Olav Audunssøn

Olav Audunssøn
Author: Sigrid Undset
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Total Pages: 411
Release: 2023-10-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1452970181

The fourth and final volume in the Nobel Prize–winning writer’s epic of one man’s fateful life in medieval Norway Set in thirteenth-century Norway, a land racked by political turmoil, bloody family vendettas, and rising tensions between secular powers and an ascendant church, Sigrid Undset’s spellbinding masterpiece now follows the fortunes of Olav Audunssøn to the final, dramatic chapter of his life as it unfolds in Winter, the last volume of the tetralogy. When the orphaned Olav and his foster sister Ingunn became betrothed in their youth, a chain of events was set in motion that eventually led to violence, banishment, and a family separation lasting years. The consequences fracture their marriage and threaten the lineage for generations. Now, at the end of his life, Olav continues to grapple with the guilt of his sins as he watches his children, especially Eirik, make disastrous choices and struggle to find their rightful place in a family haunted by the past. With its precise details and sweeping vision, Olav Audunssøn summons a powerful picture of Northern life in medieval times, as noted by the Swedish Academy in awarding Undset the Nobel Prize in 1928. Conveying both the intimate drama and the epic proportions of Olav’s story at its conclusion, Winter is a moving and masterly recreation of a vanished world tainted by bloodshed and haunted by sin and retribution—yet one that might still offer a chance for redemption. As with Kristin Lavransdatter, her earlier medieval epic, Sigrid Undset wrote Olav Audunssøn after immersive research in the legal, religious, and historical writings of the time to create an astoundingly authentic and compelling portrait of Norwegian life in the Middle Ages. And as in her translation of Kristin Lavransdatter, Tiina Nunnally does full justice to Undset’s natural, fluid prose—in a style by turns plainspoken and delicately lyrical—to convey the natural world, the complex culture, and the fraught emotional territory against which Olav’s story inexorably unfolds.

The Axe

The Axe
Author: Sigrid Undset
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 305
Release: 2013-02-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 030777306X

Set in 13th-century Norway, The Axe is the first volume in Undset's epic tetralogy, The Master of Hestviken. In it, we meet Olav Audunsson and Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter, who were betrothed as children and raised as brother and sister. In the heedlessness of youth, they become lovers, unaware that their ardor will forge the first link in a chain of murder, exile, and disgrace. Undset's novel is also a meticulous re-creation of a world split between pagan codes of retribution and the rigors of Christian piety--a world where law is a fragile new invention and manslaughter is so common that it's punishable by a fine."Undset reproduces medieval Norway in all the rich pageantry of color and form...she can transport us eight centuries and several thousand miles more effectively than most writers can take us into the house next door."--The Nation

The Axe

The Axe
Author: Sigrid Undset
Publisher:
Total Pages: 360
Release: 1925
Genre: Norway
ISBN:

Tragic story of young lovers captures the spirit of Norwegian life in 13th century Norway.

The Snake Pit

The Snake Pit
Author: Sigrid Undset
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 241
Release: 1994-11-29
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0679755543

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.

The Son Avenger

The Son Avenger
Author: Sigrid Undset
Publisher: Vintage
Total Pages: 290
Release: 1995-06-24
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0679755527

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.

History of Norwegian Literature

History of Norwegian Literature
Author: Theodore Jorgenson
Publisher: Ardent Media
Total Pages: 578
Release: 1970
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN:

A history designed for college students, the author's objective being an account sufficiently brief to offer no difficulty from the point of view of time, & yet detailed enough to be convenient as a work of reference. Considerable space is given to modern literature. "An indispensable book."--NEW REPUBLIC. "A big book on a big theme."--NEW YORK TIMES. "A real contribution."--YALE REVIEW.

Teaching the Quadrivium

Teaching the Quadrivium
Author: Peter Ulrickson
Publisher: CUA Press
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2023-02-24
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1949822346

"The brief 'Guide' is full of useful wisdom about things like weekly planning, acquisition of basic skills, attention to details, review, and encouragement." Peter Kalkavage [taken from back cover]