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The Master of Hestviken #1-4
The Master of Hestviken
Insight into the medieval man is given in this novel about the adventures of Olav Audunsson in thirteenth-century Norway
994 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1927
18 people are currently reading
585 people want to read
About the author
Sigrid Undset
274 books876 followersSigrid 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
August 16, 2025
This tetralogy of novels, written from 1925-27, consists of The Axe, The Snake Pit, In the Wilderness, and The Son Avenger. Like the author's trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter, it's set in medieval Norway, and follows its protagonist through a stormy and eventful lifetime. Also like the preceding trilogy, it's strongly steeped in Undset's Roman Catholic faith (although the earlier work was actually written before her formal joining of the Catholic church in 1924; but the essentially Christian and Catholic nature of her convictions is already apparent there). Its central theme is the most basic theme of Christianity, guilt and redemption; while it brings medieval Norway to vivid life, and doesn't stint in exploring human relationships (especially a romantic triangle, a marriage that doesn't proceed along a rose-strewn path, and the parent-child relationship with its potential for messy dysfunction), it also focuses on the relationship of humans and God, the psychological and spiritual effects of estrangement from God, and the reality of saving grace.
There are, of course, significant differences between the two sets of novels. Here, our title character and protagonist, Olav Audunsson, is male (and I definitely agree with another reviewer who notes that Undset's ability to thoroughly understand and convincingly portray characters of the opposite gender, even getting inside their heads in depth, is one mark of her literary greatness). This tale is also set in the century before Kristen Lavransdatter, the 13th rather than the 14th, so the social order has a rougher feel. (The author is able to fully realize both milieus, with their slight differences, partly because she was a serious student of, and even a bona fide authority on, the medieval world in general, and in Norway in particular.) Olav's life circumstances and spiritual struggles are quite different from Kristen's, and the plots of the two bodies of work don't resemble each other. But the ability to spin an outstanding and involving story is on display in both, and the general comments I made about the earlier corpus apply here as well.
Although this was the second of the author's two major medieval historical series, it's actually the first one I read, before graduating from high school. I read both in omnibus editions, cover to cover, so as to experience them as complete, unified arcs; IMO, that's the best way to read them. Of course, I read this one in the original 1934 Knopf edition, with the first English translation by Arthur G. Chater. Like the original English translation of Kristen Lavransdatter by Charles Archer, I can say that it was very readable and not particularly archaic-sounding. (I can't evaluate its closeness to the original Norse.)
There are, of course, significant differences between the two sets of novels. Here, our title character and protagonist, Olav Audunsson, is male (and I definitely agree with another reviewer who notes that Undset's ability to thoroughly understand and convincingly portray characters of the opposite gender, even getting inside their heads in depth, is one mark of her literary greatness). This tale is also set in the century before Kristen Lavransdatter, the 13th rather than the 14th, so the social order has a rougher feel. (The author is able to fully realize both milieus, with their slight differences, partly because she was a serious student of, and even a bona fide authority on, the medieval world in general, and in Norway in particular.) Olav's life circumstances and spiritual struggles are quite different from Kristen's, and the plots of the two bodies of work don't resemble each other. But the ability to spin an outstanding and involving story is on display in both, and the general comments I made about the earlier corpus apply here as well.
Although this was the second of the author's two major medieval historical series, it's actually the first one I read, before graduating from high school. I read both in omnibus editions, cover to cover, so as to experience them as complete, unified arcs; IMO, that's the best way to read them. Of course, I read this one in the original 1934 Knopf edition, with the first English translation by Arthur G. Chater. Like the original English translation of Kristen Lavransdatter by Charles Archer, I can say that it was very readable and not particularly archaic-sounding. (I can't evaluate its closeness to the original Norse.)
February 9, 2017
It is very hard to do justice to the magnificence of The Master of Hestviken. And there is no question that Sigrid Undset totally deserved the Nobel Prize that she was awarded in 1928. The M of H is a tetralogy in about 1000 pages. Believe it or not, I first read it way over 55 years ago when this bookish teen found the one-volume Knopf edition on the library shelves. And it lasts! The grip was a real grip - a golden hook, and not just an old rusty one destined to disappoint. Indeed, the M of H is far better 55 years later.
