By Sigrid Undset | Translated by Charles Archer and J. S. Scott

The Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, Sigrid Undset’s most famous work, is the story of an ordinary woman’s life in fourteenth-century Norway. 

Volume I—The Bridal Wreath—follows Kristin from her childhood on her family’s estate of Jörundgaard to her coming-of-age and encounter with Erlend Nikulaussön. Immediately attracted, Kristin and Erlend enkindle an illicit and forbidden romance—illicit because Kristin is already betrothed; for-bidden, because Erlend is already married. This romance will soon engulf the entirety of Kristin’s family with tribulations, not least the implications of her innocence and her father’s honor.

“There is no man nor woman, Kristin, who does not love and fear God, but ’tis because our hearts are divided twixt love of God and fear of the devil and fondness for the world and the flesh, that we are unhappy in life and death.”

Kristin Lavransdatter received immediate and worldwide appreciation as an exemplar of historical fiction and spiritual sensibility: hailed as the “noblest work of fiction ever to have been inspired by the Catholic art of life”; ranked amongst the greatest novels in world literature; compared favorably to Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov; and applauded for its revelation of the medieval world “with the richness and fullness of indisputable genius.” At the heart of Kristin Lavransdatter, the source of its dramatic power and poignant beauty, is religion―the relationship between creature and Creator. Leaving no gap between this world and God’s world, Undset tells her trilogy with unwavering courage and conviction in the facts of man’s freedom and God’s mercy.

Sigrid Undset (1882–1949) was a Norwegian novelist and essayist and a convert to the Catholic faith. In 1928, she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. A number of Undset’s books are available from Cluny, including The Wild Orchid, The Burning Bush, and Saga of Saints.

Paperback: 272pp.

ISBN: 978-1685953799