[.ca] 20th Century Kristin Lavransdatter 01 The Wreath (ISBN 0141180412)

Superbly written and profound:
I read this trilogy of books years ago, when I was a young woman. Twenty-five years later, I want to read it again: I still remember it as one of the best novels I have ever read - perhaps even THE best. Every one over the age of 30 should read it. It will haunt you for the rest of your days.

Nunally does a service to Undset:
When I was about 12 I tried to read Kristin Lavransdatter, and gave up quickly. The Archer translation was filled with "difficult" language: medieval archaisms seemed to slow down the language somehow. Kristin was written in the 1920s and takes place in the middle ages, but the archer translation (the one most readily available) alienated me from it so much that I gave up. Nunally's language is fresh and clear. It doesn't have the artificial ring of a translation. I don't know Norwegian, but I feel like she stayed as close as she could to Undset's original syntax and language. 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.

Beautiful Translation:
I find it interesting that most of the division on this book still stems from the translation. Nunnally is an excellent and faithful translator of Norwegian. To answer the one reviewer as to how some of us feel qualified to judge, there are some of us who do read Norwegian. I was shocked at the liberty Archer had taken with Undset's works, going so far as to change the titles (the original titles do in fact translate as The Wreath, The Wife and The Cross, not as Archer's overwrought titles). Nunnally's translation returns dignitiy and immediacy to the work. One reviewer noted that the story need not have taken place in the middle ages but in almost any century. This is one of the main points and the Undset's use of a contemporary idiom enforces this impression. Finally we can read this novel not just as some medieval costume drama but as a timeless story of love and morality and judge it on its literary merits. It is also heartening to see that Nunnally has now also given us a new translation of Jenny. Finally Undset is some much needed attention.

A Wonderful Work Made Much, Much Better:
(Note: My review is of the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy as a whole work, rather than about Penguin's three individual volumes. I felt very much caught up in the forward movement of these stories and didn't really see them as separate "books". And, of course, the original Kristin was published in one volume of three sections.) As a reader who has more than once during the past 40 years tried to read the clunky Archer version of this wonderful work, I can only add to the praise given the Nunnally translation. I just this summer finished the final volume of Kristin Lavransdatter, and can recommend it to anyone wanting to be immersed in a terrific, panoramic medieval tale full of all those things that make for a great story: love, hate, valor, treachery, sin, redemption, etc.- all that good stuff. Kristin and husband Erlend form the core around which this remarkable story is built; they are believably human, noble, fallible. Undset's special strengths are her characters, narrative thrust and, finally, in her wonderful descriptions of the wild, beautiful landscape of medieval Norway. Yes, this is one of those daunting, big fat historical novels. However, this newest incarnation does justice to a wonderful work of world literature; to my mind, anyone willing to invest the time in reading it will be rewarded many times over.

A Great Historical Novel:
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!