Some people may say: "A tretalogy about medieval Norway? Yuk!" But the point is that, although the M of H takes place in medieval Norway, it is really about characters who are definitely humans like you and me and for whom Ms. U claims our empathy and sympathy, for their complex struggles, their heartbreak, their endurance, their complex interior lives, and their humanity in all its good and bad. You know, people in the Middle Ages were, in fact, people. They worried about money, they wanted to get a good night's sleep, they asked themselves whether they had married wisely and/or were good parents, they suffered from angst and insecurity, they doubted their moral worthiness, and so forth..
Ms. U pulls us towards these people through her focus on their actions, words, and thoughts. She does not ever explain their cultural environment. Rather, their environment speaks silently only through the characters' actions. In this way, we see them in context, but we do not ever lose sight of them as persons. For example, there is a brief passage in which the protagonist realizes that his friendship has been unbalanced in the sense that his true and reliable friend is forbearing of self and has always given more to the friendship than has the protagonist. It does not matter that this significant realization takes place while the friends are talking before an open hearth in a lonely wooden manor house on the edge of a forest.
However, I have to note that Ms. U is a mistress of the explicit description of the natural environment and the weather. And I think this is a tool of bringing us closer to the characters because, with them, we also can sense what it is like to feel snow against our faces, to ski, if we have been so fortunate, through a winter forest, to lie on a warm rock in autumn, to shudder when bed blankets freeze to the wall, etc.
There are few essential characters in the books although there are numbers of persons who appear in it and take roles at one time or another. But there are only four characters with a complete backstory, and only two of these with a completely described interior life. The four are a family consisting of mother, father, daughter, and son. The latter two are the father and son. The other characters are well drawn, but Ms. U creates a deep sense of the reality of personhood by focusing her greatest energies on these four. Like her reticence on cultural environment, this spareness creates humans who are alive on the page.
Also, as to characterization, it is a marvelous thing that Ms. U creates male characters who ring true and are actually men and not caricatures of men. This for me is an example of Ms. U's power as an artist - her ability to create full-fleshed and primary characters who are not of her gender.
Otherwise, it is all here - love, hate, jealousy, diagnosable madness, dysfunction, regret, love.
I won't give plot details for fear of spoiling, But I can say that, all four of the books can be categorized as the bildungsroman of the protagonist Olav Audunsson. We meet him at about age 16 as a foster son and orphan. We say farewell when he seems to be far along into his fifties. He is intensely alive. As a young man, he is beautiful, stubborn, yet insecure and aware of his youthfulness, and passionate. He is called upon - and calls upon himself - to be self-sacrificing. As a mature man he is ruthlessly introspective and harsh in his judgments of himself. His self-examination uses the tools of religion which I would expect were the tools available at the time. (Be prepared for this!) But the use of the tools adds a layer of rock-solid emotional intensity to the self-analysis. Just magnificent.
As for the first two books of the tetralogy, we have young love and young sex, accompanied by stubbornness, anger, resistance, and violence; we have waywardness, ambiguous unfaithfulness and regret; we have separation that requires immense loyalty and endurance; we have friendship and abandonment; we have the bitterness of success. We have a girl, but essentially shunned, by her family (hey! Just like today.). We have success and bitterness together. We have the hero's intensely tender conscience and his love and loyalty that requires him not to ease it. We have immense sacrifices that touch on the integrity of personhood.
As for the second two books of the tetralogy, we have grief and an increasing sense of self-recrimination and renunciation. We have a situation that essentially brings about his death when he regards himself or his past life as the cause of the situation. But, at the end, we see that, in the world as opposed to in eternity, his life has been never understood by others and that his memories and his interior life disappear like smoke. The last pages of this book are exalted, but heart-breaking.
Some people may say: "A tretalogy about medieval Norway? Yuk!" But the point is that, although the M of H takes place in medieval Norway, it is really about characters who are definitely humans like you and me and for whom Ms. U claims our empathy and sympathy, for their complex struggles, their heartbreak, their endurance, their complex interior lives, and their humanity in all its good and bad. You know, people in the Middle Ages were, in fact, people. They worried about money, they wanted to get a good night's sleep, they asked themselves whether they had married wisely and/or were good parents, they suffered from angst and insecurity, they doubted their moral worthiness, and so forth..
Ms. U pulls us towards these people through her focus on their actions, words, and thoughts. She does not ever explain their cultural environment. Rather, their environment speaks silently only through the characters' actions. In this way, we see them in context, but we do not ever lose sight of them as persons. For example, there is a brief passage in which the protagonist realizes that his friendship has been unbalanced in the sense that his true and reliable friend is forbearing of self and has always given more to the friendship than has the protagonist. It does not matter that this significant realization takes place while the friends are talking before an open hearth in a lonely wooden manor house on the edge of a forest.
