Olav Audunssøn: III. Crossroads

The Master of Hestviken #3

by Sigrid Undset, Tiina Nunnally (Translator)

The third volume in the Nobel Prize–winning writer’s epic story of medieval Norway, finely capturing Undset’s fluid, natural style in the first English translation in nearly a century
  In the early fourteenth century, Norway is a kingdom in political turmoil, struggling with opposing forces within its own borders and drawn into strife with neighboring Sweden and Denmark. Bloody family vendettas and conflicting loyalties sparked by the irrepressible passion of a boy and his foster sister (also his betrothed) have now set in motion a series of terrible consequences—with a legacy of betrayal, murder, and disgrace that will echo down through the generations. Crossroads, the third of Olav Audunssøn ’s four volumes, finds Olav heartbroken by loss and further estranged from his son. To escape his grief, Olav leaves his home estate of Hestviken and agrees to serve as captain on a small merchant ship headed to London. There, separated from everything familiar to him, Olav begins a visionary journey that will send him far into the forest and deep into his soul. Questioning past decisions and future plans, Olav must grapple with his own perceptions of love and guilt, sin and penitence, vengeance and forgiveness.  Set in a time and place where royalty and religion vie for power, and bloodlines and loyalties are law, Crossroads summons a powerful picture of Northern life in medieval times, as the Swedish Academy noted in awarding Sigrid Undset the Nobel Prize in 1928. Conveying both the intimate drama and epic sweep of Olav’s story as grief and guilt drive him to ever more desperate action, Crossroads is a moving and masterly re-creation of a vanished world tainted by bloodshed and haunted by sin and retribution.  As with Kristin Lavransdatter, her earlier medieval epic, Undset immersed herself in the legal, religious, and historical documents of the time while writing Olav Audunssøn to create astoundingly authentic and compelling portraits of Norwegian life in the Middle Ages. And as in her translation of Kristin Lavransdatter, Tiina Nunnally does full justice to Undset’s natural, fluid prose, in a style that delicately and lyrically conveys the natural world, the complex culture, and the fraught emotional territory against which Olav’s story inexorably unfolds.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Classics, Medieval, Literature, Historical, Novels

255 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1927

About the author

Sigrid Undset was a Norwegian novelist whose powerful, psychologically rich works made her one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century. Best known for her medieval sagas Kristin Lavransdatter and The Master of Hestviken, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928 for her vivid portrayals of life in the Middle Ages, written with remarkable historical detail and emotional depth.

Born in Denmark to Norwegian parents, Undset spent most of her life in Norway. After her father's early death, she had to forgo formal education and worked as a secretary while writing in her spare time. Her debut novel Fru Marta Oulie (1907) shocked readers with its opening confession of adultery and established her bold, realist style. In early works like ,i>Jenny (1911), she explored modern women's struggles with love, freedom, and morality, often critiquing romantic idealism and social expectations.

Though she gained recognition for her contemporary novels, Undset felt increasingly drawn to historical fiction. This shift led to her masterwork Kristin Lavransdatter, a trilogy published from 1920 to 1922, which follows the life of a woman in 14th-century Norway as she navigates love, faith, motherhood, and spiritual growth. With its intricate character development and deep moral themes, the trilogy brought her international acclaim and remains a cornerstone of Scandinavian literature.

In 1924, Undset converted to Roman Catholicism, a profound personal decision that shaped her later writing. Her tetralogy,i>The Master of Hestviken (1925–1927) centers on a man burdened by unconfessed guilt, offering a deeply spiritual and psychological portrait of sin and redemption. Her Catholic faith and concern with ethical questions became central to her work and public life.

A vocal critic of both communism and fascism, Undset fled Norway after the Nazi invasion in 1940. Her books were banned by the occupying regime, and she lived in exile in the United States during the war, advocating for Norway and the Allied cause. The loss of her son in the war deeply affected her, and although she returned home after the war, she published little in her final years.

Undset’s legacy rests not only on her historical novels but also on her fearless exploration of conscience, duty, and the human condition. Her characters—especially her women—are fully realized, flawed, and emotionally complex. Her writing combines psychological insight with stylistic clarity and spiritual depth, making her work enduringly relevant and widely read.

