Undset, Sigrid- Kristin Lavransdatter: Intro/The Bridal Wreath: Jorundgaard
For years my family owner a copy of Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter and I ignored it. It had been by grandfather’s favorite book and for some reason I always saw it as one of those outdated books of no literary value that no one reads anymore. It won a Pulitzer Prize, but I’d never heard anyone talk about it. Then I discovered Nordic culture- Nordic music, Nordic clothes, and suddenly I thought it might be cool to read this random Norwegian epic sitting on my shelf. Kristin Lavransdatter encompasses three books: The Bridal Wreath, The Mistress of Husaby, and The Cross. It’s the story of one woman named, well why don’t you guess, in medieval Norway. It’s about war, family, love, morals, marriage, and there is a lot about Catholicism. Undset converted to Catholicism after writing the saga and it’s easy to understand why. It’s over a thousand pages long, with copious and detailed footnotes about medieval Norwegian culture, so it’s not light reading, but I wouldn’t call it difficult either.
I admit I neglect female authors, some of them get caught up in tirelessly drilling the tenets of feminism into the reader. Not Undset, who clearly glorifies a culture of femininity and motherhood. Yet, it would be wrongheaded to label her as anti-feminist. A previous book I reviewed, The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker, had a chapter about feminism and it used Christina Hoff Summer’s (who I think is a bit of a loose cannon, but sometimes right) definitions for the two types of feminism. Equity feminism places emphasis on equal opportunities, gender feminism tries to say the genders are actually equal and some say the concept of gender is completely socially constructed (ahem…bad science, but let’s not get into that). Undset was obviously an equity feminist. Kristin’s lack of opportunities is lamented, but her roles she chooses as a wife and mother are not. From what I’ve read of Undset, she believed women should have choices, but she didn’t cast off traditional gender roles. Kristin is a wife and mother, but she’s also fiercely independent and strong willed. She’ll remind readers of the Lord of the Rings books of Eowyn. In fact, the culture portrayed in the book is a lot like Rohan, which I find very appealing.
Besides that, Undset is a good writer, who really brings out the landscape and culture to accent her story. However, I think there is a certain amount of Jane Austen syndrome (OMG, this might not be the best quality, but I want to marry Mr. Darcy and live and the English countryside, so I ♥ it!) involved in my love for this book. I admittedly have become emotionally attached to this book, which can be blinding and suddenly had a strange desire to move to Norway and have seven children. However, my grandfather liked it, and as far as I know he wasn’t someone who was irrationally attached to fictional characters, but I could be wrong. On a random note, Christian readers might be familiar with Lauren Winner, author of Girl Meets God, who I think is very intelligent. When asked to recommend a good book for young Christian women, she recommended Kristin Lavransdatter. Undset also apparently has a cult following on some Christian college campuses and given the importance of Christianity in the book, I understand why. It’s no lightweight Christianity either, it’s in the vein of St. John of the Cross’ Dark Night of the Soul.
Anyway, I’m going to divide of my posts on this into posts focusing on each book on the saga. As usual notes=some spoilers but less than in my Faust notes, but reflections aren’t terribly spoil-ish. In my annotations I primarily focused on the theology of the book, so that’s what I’m focusing here, but there is a lot more to be reflected on in the book itself.
The Bridal Wreath: Jorundgaard
“Optima dies, prima fugit.” -Virgil
Notes
The first book goes from Kristin’s childhood to her marriage, with lots of turmoil and angst in between due to the nature of her marriage. I’d say one of the most important characters in the sage is Brother Edwin, a monk, who expresses much of the theology of the book. The power of fear is interesting in Kristin Lavransdatter, since it’s such as important part of Kristin’s realization of faith. Kristin’s faith is very shallow until it comes up upon fear. As Brother Edwin says to Kristin as a child, foreshadowing her trials:
“Dragons are all such-like that serve the devil, seem great only so long as fear is in ourselves. But if a man seek God fervently and with all his soul, so that his longing wins in his strength, then does the devil’s power suffer at once such great downfall that his tools become small and powerless…There is no man nor women, Kristin, who does not love and fear God, but ‘tis because our hearts are divided twixt love or God and fear of the devil and fondness of the world and the flesh, that we are unhappy in life and death.. For if man had not any yearning after God and God’s being, then should he thrive in hell, and ‘twould be we alone who would not understand that there he had gotten what his heart desired. For there the fire would not burn him if he did not long for coolness, nor would he feel the torment of the serpents’ bite, if he knew not the yearning after peace…’Twas God’s loving-kindness towards us that, seeing how our hearts are drawn asunder, He came down and dwelt among us that He might taste in the flesh the lures of the devil when He decoys us with power and splendour, as well as the menace of the world when it offers us blowers and scorn, and sharp nails in hands and feet. Is such wise did He show us the way and make manifest His love.
(36)
So here we have the theology that shows us the obstacles Kristin will face: fear of the devil, love of Earthly things, the distractions of the devil, and the menace of the world. Here it seems Undset is bordering on material eschewing Gnosticism, but it is clear later in the book that love of other people is not equated with love for flesh and that enjoyment of material objects can bring joy as long as they are no placed above God. Fear is not always bad or sinister, and is an important component of faith when it is directed towards God. Then there is hell, which is not some cartoon like torture chamber, but in Undset’s view torment because of the absence of God. This is much like Kierkegaard’s notion of the highest degree of despair being the rejection of God, because one actually desires God even after a resolution to reject Him.
Then there is God’s will versus our will. Ulvhild, Kristin’s sister, is injured in an accident and she falls ill and dies. This devastates the parents, especially the mother, who angrily implores God to intercede for her child. The priest, Sira Eirik, is aghast and tells her “In all your praying and fasting, you have thought only to force your will upon God. Can you wonder that it has helped but little?” (40) Harsh? Perhaps, but it clear that faith isn’t always easy, that God doesn’t always answer prayers the way we want them answered. Later Lady Aashild, another important character, reflects on prayer “The times when we need prayers or counsel, we are little like to be in a mood to learn, nor yet to understand”(45). I think a lot of times people only pray in desperation and don’t take time aside from their lives to actually pray with thought and this is what Lady Aashild is getting at.
In my notes about Faust I noted how Faust refers to himself as both a worm and a godhead. The same duality is apparent in this book. Kristin is nearly raped by an acquaintance, who she fights off, but the attack leaves her feeling soiled:
Nothing could be the same as it had been before, since a man had dared try to wreak such a will on here…And then she had such ugly dreams. She had heard tell in church and in hold stories of fleshy lusts and the temptations of the body, but they had meant naught to her. Now it was become real to her that she herself and all mankind had a sinful carnal body which enmeshed the soul and ate into with hard bonds.
(74)
Now we see why this book is not expressing Gnosticism. The body isn’t evil itself, but it has the potential for sin, and since it is connected to the soul, the sin in the body becomes sin in the soul. Nothing wrong had actually happened to Kristin, but she realized the body’s potential for sin. Unfortunately it becomes like the dragons Brother Edvin mentions- a monster created by fear.
Reflection
This section shows Kristin’s development as a young woman and foreshadows the trials she will face. She is young and has desires that aren’t quite rational or consistent with her faith. Especially the issue of her fears, which are focused on the “dragons” created by worldly fear and also that she does not understand that God’s will is not always consistent with our will. This creates a vulnerable and delicate personality, prone to the temptations that will dog her in the next section.
I think one aspect of the faith presented here that is interesting is the emphasis on humanity's power to transform faith: to create dragons out of Earthly fear, to choose to be with God, to accept fate, and to recognize our potential for both good and evil.