Best Selling Books by Sigrid Undset

With Olav Audunsson facing the end of his lonely days, his children Eirik and Cecilia find themselves trapped in the repercussions of Olav''s as-yet unconfessed sins. Powerfully written and filled with magnificent vignettes of the daily life of a medieval estate, The Son Avenger suggests a Greek tragedy whose vision of fate coexists with a Christian sense of suffering and forgiveness. And in the somber, twilight figure of Olav the Bad, Undset has created an antihero as moving as Oedipus or King Lear.

In an effort to redeem her reputation, Ida Elisabeth imprudently marries her teenage sweetheart, Frithjof. Early in their marriage, she realizes that her charming husband is too irresponsible to support the family and sews dresses to make ends meet. When Frithjof becomes involved with another woman, Ida Elisabeth divorces him. The single mother moves with her children to a small town. Still young and good looking, the admirably hardworking Ida Elisabeth attracts the attention of a successful lawyer, who possesses the manly virtues that her husband lacked. As she contemplates marrying again, Frithjof, now gravely sick, reenters her life. Unlike Undsets famous historical novels, which are set in medieval Norway, the story of Ida Elisabeth unfolds in the 1920s. As in Undsets other fiction, however, Ida Elisabeth poignantly illustrates how poor choices affect the course of a persons life and how the suffering endured because of grievous mistakes can become the means by which a love is purified. Even in her historical novels, the Nobel Prize-winning Undset tackled contemporary themes. With its setting in modern times, Ida Elisabeth examines the difficulties inherent in male-female relationships as they are experienced in contemporary society. Undsets descriptions of the Norwegian people and countryside coupled with her profound understanding of the human heart won her worldwide literary acclaim. Both are powerfully displayed in this compelling drama about fidelity and forgiveness.

"Nordisk jul" er en samling af nordiske julefortællinger. Nogle af Nordens største fortællere beretter her om alt, der vedrører julen. Der er opbyggelige fortællinger om medmenneskelighed, mirakler og tro, mørkere og hjerteskærende fortællinger, der minder os om vigtigheden af medmenneskelighed i julen, fortællinger, hvor gamle fjendskaber sættes til side, så der opstår en mulighed for forsoning og forståelse julenat, fortællinger om julens forventninger, skuffelser og glæder, om julegilder, juleforberedelser og ikke mindst julegaver. Glædelig jul! Indhold: Den hellige nat – Hulda Lütken En juleaften – Marie Bregendahl Et julegilde – Knut Hamsun Fred på jorden – Selma Lagerlöf I juletravlheden – Marie Bregendahl I kupéen – Victoria Benedictsson Julefred – Sigrid Undset Julegaver – Herman Bang Karens jul – Amalie Skram Legenden om juleroserne – Selma Lagerlöf Pelsen – Hjalmar Söderberg

The initial volume in the Nobel Prize–winning author’s tumultuous, epic story of medieval Norway—the first new English translation in nearly a century As a child, Olav Audunssøn is given by his dying father to an old friend, Steinfinn Toressøn, who rashly promises to raise the boy as his foster son and eventually marry him to his own daughter, Ingunn. The two children, very different in temperament, become both brother and sister and betrothed. In the turbulent thirteenth-century Norway of Sigrid Undset’s epic masterpiece, bloodlines and loyalties often supersede law, and the crown and the church vie for power and wealth. Against this background and the complicated relationship between Olav and Ingunn, a series of fateful decisions leads to murder, betrayal, exile, and disgrace. In Vows, the first book in the powerful Olav Audunssøn tetralogy, Undset presents a richly imagined world split between pagan codes of retribution and the constraints of Christian piety—all of which threaten to destroy the lives of two young people torn between desires of the heart and the dictates of family and fortune. As she did when writing her earlier and bestselling epic Kristin Lavransdatter, Sigrid Undset immersed herself in the legal, religious, and historical documents of medieval Norway to create in Olav Audunssøn remarkably authentic and compelling portraits of Norwegian life in the Middle Ages. In this new English edition, renowned Scandinavian translator Tiina Nunnally again captures Undset’s fluid prose, conveying in an engaging lyrical style the natural world, complex culture, and fraught emotional territory of Olav and Ingunn’s dramatic story.

Set in medieval Norway, The Snake Pit follows Olav and Ingunn, who, though raised as brother sister, have become lovers in a world caught between the fading sphere of pagan worship and vendettas and the expansion of Christianity.

Originally published in Norwegian in 1920 and set in fourteenth-century Norway, The Wreath chronicles the courtship of a headstrong and passionate young woman and a dangerously charming and impetuous man. Undset re-creates the historical backdrop in vivid detail, immersing readers in the day-to-day life, social conventions, and political undercurrents of the period. Her prose combines the sounds and style of Nordic ballads, European courtly poetry, and religious literature. But the story Undset tells is a modern one; it mirrors post-World War I political and religious anxieties, and introduces a heroine who has long captivated contemporary readers. Defying her parents and stubbornly pursuing her own happiness, Kristin emerges as a woman who not only loves with power and passion but intrepidly confronts her sexuality.