However, I have to note that Ms. U is a mistress of the explicit description of the natural environment and the weather. And I think this is a tool of bringing us closer to the characters because, with them, we also can sense what it is like to feel snow against our faces, to ski, if we have been so fortunate, through a winter forest, to lie on a warm rock in autumn, to shudder when bed blankets freeze to the wall, etc.
There are few essential characters in the books although there are numbers of persons who appear in it and take roles at one time or another. But there are only four characters with a complete backstory, and only two of these with a completely described interior life. The four are a family consisting of mother, father, daughter, and son. The latter two are the father and son. The other characters are well drawn, but Ms. U creates a deep sense of the reality of personhood by focusing her greatest energies on these four. Like her reticence on cultural environment, this spareness creates humans who are alive on the page.
Also, as to characterization, it is a marvelous thing that Ms. U creates male characters who ring true and are actually men and not caricatures of men. This for me is an example of Ms. U's power as an artist - her ability to create full-fleshed and primary characters who are not of her gender.
Otherwise, it is all here - love, hate, jealousy, diagnosable madness, dysfunction, regret, love.
I won't give plot details for fear of spoiling, But I can say that, all four of the books can be categorized as the bildungsroman of the protagonist Olav Audunsson. We meet him at about age 16 as a foster son and orphan. We say farewell when he seems to be far along into his fifties. He is intensely alive. As a young man, he is beautiful, stubborn, yet insecure and aware of his youthfulness, and passionate. He is called upon - and calls upon himself - to be self-sacrificing. As a mature man he is ruthlessly introspective and harsh in his judgments of himself. His self-examination uses the tools of religion which I would expect were the tools available at the time. (Be prepared for this!) But the use of the tools adds a layer of rock-solid emotional intensity to the self-analysis. Just magnificent.
As for the first two books of the tetralogy, we have young love and young sex, accompanied by stubbornness, anger, resistance, and violence; we have waywardness, ambiguous unfaithfulness and regret; we have separation that requires immense loyalty and endurance; we have friendship and abandonment; we have the bitterness of success. We have a girl, but essentially shunned, by her family (hey! Just like today.). We have success and bitterness together. We have the hero's intensely tender conscience and his love and loyalty that requires him not to ease it. We have immense sacrifices that touch on the integrity of personhood.
As for the second two books of the tetralogy, we have grief and an increasing sense of self-recrimination and renunciation. We have a situation that essentially brings about his death when he regards himself or his past life as the cause of the situation. But, at the end, we see that, in the world as opposed to in eternity, his life has been never understood by others and that his memories and his interior life disappear like smoke. The last pages of this book are exalted, but heart-breaking.
November 5, 2015
Sigrid Undset, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1928, seems to have been largely forgotten in America. And that is truly a shame. While she experienced success in her native Norway with her early modern novels, it his her pair of Medieval epics, "Kristin Lavransdatter" and "Master of Hestviken" (the latter was published as "Olav Audunsson" in Norway; its English translation was given the the title seen above. More marketable to American readers that way, I suppose was the logic) that are her great works and the source of her global acclaim.
It is not lightly that I hand out 5-star ratings, but I feel confident declaring that Master of Hestviken is one of the greatest novels I have ever had the pleasure to read. It is nothing less than the entire life story of one 13th century Norwegian man, Olav. Undset has a deft touch with her characters, they are so utterly human that they seem to jump off of the page and into the readers' hearts. I'm not sure I have ever empathized with a novel's characters more easily than I did with Olav and those dear to him. Undset's prose, as translated into English by Arthur G. Chater, is effortlessly evocative, drawing us right into its setting.
While much of this tale is deeply sad, even heartbreaking, the payoff that comes in the last 30 pages left me teary eyed. The major theme is that of the echoing ramifications of living with unshriven sin. Never once did the book lag, over the length of its near 1000 pages. These sorts of books don't really get written anymore, at that is to our collective loss. "Master of Hestviken" is a masterpiece.