Reviews

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

“You shouldn’t stand for it, Master Olav,” said the priest angrily. “You shouldn’t allow your son to spend time with those folks you deemed it wise to settle at Rundmyr. What the boy learns there is not to his benefit.” Olav didn’t know what to say in reply. When he remained silent, the priest told him what Eirik had said about his father. “The whole village is laughing at that son of yours because he lies so often, and they’re such stupid lies.” By now they had reached the crossroads. Sira Hallbjørn reached up to take hold of the horse’s bridle and held on to it as he looked up at Olav’s face. There was still a glimmer of daylight in the fog that was again growing heavy. Olav was surprised to see that the priest seemed deeply distressed.

I’m really enjoying Tiina Nunnally’s new English translations of Sigrid Undset’s The Master of Hestviken (originally published in 1927), and this third of the series’ four volumes set in 14th century Norway — Crossroads — sees Olav Audunssøn continue his struggle to reconcile his conflicting duties to traditional ways and to the Church. Piling on grief to guilt, Olav trudges through his life as the Master of his allodial estate — denying himself creature comforts and the salve of the sacraments — and despite his ersatz son and heir, Eirich, becoming a laughingstock in the community, Olav is too consumed by the past to worry about the future, or for that matter, the necessities of the present. Once again, Undset flawlessly employs Olav’s struggles to demonstrate the time and place, and this time around, Olav is beset by spirits and visions as he attempts to find meaning at midlife in what has been an existence made more challenging by his own burdened conscience. As the title implies, Olav finds himself at a crossroads in this volume, and the path he ends up choosing was both surprising and satisfying for me. This series is a fascinating epic of mediaeval Norway and I can’t wait to see how it all ends. (Note: I read an ARC through NetGalley and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)

Cattle die,
kinsmen die,
the man himself dies,
yet one thing I know
that never dies:
the judgment upon each death!

A very short summary of what has happened in the series so far: After many roadblocks, Olav had married the love of his life, Ingunn; secretly killing the man who had raped her and claiming the child resultant of that rape as his own. Olav and Ingunn moved south to take over Olav’s ancestral homestead on the Oslo fjord, and as Olav worked to improve his holdings (always tormented by guilt over the mortal sin he had committed without publicly confessing, in accordance with Ingunn’s pleading), Ingunn slowly wasted away, only giving birth to a daughter who survived infancy. As Crossroads begins, Olav is numbed by grief, sleepwalking through his duties as the Master of Hestviken; not even able to rouse himself to discipline the lying, fabulist son who will inherit the estate. Early in Crossroads, Olav is asked to accompany a merchant ship to England (a country he had visited in his youth), and escaping his own life seems to be just the solution he hadn’t known he’d be craving. Several temptations (carnal and monastic) present themselves on this trip, but it is overhearing the fighting songs of a band of English soldiers that reminds Olav of a time in his life when he felt purpose and happiness; this epiphany is profound in the moment but will prove to be short-lived.

He had pretended that he was afraid of losing his life — he who had been so weary of his own life for such a long time that if it hadn’t been for Ingunn’s sake, he would have declined to stay among the living for even one more day. He refused to go back to that. His sacrifices would mean nothing if he now chose obedience, poverty, celibacy, and, in the end, thralldom and a martyr’s death — for he placed no value on what he would have to give up. But what lay ahead of him promised gains beyond measure — adventures and lengthy travels and finally peace and God’s forgiveness, so that he would be admitted, once again, into the legions of the Lord. Yet now he understood, at long last, that he had to choose. Not between God and one thing or another on this earth, not even his own mortal existence, but between God and himself.

Choosing between God and himself is the “crossroads” of the title, and Olav will continue to sleepwalk through his life with this choice over his head for a dozen more years until, once again, the fighting songs of battle wake him from his torpor. When a Swedish duke leads a group of mercenaries into Norway — and the nearly fifty-year-old Olav is appointed a chieftain in the resistance — he will swing his forefathers’ singing axe, Ættarfylgja, and remember what it is to be alive:

When the boy saw that the master of the estate was dressed for battle, he had asked to stay with him. Suddenly something resembling unrestrained joy flared up inside Olav, as if shackles had been thrown off him. Darkness behind him, darkness in front of him. And here he stood, utterly alone except for two armed strangers, and he had no idea what tomorrow would bring.

This pivot from consuming grief, domestic conflict, and mystical visions into an exciting battle tale was a surprising and satisfying swing, but if I had a complaint, it would be that I lost some of the excitement as characters explained why this duke was set against that duke due to recent and historical factors — and while I completely appreciate that many readers of historical fiction would want all of the facts of the setting included, the backdrop was less interesting to me, personally, than staying focussed on the frontlines. Still, as the series heads into its final volume, I can’t wait to see how this invigorated Olav lives out the rest of his life.

