The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 12 January 2002
by Sigrid Undset
Danish-born Norwegian author Undset was perhaps best known for two massive epics of 13th and 14th century Norway, Kristin Lavransdatter and The Master of Hestviken. The latter was first published in English in 1928 as four separate novels. This (in a 1963 edition) is the first in the series, telling the dark tale of young lovers Olav and Ingunn as they cope with 13th century morals and an environment of personal pride and religious ambivalence. Olav is the orphan son of the previous master of Hestviken, a distant estate on the coast. Ingunn is the daughter of Steinfinn, a man who'd run off with his own young previously betrothed bride. The kids are betrothed to each other in a sentimental drunken evening when their fathers meet. Steinfinn lives to regret taking on young Olav, but not long enough to experience the kids' own transgressions. Ingunn and Olav become lovers, justifying their actions with their betrothal. After Steinfinn's death, though, his surviving family members have other plans for Ingunn. Her affair with Olav violently complicates matters that Olav takes in to his own hands. The lovers' sins against church and society haunt them for the ten years told in this compelling novel. Ingunn is utterly (and in a modern sense maddeningly) at the mercy of the men in her life and their tradition of control and violence. Yet, within her constraints, she lives with an independent sense of life. Undset convincingly sets the story in its time, avoiding self-conscious display of historical research. The language is florid and evocative. The story is simple, but multiply layered, with the tone proper to a massive epic. Undset would much later (and after a conversion to Roman Catholicism) be criticized by feminists who saw her as advocating a traditional and subjugated role for women in society. This attitude isn't really evident in this book. Ingunn's subjugation is an element of her enviroment. How modern could we expect the 13th century to be? This is a really good book.
(Sigrid Undset was awarded the 1928 Nobel Prize for literature.)
Also by Undset: [The Snake Pit]