One of the realities of long life, way beyond the Biblical four score and ten, is the opportunity to encounter things about which one has long heard but not taken up. Such is Sigrid (my grandmother Negstad was named Sigrid) Undset's Kristin Lavansdatter books. It's the trilogy for which she won the Nobel in 1928. Long I've known about them know, finally, I know them, the first two at least.
My friend, Peter, who has been reading classics and Nobel prize winners, says that not all stand the test of time. Lavansdatter stands up well to time. Kristin Lavansdatter II; The Mistress of Husaby, is the one that I've just completed. It engaged me as much as the first volume.
In the first book Kristin is a young woman, in the second she's in middle years and in the final volume an old woman. These books, set among the upper classes in the 1300s, illuminate Norwegian life among the gentry in the Middle Ages. Roman Catholicism plays a large role in the stories well before Norway became Lutheran during the Reformation.
Takk for alt,
Al
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