It is not lightly that I hand out 5-star ratings, but I feel confident declaring that Master of Hestviken is one of the greatest novels I have ever had the pleasure to read. It is nothing less than the entire life story of one 13th century Norwegian man, Olav. Undset has a deft touch with her characters, they are so utterly human that they seem to jump off of the page and into the readers' hearts. I'm not sure I have ever empathized with a novel's characters more easily than I did with Olav and those dear to him. Undset's prose, as translated into English by Arthur G. Chater, is effortlessly evocative, drawing us right into its setting.
While much of this tale is deeply sad, even heartbreaking, the payoff that comes in the last 30 pages left me teary eyed. The major theme is that of the echoing ramifications of living with unshriven sin. Never once did the book lag, over the length of its near 1000 pages. These sorts of books don't really get written anymore, at that is to our collective loss. "Master of Hestviken" is a masterpiece.
March 20, 2010
This book is actually a series of four: The Axe, The Snakepit, In the Wilderness, and The Son Avenger. It's the tale of the life of Olav Audunsson, a member of the landed gentry in late 13th century Norway. It's very long and filled with plenty of beautifully written detail about medieval life in Norway. The main concerns of the book seem to be the ways in which a man's sins can shape his life, and about the balance of good and bad in a person's character. The story also explores to a lesser degree a society caught between the laws and ethics of two systems: the old ways of pagan times (as in many of the sagas) and the newer ways organized around Christianity. Some of Olav's moral dilemmas stem from the conflicts between the two ways of judging between right and wrong. There is also quite a bit of exploration of sin, repentance, redemption, and forgiveness. However, the writing is never preachy.
Unfortunately, I did find that while it was very interesting in most parts, some places really dragged. The Master of Hestivken is not quite as good as Kristin Lavransdatter, Undset's other work set in medieval Norway. The characters in The Master of Hestikven are not as strong - not in Undset's portrayal of them, but in their natures. Olav and his family are just not as interesting or dynamic, which causes the narrative to lose some drive.
Unfortunately, I did find that while it was very interesting in most parts, some places really dragged. The Master of Hestivken is not quite as good as Kristin Lavransdatter, Undset's other work set in medieval Norway. The characters in The Master of Hestikven are not as strong - not in Undset's portrayal of them, but in their natures. Olav and his family are just not as interesting or dynamic, which causes the narrative to lose some drive.
November 10, 2025
j'ai enfin terminé cette énorme parpaing de 1190 pages.
Le livre dans sa traduction française se découpe en 4 grandes parties qui correspondent initialement à une tétralogie écrite par Sigrid Undset entre 1925 et 1928. Gagnante du prix Nobel de littérature en 1928 elle reste encore méconnue en France bien que la plupart des ses livres aient été traduits et republiés assez récemment.
Le-les livres prennent place en Norvège au 14ème siècle et suivent la vie d'Olav Audunsson promit dès son enfance à épouser une riche héritière, Ingunn. Au décès de son père, qui arrive très vite dans le récit, le jeune garçon est adopté par la famille de la jeune fille. De leur enfance, on passe rapidement à l'adolescence et à la rupture, le drame qui conditionnera l'entièreté du récit.
Je trouve que cette rupture, présentée comme le moment où les deux personnages perdent leur virginité alors qu'ils se pensaient promis l'un à l'autre, est peut-être plus forte quand les deux adolescents se retrouvent seuls et orphelins en proie au manigance de leurs familles et prend alors son sens et sa violence.
Bien que le roman, en français, soit éponyme, l'intrigue se construit autour de plusieurs personnages et notamment celui d'Ingunn. Elle occupe une place importante voir même fondamentale dans le récit. Bien qu'elle puisse être pensée à première abord comme l'élément de la déchéance d'Olav, je trouve, à mon sens, qu'elle apporte des éléments de réflexions bien plus intéressent tout au long du roman et cela même après sa mort, qui arrive au 3/4 du livre. Elle hante la narration et le héros jusqu'à le décès de celui-ci, et s'inscrit comme un guide, un modèle et même un contre modèle pour l'ensemble des personnages. Ingunn permet de mettre en perspective des problématiques comme la notion de maternités (désirée ou non), de traumatisme, de dépression, de maladie (c'est pas très joyeux) à mon sens bien plus intéressantes que la guerre ou l'exil que subit à demi Olav et qui n'est pas tellement décrit dans le récit.
Les rôles des différents personnages sont centrale au roman, et, on le découvre aussi à la société norvégienne du 14ème siècle. Bien que des biais misogynes soient indéniables, le rôle des femmes n'est pas minimisé dans la gestion du foyer, des enfants, de leurs patrimoines, héritage...
