Kristin Lavransdatter

 
Now, after a lapse of 70 years, her books are still being read worldwide, by new generations of readers. I began reading Kristin Lavransdatter in preparation for our trip to Scandinavia in what is apparently a relatively new English translation by Tina Lunnally and Brad Leithauser. This current translation is apparently a vast improvement upon the original, but archaic and stilted Middle English affectation popular in the 1950s in the US.

Sigrid Undset (1882-1949) is one of three Norwegian authors to have received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Undset received the Prize in 1928, for her powerful description of life during the Middle Ages in Scandinavia set against the background of medieval Norway in the 13th century, the 3-volume Kristin Lavransdatter, and the 4-volume Olav Audunssønn.

Both these novels about the Middle Ages, in particular “Kristin Lavransdatter”, became international best-sellers at the time. It is Sigrid Undset’s talent as a great story-teller which fascinated her readers all over the world. Her books had been translated into the most important foreign languages even before she received the Nobel Prize. After 1928, they were published in virtually every major language.
“Sigrid is a great story-teller, with a profound and realistic knowledge of the labyrinths of the human mind – at all times and in all places. With her literary and historical expertise, acquired first-hand, her thorough knowledge of nature and her understanding of its significance for all of us, Sigrid Undset has enormous riches, emotional and intellectual, to draw on.
Who was Sigrid Undset? It might be worth mentioning that Sigrid Undset was born the same year as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, three years before D.H. Lawrence and Karen Blixen. From the literary point of view, none of these were of importance to her personally, except D.H. Lawrence, whose work greatly interested her in the 1930s. But they all belong to the same generation; they are contemporaries, each one in his/her own corner of Europe. Their respective author-ships did indeed develop along very different lines, but they do have one thing in common: they are the children of a Europe in crisis, and they are very conscious of it.”
According to her biographers, Sigrid Undset’s themes are clearly Norwegian, but equally clearly European too, in the same way that James Joyce’s themes are intensely and exclusively Irish.
In Undset’s case, this has to do with her adolescence. The environment she grew up in was a European environ-ment in Norway, in Scandinavia. Her father, Ingvald Undset, was an internationally respected archaeologist, whose special subject was the Iron Age in Europe, with Norse and European pre-history as supplementary fields. He pursued his profession through extensive travel and archae-ological research all over Europe. Her mother, Charlotte Undset, was Danish. She was deeply involved in her husband’s work, spoke German and French, and was very well versed in Norse and European culture.
Sigrid, grew up in Kristiania, the capital (the name was changed back to Oslo in 1925). Her first 11 years of her life were strongly influenced by by his extensive historical knowledge. At an early age, Sigrid learnt not only the secrets of archaeology, but also the mysteries of the Norse.
Biographical details from Gidshe Anderson

Sigrid Undset (1882-1949) is one of three Norwegian authors to have received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Undset received the Prize in 1928, for her powerful description of life during the Middle Ages in Scandinavia set against the background of medieval Norway in the 13th century, the 3-volume Kristin Lavransdatter, and the 4-volume Olav Audunssønn.

Both these novels about the Middle Ages, in particular “Kristin Lavransdatter”, became international best-sellers at the time. It is Sigrid Undset’s talent as a great story-teller which fascinated her readers all over the world. Her books had been translated into the most important foreign languages even before she received the Nobel Prize. After 1928, they were published in virtually every major language. Now, after a lapse of 70 years, her books are still being read worldwide, by new generations of readers. I began reading Kristin Lavransdatter in preparation for our trip to Scandinavia in what is apparently a relatively new English translation by Tina Lunnally and Brad Leithauser. This current translation is apparently a vast improvement upon the original, but archaic and stilted Middle English affectation popular in the 1950s in the US.
“Sigrid is a great story-teller, with a profound and realistic knowledge of the labyrinths of the human mind – at all times and in all places. With her literary and historical expertise, acquired first-hand, her thorough knowledge of nature and her understanding of its significance for all of us, Sigrid Undset has enormous riches, emotional and intellectual, to draw on.
Who was Sigrid Undset? It might be worth mentioning that Sigrid Undset was born the same year as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, three years before D.H. Lawrence and Karen Blixen. From the literary point of view, none of these were of importance to her personally, except D.H. Lawrence, whose work greatly interested her in the 1930s. But they all belong to the same generation; they are contemporaries, each one in his/her own corner of Europe. Their respective author-ships did indeed develop along very different lines, but they do have one thing in common: they are the children of a Europe in crisis, and they are very conscious of it.”
According to her biographers, Sigrid Undset’s themes are clearly Norwegian, but equally clearly European too, in the same way that James Joyce’s themes are intensely and exclusively Irish.
In Undset’s case, this has to do with her adolescence. The environment she grew up in was a European environ-ment in Norway, in Scandinavia. Her father, Ingvald Undset, was an internationally respected archaeologist, whose special subject was the Iron Age in Europe, with Norse and European pre-history as supplementary fields. He pursued his profession through extensive travel and archae-ological research all over Europe. Her mother, Charlotte Undset, was Danish. She was deeply involved in her husband’s work, spoke German and French, and was very well versed in Norse and European culture.
Sigrid, grew up in Kristiania, the capital (the name was changed back to Oslo in 1925). Her first 11 years of her life were strongly influenced by by his extensive historical knowledge. At an early age, Sigrid learnt not only the secrets of archaeology, but also the mysteries of the Norse.
Biographical details from Gidshe Anderson

 Leave a Reply

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)