The Wreath (Kristin Lavransdatter #1)(5)

In 1947, Sigrid Undset was awarded Norway’s highest honor, the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Olav. She was the first woman of nonroyal blood ever to be recognized in this manner. The honor was given for her “distinguished literary work and for her service to her country.” Two years later, on June 10, 1949, she died.

Sigrid Undset’s great gift as a writer might best be described in her own appraisal of Charlotte Bront?, whom she much admired: [Her] sense of self is grounded in her awareness that her art is bitterly true, that her talent is merely the courage to look honestly into her own heart. [She] wished to depict life and reality the way they are—hfe and reality as they existed in her own heart, in the limitless possibilities of her heart, in her dreams and yearnings, in the mirages of hunger and thirst—and in all the tiny gray-pebble days over which life flows.





Tiina Nunnally

Seattle

February 1997





SUGGESTIONS FOR


FURTHER READING


The following reference works were used as a basis for the Introduction and may provide the reader with additional information about the author’s life and work. Unfortunately, there are few sources in English.



Bayerschmidt, Carl F. Sigrid Undset. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1970.

Blindheim, Charlotte. Moster Sigrid: Et familieportrett av Sigrid Undset. Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1982.

Ciklamini, Marlene. “Sigrid Undset,” in European Writers: The Twentieth Century, vol. 9, ed. by George Stade. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1989.

Daniloff, Jan Fr., ed. Sigrid Undset: Artikler og essays om litteratur. Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1986.

Krane, Borghild. Sigrid Undset: Liv og meninger. Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1970.

Pulsiano, Phillip, ed. Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing Co., 1993.

Wasson, Tyler, ed. Nobel Prize Winners: An H. W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1987.

Winsnes, A. H., ed. Sigrid Undset: Artikler og taler fra krigstiden. Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1952.

?rjas?ter, Tordis. Menneskenes hjerter: Sigrid Undset—en livshistorie. Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1993.





A NOTE ON


THE TRANSLATION


This translation is based on the first edition of Kransen, which was published in Norwegian in 1920. I have retained the original spelling of Norwegian names, which means that the letter ν is often used instead of f (as in Olav) and aa is used instead of ? (as in J?rundgaard). The occasional use of the letter ? instead of ? in proper names is intentional—the former is used in Swedish names, the latter in Norwegian. The original Norwegian text contains thousands of dashes, which tend to impede rather than enhance the reading. In most cases I have chosen to replace the dashes with commas or semicolons, or, occasionally, to create separate sentences. I have also decided to keep the Norwegian masculine title “Herr” and the feminine title “Fru” rather than to translate them into the somewhat misleading English titles of “Sir” and “Lady.” Only those men who are clearly identified in the story as knights are given “Sir” as their title. It should be noted that Norwegian surnames were derived from the father’s given name, followed by either “-datter” or “-s?n,” depending on the gender of the child. For example, Kristin’s mother is named Ragnfrid Ivarsdatter, while her mother’s brother is named Trond Ivars?n. They are also referred to as Gjeslings, since they are descendants of the Gjesling lineage.

Every attempt has been made to reproduce in English the clear style, natural dialogue, and passionate flow of the original Norwegian edition without imposing any unnecessary convolutions or archaisms.





PART I

J?RUNDGAARD





CHAPTER 1


WHEN THE EARTHLY GOODS of Ivar Gjesling the Younger of Sundbu were divided up in the year 1306, his property at Sil was given to his daughter Ragnfrid and her husband Lavrans Bj?rgulf s?n. Before that time they had lived at Skog, Lavrans’s manor in Follo near Oslo, but now they moved to J?rundgaard, high on the open slope at Sil.

Lavrans belonged to a lineage that here in Norway was known as the sons of Lagmand. It originated in Sweden with a certain Laurentius ?stg?telagman, who abducted the Earl of Bjelbo’s sister, the maiden Bengta, from Vreta cloister and fled to Norway with her. Herr Laurentius served King Haakon the Old, and was much favored by him; the king bestowed on him the manor Skog. But after he had been in this country for eight years, he died of a lingering disease, and his widow, a daughter of the house of the Folkungs whom the people of Norway called a king’s daughter, returned home to be reconciled with her kinsmen. She later married a rich man in another country. She and Herr Laurentius had had no children, and so Laurentius’s brother Ketil inherited Skog. He was the grandfather of Lavrans BJ?rgulfs?n.

Lavrans was married at a young age; he was only twenty-eight at the time he arrived at Sil, and three years younger than his wife. As a youth he had been one of the king’s retainers and had benefited from a good upbringing; but after his marriage he lived quietly on his own estate, for Ragnfrid was rather moody and melancholy and did not thrive among people in the south. After she had had the misfortune to lose three small sons in the cradle, she became quite reclusive. Lavrans moved to Gudbrandsdal largely so that his wife might be closer to her kinsmen and friends. They had one child still living when they arrived there, a little maiden named Kristin.