[Kevin Adams · Rating 4 out of 5]

My least favorite of the 3 I’ve read thus far. But it’s Sigrid Undset so it’s still better than a lot of literature. She rules.

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a raw, realistic, emotional, and timeless story of the human plight.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

The penultimate volume of Sigrid Undset's Master of Hestviken tetralogy, In the Wilderness finds Olav Audunsson mourning the death of Ingunn, his wife of about 20 years. In her absence, all ties he has to the world, to Hestviken (his family estate), to his daughter Cecilia, and to Eirik, the bastard son he has raised as his own, seem faint and weak. When two merchants visit him to make a business proposal, Olav finds himself on a voyage to England, where he experiences temptation, and extraordinary revelations of his own inner struggles and the state of his spirit. Olav has a chance at redemption, but he rejects it out of pride, and when he returns home again his life has taken on a semblance of normalcy despite the emptiness he feels toward everything. Olav adopts a young girl named Bothild Asgeirsdatter, who befriends his daughter Cecilia and adds a little light to his life, just before the countryside erupts into chaos when a Swedish lord invades Norway. This is probably the shortest of all the books in this series, and most of the story goes by fairly quickly, though there are a few slow moments. As is true of all of Undset's works, the book richly evokes its time, place and characters; the landscape and culture of medieval Norway come to vivid life under her pen.

[Margaret Gipson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm glad I patiently awaited Nunnally's translation; I enjoyed every minute of this. I absolutely loved the first volume, in which Olav travels to England and faces temptation and past sin in fascinating, moving, and even maybe-magical ways. The second volume, set back in Norway, has a totally different and far less ethereal flavor. The two halves of the book seemed like they could have been in separate novels to me, and as a whole Crossroads feels more like a bridge between the 2nd and 4th volumes of the tetralogy than like a complete novel in its own right. Still, this is beautiful writing and a page-turning tale.

[Morena · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe 3 stars is unfair. There were great parts where Undset captured the nature of an adolescent boy, Eirik. You see this sweet boy in book II, then in the Crossroads the sweetness sours. A friend of mine once said, most little kids are sweet, until life/parents smack them with a rolled up newspaper. And now I dread what will this sweet boy, gone sour, do to Olav? Meanwhile Olav is slowly sinking into insanity. The ending felt rushed to me, while parts in England read like a slow fever-dream, so overall the pacing seemed uneven. Perhaps it reflects Olav himself, living fast when he feels most alive and happy as he defends his country.

[Maria Reagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Looking forward to the Nunnally translation

I am definitely looking forward to the Tiina Nunnally translation due later this year. I think I preferred the first two parts of this tetralogy, but that could be in large part due to this slow and unclear translation. I am still enjoying the story enough that I am not able to stop reading, however. On to part 4!

[Nicki Markus · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having had a bit of a slump with book two, Crossroads revived my interest in the story. I found it more entertaining than the last volume and began to engage with the characters once again, and when I turned the final page I was keen to see how things would end in the fourth volume. I still think Kristin Lavransdatter is a better work overall, but I would also recommend the Olav Audunssøn series to fans of medieval historical fiction. It gets four stars from me.

I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Highs and lows in abundance here. Olav just can't get a break but his own stubbornness has something to do with the situation...
Undset really plumbs the depths of man's misery here. If the prior book was about Ingunn's trials and woe, here Olav gets his due and then some. His disappointment in his son, his isolation, whoa. But then there is the battle which Undset really uses well as a break from the misery for a bit of excitement and martial joy.

[Dax · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part III of this tetralogy gets the train back on track. Not that book II was bad, but reading everyone's self-doubts for a couple of hundred pages grew tiresome. 'Crossroads' is the most plot-centric of the books thus far, although Olav's inner torment from the past remains at the forefront as well. We get a trip to London at the beginning of the book, the middle of the book turns more inward with Olav and Eirik's relationship the focus, and the final third of the book covers the Swedish-Norwegian conflict in which Olav plays a central part. It's a nice mix and leaves plenty to be resolved in the final book. Book III leaves us with a bloodied but joyful Olav entering old age. Let's go see how the final chapter of his life will unfold.

[Isabella Leake · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found much to love in this book, the third volume in the tetralogy, and also much that aggravated me.

