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

(NB: Product contains three individual volumes.)

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

• 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.
• The Mistress of Husaby―Volume II of Kristin Lavransdatter―follows Kristin upon her marriage to Erlend Nikulaussön and her assumption of the duties of mistress of Husaby, Erlend’s family estate. Having repented of her sins and reckoned with their consequences for her new life, Kristin raises her sons and seeks reconciliation with her own mother and father. Yet the sternest challenge for Kristin comes when Erlend, embittered and impetuous, breaches their marital bond and draws charges of treason to the king.
• The Cross―Volume III of Kristin Lavransdatter―follows Kristin as she returns to her childhood home of Jörundgaard, weathering destitution, disrepute, and strife―even in her marriage. The one constant for Kristin is the Cross: bearing the weight of life, joy mixed grief, in the face of inevitable death. When that inevitability does arrive in the terrible form of the Black Death, Kristin’s response provides a fittingly magnificent conclusion to Undset’s medieval masterpiece. 

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.

Paperbacks: 272pp. (Vol. I); 364pp. (Vol. II); 382pp. (Vol. III)

ISBN: 978-1685953799 (Vol. I); 978-1685953874 (Vol. II); 978-1685953980 (Vol. III)