Il est impossible de passer à côté de la place qu'occupe la religion chrétienne dans le récit. Ingunn Undset écrit ces roman au moment ou elle se convertit à la fois chrétienne et incorpore une partie de sont chemin spirituel dans celui des personnages. La religion occupait une place prépondérante à cette période, mais la Norvège est loin des influences de Rome et est encore soumise à des influences païennes, la religion et sa pratique reste encore balbutiante et son organisation et son pouvoir politique également.
Je ne détaillerais pas le parcours religieux des personnages car, bien qu'il soit centrale dans le récit, il est en cohérence avec les événement concrets que traverse les personnages, notamment le deuil et de meurtre, de recherche du Salut religieux mais aussi personnel et social.
D'un point de vue de la lecture, le style reste moderne et n'a pas mal vieilli. Les livres se lisent facilement bien qu'on puisse observer quelque longueur à certains moments du récit. L'action n'est pas au centre du roman, le roman se veut plus comme un cheminement des personnages, des parcours de vie, une recherche.
Voilà :) c'est bien de lire et participer à faire vivre des oeuvres du matrimoine littéraires qui mériterais d'être plus mise en avant, donc n'hésitez pas à donner une chance à Sigrid Undset, elle a écrit des romans plus courts, et peut-être plus abordables, précurseur en matière de féminisme en Norvège.
Le livre dans sa traduction française se découpe en 4 grandes parties qui correspondent initialement à une tétralogie écrite par Sigrid Undset entre 1925 et 1928. Gagnante du prix Nobel de littérature en 1928 elle reste encore méconnue en France bien que la plupart des ses livres aient été traduits et republiés assez récemment.
Le-les livres prennent place en Norvège au 14ème siècle et suivent la vie d'Olav Audunsson promit dès son enfance à épouser une riche héritière, Ingunn. Au décès de son père, qui arrive très vite dans le récit, le jeune garçon est adopté par la famille de la jeune fille. De leur enfance, on passe rapidement à l'adolescence et à la rupture, le drame qui conditionnera l'entièreté du récit.
Je trouve que cette rupture, présentée comme le moment où les deux personnages perdent leur virginité alors qu'ils se pensaient promis l'un à l'autre, est peut-être plus forte quand les deux adolescents se retrouvent seuls et orphelins en proie au manigance de leurs familles et prend alors son sens et sa violence.
Bien que le roman, en français, soit éponyme, l'intrigue se construit autour de plusieurs personnages et notamment celui d'Ingunn. Elle occupe une place importante voir même fondamentale dans le récit. Bien qu'elle puisse être pensée à première abord comme l'élément de la déchéance d'Olav, je trouve, à mon sens, qu'elle apporte des éléments de réflexions bien plus intéressent tout au long du roman et cela même après sa mort, qui arrive au 3/4 du livre. Elle hante la narration et le héros jusqu'à le décès de celui-ci, et s'inscrit comme un guide, un modèle et même un contre modèle pour l'ensemble des personnages. Ingunn permet de mettre en perspective des problématiques comme la notion de maternités (désirée ou non), de traumatisme, de dépression, de maladie (c'est pas très joyeux) à mon sens bien plus intéressantes que la guerre ou l'exil que subit à demi Olav et qui n'est pas tellement décrit dans le récit.
Les rôles des différents personnages sont centrale au roman, et, on le découvre aussi à la société norvégienne du 14ème siècle. Bien que des biais misogynes soient indéniables, le rôle des femmes n'est pas minimisé dans la gestion du foyer, des enfants, de leurs patrimoines, héritage...
Il est impossible de passer à côté de la place qu'occupe la religion chrétienne dans le récit. Ingunn Undset écrit ces roman au moment ou elle se convertit à la fois chrétienne et incorpore une partie de sont chemin spirituel dans celui des personnages. La religion occupait une place prépondérante à cette période, mais la Norvège est loin des influences de Rome et est encore soumise à des influences païennes, la religion et sa pratique reste encore balbutiante et son organisation et son pouvoir politique également.
Je ne détaillerais pas le parcours religieux des personnages car, bien qu'il soit centrale dans le récit, il est en cohérence avec les événement concrets que traverse les personnages, notamment le deuil et de meurtre, de recherche du Salut religieux mais aussi personnel et social.
