Kristin Lavransdatter I: The Wreath (Penguin Classics)

Oh, and the story is great, too. The timeless problems of forbidden love, children born out of wedlock, and familial conflicts are presented through the eyes of a perfectly ordinary woman: Kristin Lavransdatter. It's been said she was the first perfectly real woman in all literature. In "The Wreath," the reader encounters Kristin's early life to her marriage and the difficult decisions she makes. Nunally writes of Kristin's actions without condemnation, but with compassion. I think this impartiality gives the book more power. THe reader is left to judge Kristin. Also, this is not one of those overwrought books in which every sentence must be analyzed for symbolism. One can read into Kristin Lavransdatter on many levels, but it does not consist wholly of linguistic capering as so many modern novels do. At the very least, it's just a great story with some extremely memorable characters.

Undset was the first woman to win the Nobel prize for literature, and largely because of Archer's *hesitation* LOUSY translations, she's fallen into obscurity in the USA, at least. Hopefully with the advent of Nunally's fresh new translations of Kristin Lavransdatter and Jenny, Undset will once more reappear on the literary landscape.


This new translation blows the old one away!   September 18, 1998
Built for Comfort (fjord@halcyon.com) (Oakland, CA)
36 out of 38 found this review helpful

At last we have a readable translation of the first volume of KRISTIN LAVRANSDATTER, THE WREATH, one which is faithful to Sigrid Undset's style in Norwegian. I have to admit I could never read the old one all the way through because of the creaky, pseudo-medieval style the translators adopted -- it sounds like a bad Sir Walter Scott parody. I do read Norwegian myself, and can vouch for the faithfulness and accuracy of Tiina Nunnally's translation. Her style is fluid, clear, and lyrical, reflecting Undset's style perfectly. Readers who have struggled through all the archaic lingo such as 'tis, 'twas, wot, trow, and methinks are in for a treat. Volume 2 of the trilogy, THE WIFE, will be out in 1999.

KRISTIN LAVRANSDATTER is a historical soap opera par excellence set in medieval Norway. The headstrong heroine does not always do what is "best" for her by the standards of this quite strict Catholic society, and her love affair with the dashing Erlend Nikulausson gets her in plenty of hot water with her family -- not to mention her betrothed, Simon Darre.

I predict this new version will banish the old one to dustbins and library sales once all three volumes are released. And let's hope that Penguin Books will see fit to publish them all together in a handsome clothbound edition.


A Great Historical Novel   July 7, 2002
Sammy Jo (Midwest)
26 out of 27 found this review helpful

If you like historical novels, this is the book for you. Sigrid Undset meticulously researched life in Norway during the Middle Ages, and she brings that world to life for us in her classic trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter. The story is great to boot. Undset won the Nobel Prize for literature, and this is her finest work.

The Wreath is the first novel in the series, and in it we follow Kristin as she comes of age. She is a passionate girl, and this is the story of her passion. We might want to read the tale as the story of a girl overcoming the obstacles of her era to realize her dreams, but there is more to the story than that. Kristin's romance with Erland Nikulausson creates havoc in all the lives around them. Undset was a convert to Catholicism, and this is a Catholic novel. Kristin finds her true love, yes. But will it bring her true happiness? Undset presents the heroine's plight with sympathy, but she presents the consequences of her choices with honesty. This first novel sets the stage, and in the next two we will follow on Kristin's journey to know herself and the world around her. It's a great novel about a great life.

While Kristin is the focus of the novel, Undset also fully brings to life her family and friends. We meet some great characters along the way. From Arne Gyrdson, Kristin's devoted childhood friend to Fru Aashild, the wise woman who teaches her much about the ways of the world, to Brother Edvin, the saintly monk who offers her spiritual direction, we meet characters that we will long remember. The relationship of Kristin's parents Lavrans and and Rangfrid is especially poignant.

To enter gingerly into the translation wars, I have read both versions. For myself, I prefer this one. The archaic language of the Archer translation does give us a sense that the book is about a different world. The problem is that the people in the middle ages would not have sounded archaic to themselves. By presenting the language in a modern vernacular, we have the chance to encounter these people on their own terms. And that allows us to enter into the true difference of Kristin's world - which lies in the difference in values and attitudes. Undset does this almost seamlessly... we are so drawn in that we don't quite realize that we are seeing the world in a very different way.

Highly recommended!


The Genius of Sigrid Undset   March 1, 2000
23 out of 24 found this review helpful

Pay no attention to anyone who says the book is "slow" or "hard to read", unless they were talking about some other translation. Tina Nunnally's translation lets Sigrid Undet's genius shine through at last. (The previous translation was dreadful.) The first volume of "Kristin Lavransdatter" brings you the full spectrum of medieval life, from the constant threat of violence to the ambiguous attitudes on sexuality, the hyper-religiosity at odds with a still-thriving pagan sensuality that wants to legitimize itself. The character of Kristin shows all these conflicts and how they might have played out in the soul of a woman who will not let herself be treated as property in a patriarchal society. Make sure you buy this translation! I cannot wait for the third volume to be published in April 2000.


Horrible translation   July 13, 2000
cubcp (Sagle, ID USA)
20 out of 38 found this review helpful

I see one reviewer, the one from Toledo, pronounces the older Charles Archer translation "dreadful," while another, SK from Texas, much prefers that translation to this one. This goes to show you how vast can be the difference between one literary judgment and another.

I side squarely with the second of these judgments. The "Kristin Lavransdatter" trilogy is my all-time favorite work of fiction, bar none. Like SK from Texas, I re-read it year after year. And I find the Archer translation a miraculous handling of archaic language. It awakens in the reader a sense of the long-past era it is supposed to be evoking; it sheds new light on the timeless truths expressed in the story by its subtle shift of locution and terminology; it enchants the heart with a beauty and honor befitting the people and places of Undset's epic tale.

This new translation, on the other hand, which rejects archaisms entirely, is, in my judgment, utterly bereft of all poetry. It is merely plain and stark, without compensating for this with any added clarity. A signal illustration of this is found in the very title of the second volume, where "The Mistress of Husaby" is changed to "The Wife." This is the sort of brutal and meaningless reductionism which this translator apparently takes as her goal throughout.

God knows why. The starkness of the language, so far from rendering its subject-matter more accessible to the modern reader, on the contrary, obscures and conceals the characters and places and meanings of which the work is intrinsically so rich. For these things greatly benefit from a lilt of language which is as foreign to the modern mind as they are, and yet is perfectly coherent and comprehensible.

Nunnally's impoverishing and denuding the language is an act either of extreme stupidity-- of utter blindness to the heart of Undset's art-- or of positive (though presumably subconscious) vandalism. It is, in any event, such a violation of this work, for those of us who hold it very high, that it approaches desecration.

Suffice it to say, were Tina Nunnally a man, whom I happened into on the street, I would be seriously tempted to walk up and punch her in the nose.

I urge anyone to avoid this translation like the plague. Read this great book in the Archer translation, which I believe itself has a greatness commensurate to its subject. If you don't like the language there, then you like neither history nor poetry, which I suspect must be the case with the benighted Tina Nunnally. * * * *