Kristin Lavransdatter (collective work) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

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• Lavrans Bjørgulfssøn: Father of Kristin, master of Jørundgaard.
• Kristin Lavransdatter: Heroine and title character.
• Simon Darre Andressøn: Kristin's original betrothed.
• Erlend Nikulaussøn: Master of Husaby; Kristin's lover.
• Ramborg Lavransdatter: Kristin's younger sister.
• Aashild Gautesdatter: Usually called Fru Aashild; Erlend's aunt, dwells at Dovre and is thought to be a witch.
• Sira Eirik: Parish priest at Jørundgaard.
• Gunnulf: Erlend's brother, a priest.
• Eline Ormsdatter: Erlend's former lover, and mother to his two children, Margret and Orm.
• Bjørn Gunnarssøn: Fru Aashild's second husband.
• Erling Vidkunssøn: An actual historical figure; Erlend's relative, and Steward under King Magnus VII.
• Munan Baardssøn: An actual historical figure; Erlend's cousin, son of Fru Aashild, friend to Lady Ingebørg and her lover, Knut Porse.
• Ulf Haldorsson: Add a description of this character.
• Naakve Erlendsson: Kristin's and Erlend's firstborn son
• Munan Erlendsson: Kristin youngest son
• Rangfrid: Kristin's mother

Quotes edit see section history

• “No one and nothing can harm us, child, except what we fear and love.”

  Brother Edvin

• “She felt that now they were truly one flesh; she would have to answer for everything he did, even when she disliked his conduct, and she would feel it on her own hand when <he> so much as scratched his skin.”

• “All other love is merely a reflection of the heavens in the puddles of a muddy road. You will become sullied too if you allow yourself to sink into it. But if you always remember that it’s a reflection of the light from that other home, then you will rejoice at its beauty and take good care that you do not destroy it by churning up the mire at the bottom.”

  Gunnulf Nikulaussøn

• “Then I realized that this mighty love sustains everything in the world — even the fire in Hell. For if God wanted to He could take our souls by force; then we would be completely powerless in His grasp. But since He loves us the way the bridegroom loves the bride, He will not force her; if she won't embrace Him willingly, then He must allow her to flee and to shun Him. I have also thought that perhaps no soul is lost for all eternity. For I think every soul must desire this love, but it seems too dearly bought to let go of every other precious possession for the sake of this love alone. When the fire has consumed all other will that is rebellious and hostile to God, then at last the will toward God, even if it was no bigger in a person than one nail in a whole house, shall remain inside the soul, just as the iron remains in a burned-out ruin.”

  Gunnulf Nikulaussøn

• “In spite of all the tenderness that welled up inside her when she saw her husband’s despair, she didn’t have the will to silence the inner voice that asked, hurt and embittered, How can you speak that way to me? Have you forgotten when I gave you my faith and my honor? Have you forgotten when I was your beloved friend? And yet she understood that as long as this voice spoke within her, she would continue to speak to him as if she had forgotten.”

• “Her heart felt as if it were breaking in her breast, bleeding and bleeding, young and fierce. From grief over the warm and ardent love which she had lost and still secretly mourned; from anguished joy over the pale, luminous love which drew her to the farthest boundaries of life on this earth. Through the great darkness that would come, she saw the gleam of another, gentler sun, and she sensed the fragrance of the herbs in the garden at world's end.”

• “All fires burn out sooner or later.”

• “But it dimly occurred to the mother that in her anguish and sorrow and love, each time the fruit of sin had ripened to sorrow, that was when her earthbound and willful soul managed to capture a trace of the heavenly light”

• “Many a man is given what was intended for another, but no one is given another man’s fate.”

  Erlend Nikulaussøn

• “A man’s heart is the first thing to come alive in his mother’s womb and the last thing to fall silent.”

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• “It’s good when you don’t dare do something that doesn’t seem right,” said Fru Aashild with a little laugh. “But it’s not so good if you think something isn’t right because you don’t dare do it.”

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• Good days can last a long time if one tends to things with care and caution; all sensible people know that. That’s why I think that sensible people have to be satisfied with the good days—for the grandest of days are costly indeed.

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• “Things are such, Erlend, that few are born to rule, but everyone is born to serve; the proper way to rule is to be your servants’ servant.”

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• “You want nothing more from all your prayers and fasting than to force your will on God. Does it surprise you, then, that it has accomplished so little good?”

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• For if a man knew no yearning for God and God’s being, then he would thrive in Hell, and we alone would not understand that he had found his heart’s desire. Then the fire would not burn him if he did not long for coolness, and he would not feel the pain of the serpent’s bite if he did not long for peace.”

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• So a man must learn to accept, when he produces offspring from his own body, that his heart will burn if he loses them or if the world goes against them. God, who gave them souls, is the one who owns them—not I.”

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• Dragons and all other creatures that serve the Devil only seem big as long as we harbor fear within ourselves. But if a person seeks God with such earnestness and desire that he enters into His power, then the power of the Devil at once suffers such a great defeat that his instruments become small and impotent. Dragons and evil spirits shrink until they are no bigger than goblins and cats and crows.

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• “Don’t you think,” Brother Edvin went on, “that in God’s eyes we are all like children for whom He has reason to grieve, crippled as we are by sin? And yet we don’t think that things are the worst in the world for us.”

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• “That’s the way folk dispatch their children these days. To God they give the daughters that are lame and blind and ugly and infirm; or if they think He has given them too many children, they let Him take some of them back. And yet they wonder why the men and maidens who live in the cloisters are not all holy people. . . .”

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• No one and nothing can harm us, child, except what we fear and love.”

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Gudbrandsdal: A valley in central Norway.
• Jørundgaard: A farm in Gundbrandsdal valley, owned by Lavrans.
• Nidaros: Also called Trondheim. A city on the coast of central Norway. Sometimes refers to Nidaros cathedral.
• Husaby: A farm near Trondheim, owned by Erlend.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Sigrid Undset (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Tiina Nunnally (Translator)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Nobel Prize (1928: Literature)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 839.82372

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › Scandinavian
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Literary
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Classics
• Books › Literature & Fiction › Contemporary

Movie Connections edit see section history

• Kristin Lavransdatter (IMDb): (1995). Movie version of The Wreath, the first book of Undset's trilogy.

More Books Like This edit see section history

Books That Influenced This Book edit see section history