D'un point de vue de la lecture, le style reste moderne et n'a pas mal vieilli. Les livres se lisent facilement bien qu'on puisse observer quelque longueur à certains moments du récit. L'action n'est pas au centre du roman, le roman se veut plus comme un cheminement des personnages, des parcours de vie, une recherche.
Voilà :) c'est bien de lire et participer à faire vivre des oeuvres du matrimoine littéraires qui mériterais d'être plus mise en avant, donc n'hésitez pas à donner une chance à Sigrid Undset, elle a écrit des romans plus courts, et peut-être plus abordables, précurseur en matière de féminisme en Norvège.
January 26, 2024
A monumental, beautiful novel that has it all! There’s love, there’s crime, there’s redemption and there’s longing. A beautiful depiction of first love and a beautiful, extraordinary relationships between the characters. The story is set in medieval Norway but the characters’ emotions feel so modern and real. A novel that makes you wish you had never ended it. Because, when you finish the last page, you feel empty and fulfilled at the same time. One of a kind book and well-deserved Nobel prize!
March 31, 2014
Sigrid is an AMAZING epic tale weaver--this series is like the "Kristin Lavransdatter" series--so incredibly freaking GOOD. I NEVER get tired of her writing!! I spend my free time on a quest for books like these. Elusive....
December 2, 2022
I read Sigrid Undset's masterful "Kristen Lavransdatter" several years ago, and I think I may have not been mature enough -- spiritually and artistically -- to have appreciated it properly. This tetrology (four books, and about a thousand pages!) has not received the same acclaim, but it seriously blew me away and was well worth the time it demanded of me. The medieval world of rural Norway in which it is set reminded me of "A Game of Thrones" or "The Lord of the Rings" but Unset's command of human emotion, spiritual struggle and the complex interplay between individual desire, the pangs of conscience and the demands of society is far more impressive. I hesitate to give away many details, but this work traces the way in which a youthful misdeed, quite understandable in itself, can fester if left unacknowledged until it blights the lives of entire generations. Nevertheless, Unset's affection for her characters and her keen insight into their sufferings casts a bright glow of kindness and the hope of redemption over it all.
February 15, 2025
I love this series and will give it 5 stars, but one little niggling detail nags at me: Undset mentions cornfields quite a lot throughout all four books, about the harvesting and cultivation and the beauty of the cornfields at the Hestviken estate, about the huge corn market Olav visited in London; she even uses corn figuratively, comparing its sowing and ripening to the development of a person's personality. Well, the series is set in the 13th century, and corn didn't arrive from America to Europe until Christopher Columbus brought it back with him in 1493, and I don't imagine that it could have gotten to be widespread in the Scandinavian countries until well into the 16th century. It was slowly developed by natives of SW Mexico over a period of about 9000 years. So, not a big thing, but I'm conscious of the fact that corn didn't exist anywhere except the Americas every time she mentions it, which is frequently.
March 5, 2024
Narra la vida de Olav Audunssøn desde su infancia, cuando muere su padre y es criado por Steinfinn bajo la única condición de que en el futuro se case con su hija Ingunn, hasta su adultez como un rico hacendado, amado por unos y odiado por otros.
Pese a su ambientación histórica, no esperen una historia con batallas épicas a lo "Game of Thrones". Al contrario, es un análisis a los pormenores de una vida común: la familia, el matrimonio, la paternidad, la muerte, etc. Además, es un retrato muy detallado de la vida y las costumbres en la Noruega medieval.
Pese a su ambientación histórica, no esperen una historia con batallas épicas a lo "Game of Thrones". Al contrario, es un análisis a los pormenores de una vida común: la familia, el matrimonio, la paternidad, la muerte, etc. Además, es un retrato muy detallado de la vida y las costumbres en la Noruega medieval.
August 19, 2022
Wonderfully evocative of 13th-14th century Norway. A bit wordy at time and a LOT of focus on Catholicism (apparently Undset had just converted when she wrote this), but it reminded me a lot of the old sagas.
October 1, 2023
An epic masterpiece of writing. The story of one man’s life and his three family members, and how his youthful actions effect the rest of his life and impact those whom he loves.
I only wish there had been a map, a list of characters , and genealogy included.
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I only wish there had been a map, a list of characters , and genealogy included.
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January 18, 2020
classic!
June 4, 2024
I honestly need to recover from the three months that it took to devour this tome. Sigrid Undset, you slay me.
