![]() They assume she will marry well and when she is fifteen, she is betrothed to Simon, the son of a neighboring landowner. ![]() Kristin's parents have lost three young sons, so she is the great hope of the family. ![]() The story starts out with Kristin as a young girl and oldest surviving child of her father Lavrans (hence her surname, Lavransdatter, which literally means Lavran's daughter at that time, Norwegians used the patronymic naming system which is still in use in Iceland today). I'm always looking for interesting books in translation, and Nobel prize winner made this a win-win selection for me. Though she wrote contemporary books as well, Undset won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1928 primarily for this trilogy. In 1920, Sigrid Undset published the first novel in the Kristin Lavransdatter series, Volume I: The Wreath. Set in Norway during the Middle Ages, about 1300, The Wreath is the story of a young woman's coming of age. Watching these great dramas has inspired me to read more Scandinavian literature, so I chose a Norwegian classic for the Back to the Classics Challenge. In the past couple of years, I've been quite fascinated with Scandinavia - a co-worker at the library got me hooked on Scandinavian TV series (I started with Bron/Broen, then quickly moved on to Borgen and Arvingerne). ![]() The cover art of this edition is just beautiful - anyone know the name of the painting? ![]()
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