The lovely elements: a lengthy trip to England and the delight of seeing a place I know better than Norway through Sigrid Undset's and Olav Audunsson's eyes; a great deal of Latin and even communication through that medium; Olav's participation in historical events at the end of the book, as Sweden attempts to invade Norway and the vivid and human descriptions of battle that reminded me of the Illiad; the way God meets the needs of Olav and Hestviken in a barren period of his life, despite Olav's listlessness.

The aggravating elements, really, boil down to one thing: Olav is quite passive through this entire volume. He has no real plans, desires, or intentions. The one time he conceives an intention -- to take monastic vows -- he ends up abandoning it. He does nothing but drift around in the book; his only decisions are to maintain the status quo. And yet, it's not a status quo that makes him or those around him particularly happy. It makes for laborious reading and a low point in the series -- but not without some bright spots as mentioned above.

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

This 3rd installment went deeper into Olav's character and had some really memorable writing. Some passages reminded me of The Two Towers. Maybe Tolkien was influenced by this book? 🤔

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

This third volume of Sigrid Undset's THE MASTER OF HESTVIKEN enhances the saga of a medieval manor heir Auden Audensson, The Master of Hestviken. . Readers have to be aware that this saga is not for the faint hearted or the causual reader. You have to be a serious reader to undertake such a challenge. Undset was converted to Catholicism after her marriage to a previously married Italian man she had an affair with during her time in Italy. She took her conversion seriously. This saga is abundant with Catholic imagery and spirituality. As converts often are, she ventured beneath the veneer and found the good stuff often hidden from general view. The reader must be prepared to be educated in her venture. She is not an idealist, however. She weaves this spirituality into the lives of astonishingly human characters, not stripped of their human struggles to grasp their spiritual nature despite being bound by their humanity. If the reader is open to this challenge, they will be rewarded with both a great story, and a introduction to a spirituality that is not beyond them, but which, instead, is, perhaps, closer to them than they might like to admit. I give it five stars for a reason. It is a damn good book.

[Maria Reagan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tiina Nunnaly's translation does not disappoint! I couldn't wait for the second half of the tetralogy, so I read the last two books this past summer in the old translation. The clarity in this excellent translation only made me appreciate this story more. Undset's descriptive imagery of 1300s London and Norwegian battle scenes shine through.
Most of all I find myself utterly ensconced in the drama of Olav's journey to conversion (or not!). Undset weaves an internal and external plot together masterfully. I can't wait for the last installment!

[Sookie · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a tonal shift from second volume as we now navigate Olav's role as the master of his ancestral home. He struggles from the sin of murder, and the negative impact of his guilt creates havoc in his psyche. Undset delivers a gloomy world that's actually quite beautiful to read and perhaps works as an antithesis to Olav's personal struggle.

Thank you to Netgalley and Grove Press for providing me with a free copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.

[Joanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was the most difficult of the series. So much guilt and misery. I could not keep track of the characters, and their connections. The end was better, one more book to go.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely worth reading if you are reading the whole series (The Master of Hestviken); however, not as riveting as the previous two books.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nunnally, whose lauded translation of the epic Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy in the 1990s helped to revive widespread interest in Nobel Prize–winning Norwegian author Undset (1882–1949), translates the final installment in Undset’s subsequent medieval Olav Audunssøn tetralogy. Undset’s own favorite among her works, this weighty saga transports readers to 13th-century Norway, where clannish Old Norse traditions vie with newly ascendant church doctrines, nowhere more poignantly than in the lifelong moral struggles of the title character. Betrothed in his youth to his adoptive sister Ingunn in the first installment, Vows, Olav’s fated and impetuously consummated marriage unleashes a tumultuous chain of trials, betrayals, and violence, with consequences destined to outlive their marriage. His happiness achieved at long last, Olav ultimately reaps the whirlwind in book two, Providence, followed by Crossroads, which delves into our antihero’s reckoning of his sins, as he falteringly seeks to set his own children on a better path. Having been roused to bloody combat with invaders from the North, in Winter, Olav enters his final season facing one battle which he can never win, as he strives for a grace that cannot be grasped, but only received with open hands from a merciful God. Brushing away the cobwebs of the slightly fusty, century-old British translation, Nunnally’s straightforward, unadorned telling makes for smooth reading, no small thing in an epic tetralogy that stretches to well over 1,000 pages. Inspired by the dire, fatalistic mores of the Norse sagas and Undset’s own devout Catholicism, her towering achievement is made less forbidding in Nunnally’s welcome new translation, which is very much in keeping with the novelist’s project of deromanticizing the past, resulting in a vivid, painstakingly researched historic re-creation, less akin to the lush swashbuckling of Dumas or Scott than to the harsh, immersive naturalism of Zola.