February 7, 2016
This is an amazing book. I read it 20 years ago and still the emotions attached to it are haunting. SUCH a picture of a faraway world.
One bit I liked:
When he had finished his prayers, he seated himself in a corner to hear the singing to the end. He thought of what Asbjorn had told him one day of the art of reckoning - how the nature of God was revealed in figures, through the law and order that reigned in them. Arithmetica , he thought it had such a fine sound and all that the priest had expounded about the harmony of figures - how they swelled and cleft one another according to mystic and immovable laws; it was like being given an insight into one of the heavenly kingdoms; on golden chains of numbers the whole of creation was suspended, and angels and spirits ascended and descended along the links. And his heart was exalted in longing that his life also might rest in Gods hand like one of these golden links - a reckoning in which there was no fault. When that which now weighed upon him should be effaced like false notches upon a tally-stick.
One bit I liked:
When he had finished his prayers, he seated himself in a corner to hear the singing to the end. He thought of what Asbjorn had told him one day of the art of reckoning - how the nature of God was revealed in figures, through the law and order that reigned in them. Arithmetica , he thought it had such a fine sound and all that the priest had expounded about the harmony of figures - how they swelled and cleft one another according to mystic and immovable laws; it was like being given an insight into one of the heavenly kingdoms; on golden chains of numbers the whole of creation was suspended, and angels and spirits ascended and descended along the links. And his heart was exalted in longing that his life also might rest in Gods hand like one of these golden links - a reckoning in which there was no fault. When that which now weighed upon him should be effaced like false notches upon a tally-stick.
December 19, 2019
four novels in one binding - the first one is really cool, has lots of violence/action parts, talks about honor, interesting look at nordic traditions, cool plot developments. with all the talking about honor, family names, one's house, etc, it reminds one of all of those klingon episodes on star trek next generation. in contrast, books 2 and 3 are brutally slow and depressing, and while things start to pick up at the end of book 3 and beginning of book 4, the final act feels a bit anticlimactic. not bad by any means, but i think that books 2 - 4 could have been cooler if set a couple centuries prior and written by someone who wasn't so heavily religious
Read
June 25, 2016This is a novel in 4 parts, and I have only read part 1 "The Axe" so far (separate review). I am so reluctant to put this down, because it is excellent. But I have to finish The Brothers Karamazov before a book club meeting, and it was a little insane to try to read this one at the same time. But I will definitely come back and finish the other three parts. It is classic Undset-- beautifully written, gripping, challenging. An epic with deep insight into human nature. So far, I do not like this as well as Kristin Lavransdatter, but it is definitely worth tackling if you are a fan of Undset's work.
April 8, 2016
Consists of 4 novels - The Axe, The Snake Pit, In the Wilderness and The Son Avenger. The first book is action packed from start to finish - a bloodthirsty tale of seduction, revenge and thwarted love - themes carried on throughout. The novels trace the life of the hero Olav and his family. Very strong narrative and characterisation, with immense detail on working a huge family estate in 13th Century Norway. Conflict between his religious faith and a deed committed early in his life haunts him forever. The middle two books have much less action and more reflective, building up to climax. A very profound book. The Axe is a favourite and a compulsive read.
April 26, 2008
Ok so I didn't actually finish it... I kind of skipped ahead to the end, near the end of the third book. The ending is much more hopeful than Kristin Lavransdatter and for that I am thankful.
3 stars because the parts that are good are amazingly excellent but it was just too dense to read for fun at this point for me.
I'd recommend it to anyone doing their masters or PhD in Lit, Religion or Norse history.
3 stars because the parts that are good are amazingly excellent but it was just too dense to read for fun at this point for me.
I'd recommend it to anyone doing their masters or PhD in Lit, Religion or Norse history.
August 30, 2011
This volume includes The Ax, The Snake Pit, In the Wilderness, and The Son Avenger. Although a bit dark, I enjoyed these tales tremendously and find Sigrid Undset to be a master story teller.
May 12, 2012
Undset knows how to get across the fact that choices we make in our youth affect our days. Another Norwegian medieval tale.
Read
May 22, 2014Somehow I got distracted while reading this fabulous book. I will return to it. Undset creates an entire world deep characters.
Want to read
July 14, 2015Nobel Prize edition, pub. 1934. Not quite gently used but lovely color of binding.
April 8, 2012
It's not Kristin Lavransdattar but it's still Sigrid Undset
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