to lug around so I will catch up with you towards the end of the month - happy reading!)

Just caught up. Agree it seems a bit of a sticky situation for Kristin at the moment.

I was interested in how the Bishop has asked that the not proper novices don't wear convent gear when they go home so not to embarass the church. Seems they are aware their safeguarding is a bit remiss. Not sure I'd be too happy as the parents in this situation.

Agreed @CutFlowers - they do a lot of gallivanting in pretty clothes for a convent!

Well I've finally caught up. Really enjoying this.

But what, oh what, is Kristen doing? I wonder if it's something to do with letting Arne go because of Simon?

She clearly isn't attracted to Simon so is it that the next person that she feels attraction to can't be let go?

I also wonder about her family relationships, does her not having a place in the family from a maternal perspective have a part to play? She knows her mother doesn't love her like she loves her sisters, especially Ulvhild and that she didn't make up for the loss of her other siblings so does this mean she yearns for male attention to make up for that and wanted a child to have that bond she didn't have with her mother?

For those of you who are on track, this week we are reading:

Part 2
Chapter 6 - pages 158 - 170
Chapter 7 - pages 171 - 178
Chapter 8 - pages 179 - 190

which takes us to the end of Part 2!

Page references are to version pictured in opening post.

I will be back when I have caught up on recent posts.....

I cannot believe how naive and deluded Kristen appears to be. In that period, she would surely have been aware how important it was for a woman to be virtuous and not to bring dishonour on her family name. It also astonishes me that when her uncle went away that there wouldn't have been some sort of steward left in charge for the safety of the women and the property. It seems unlikely that the property would not have been secured at night.

I did like the wording Kristen used to Brother Erdvin:

“The situation is such that Simon is too good to gnaw on the bare branch from which another man has broken off the blossom.”

On the plus side Kristen is not pregnant and the only person who knows about the affair is Brother Edvin so it could yet be all brushed under the carpet if Kristen comes to her senses and sees that Erland is not the catch she thinks he is.

@lifeturnsonadime I think you might be on to something, about searching for love in the wrong places because of her mother’s coldness to her.
And @TimeforaGandT you’re right - she could still run a mile…

I am on a mega catch up (pt1 ch6) and not read the thread, but question, apologies if asked already but avoiding spoilers.

Are you counting each book separately? Or as one book?

I think it's really three books in a bumper edition....

FWIW I'm reading the individual books but chapters and even page numbers seem to correspond.

Appreciate page numbers won't when we get to book 2.

I think this is easier as the books are definitely more portable.

Ok - sounds like 3 separate books to me 😀

I couldn't stop myself and have read all of this week's chapters as I needed to know what was happening.

No spoilers - I will control myself!