[Klissia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sobre este terceiro tomo da vida de Olav Audunsson: mesmo quando parece uma obra monótona e não o melhor da Sigrid Undset, ainda sim é uma obra bem escrita e profunda. Undset não escreve pra confortar, causar efusividade ou catarse ao leitor, ela simplesmente escreve sobre emocoes humanas ,num dia comum,de uma vida qualquer, que aqui por acaso é na Noruega medieval, que se distancia das tradicoes pagãs para abraçar o cristianismo.
O título deste tomo é "Encruzilhada ", Olav está de luto, daqui surgem o turbilhão de dúvidas, verdades ignoradas, confronto ante Deus da sua consciência. Ingunn era seu norte e alicerce,uma forma de sobrevivência a vida adulta e sociedade, ele que sempre foi órfão, agora olha pra trás e seu futuro? Um titulo de obra perfeito. Quem é você Olav?

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it! I am sorry to think I only have one book left in this masterpiece. Olav really wrestles with his past and with mistakes made and so many years he has let go by without confessing his grave sin. This is a man who knows who God is and who desires Him, but at heart, is to cowardly to face Him with all his failings.

I am sure that if some of the penance required during those times were still used today, the already tiny confession lines would be even smaller. At least people would be aware of their sin.

This book also delves into the relationship of Olav with his son, who is not really his son. I can't wait to see where this goes in the last book.

[Rose Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Olav's life story continues after his wife Ingunn's death. He is at a loss which he cannot understand so he sails to London England helping a merchant. But then he returns to his farm in Norway. The book focuses on Olav's relationship with Eirik and Cecilia, his children and his illegitimate son Bjorn. Olav finds it hard to relate to any of his children and also his relationship with God. He struggles with his decisions about the farm, his wife, his servants and his religion. I not only found the book intriguing because of Olav and his story but also the intimate descriptions of the medieval life in Norway, the house, foods, customs and the landscape.

[Timothy Koch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the 3rd book of the series. I love it, I love the series, this book was my least favorite thus far...but that might be on account of my deep love for book two.

The first half of this book is very odd with visions and odd psychologizing...it seems entirely impossible that such a thing was written in the 1920s. If you're unfamiliar with church culture and liturgical practices, I think this book will be exceptionally difficult for the average reader to understand and appreciate.

I give this book 4 stars, only because I struggled so much with the first half of this book. I was bored, and I wasn't quite sure what Undset was trying to accomplish in her story.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I had a harder time finishing this book than the previous two, but I loved when "...he was being led out IN THE WILDERNESS..." to "...choose, not between God and this or that upon earth, not even his worldly life, but between God and himself."

"Here there was no familiar place or thing that might help him escape seeing what he would not see; folks' speech, which he did not understand, could not break in and drown the Voice that he would shun."

[A.K. Frailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent, though sad story. I felt emotionally exhausted sometimes reading through the morass of human emotions, but the writing quality was always beyond reproach. I had to read in small doses to keep from getting too disheartened. I kept wishing the characters would make better choices. Made me think more deeply about my own choices...

[Eileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

© 1929. Third book in the Master of Hestviken series set in 1300s Norway. Olav takes a trip, completely alienates his son, and fights in a war. The violence is gruesome, as is the recovery from injuries, when there were few effective remedies. Olav confronts himself and makes a little progress in his spiritual growth.

[Andrew Waring · Rating 5 out of 5]

This volume has a different feel than the previous two. The first three quarters is full of interior battles while the master quarter revolves around an actual battle where Olav is heroic in fighting for his homeland. From beginning to end I just kept thinking that he just needed to go to Confession.

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

This dragged for me compared to the first two in the Olav tetralogy. I put it down for months to read other books. But the slow pace fits with the depressed, dragging phase of Olav's life. Then, somehow, the last few chapters got very exciting with medieval Norwegian battle scenes, and at the last page, I felt the impulse to jump immediately into #4.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this under the name “Olav Audunsson: Crossroads” translated by Tiina Nunnally.
I prefer to finish the tetralogy with the same translator. I’ve been unable to identify it as such in Goodreads.

[R.K. Cowles · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/4 stars

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not her best of this 4part series still word paintings of landscape and feudal Norway