Kristin Lavransdatter III: The Cross (Penguin Classics) [Paperback]

Sigrid Undset (Author), Tiina Nunnally (Editor, Translator, Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 2000

The definitive new translation of the masterwork of Scandinavia's most beloved author is now complete.

Kristin Lavransdatter is a story of love, loyalty, and betrayal, set against a richly detailed historical backdrop of fourteenth-century Norway. The Cross (1922) finds Kristin returning with her husband, Erlend, and their sons to her childhood home, Jorundgaard. As the boys grow older, Kristin is increasingly worried about their prospects, and she and Erlend become estranged. The most devastating and emotional volume in the trilogy, The Cross chronicles the trials and losses Kristin must bear. Tiina Nunnally's exquisite rendering of this unforgettable novel, both more faithful to the beauty of the original Norwegian and more readable than the existing translation, is the first new English translation of Undset's masterpiece.

Translated with Notes by Tiina Nunnally and introduction by Sherrill Harbison

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Sigrid Undset's trilogy embodies more of life, seen understanding and seriously…than any novel since Dostoievsky's Brothers Karamazov.” —Commonweal“No other novelist has bodied forth the medieval world with such richness and fullness.” —New York Herald Tribune --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Language Notes

Text: English, Norwegian (translation) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Classics (April 3, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0141182350
• ISBN-13: 978-0141182353
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #152,247 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #23 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Scandinavian

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Complete Life, August 24, 2000

By 

Leo Schulte (Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kristin Lavransdatter III: The Cross (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

If you have read the first 2 parts of the trilogy, then surely you will want to see how Kristen's life story turns out. Through Undset's marvelous characterizations you will experience a huge range of human emotions: the worries of parents about their children (especially of course from the mother's perspective), the joy of seeing the future in and through your children,the melancholy waning of marital love (and its reawakening), the fragility of life in medieval times, the ecstasy of deep religious faith, the hysteria when the unknown approaches. Undset examines through Kristin the constants of human life with simplicity, but also with a realization that the mystery of existence remains mysterious. A reviewer of an earlier volume said he preferred the 1920's translation in a pseudo-Walter Scott style, claiming it shows more "poetry" than Tiina Nunnally's. "De gustibus non est disputandum": each to his own taste. I suggest that you take a look at both translations before you buy and see which one you might prefer. (I will still call the earlier translation dreadful.) I hope that Tiina Nunnally will eventually translate all of Undset's works.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bringing It All Together, August 4, 2002

By 

Sammy Jo "sammy_jo" (Midwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kristin Lavransdatter III: The Cross (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)

THE CROSS is the final shattering novel in Sigrid Undset's KRISTAN LAVRANSDATTER trilogy. In it, Kristin reaps both the rewards and sorrows of the choices she sowed in the first two volumes.

In the first novel, Kristin's passion for Erlend Nikulausson led her to break her betrothal to Simon Andresson. In the second volume, Kristin sought to atone for her sin (she was already pregnant when she celebrated her wedding with Erlend), but had to struggle to forgive Erlend for leading her astray. In THE CROSS, the consequences of Kristin's choices all come to a head. The first section of the novel focuses on Simon, who has been a faithful friend to Kristin and Erlend, even as he continued to harbor feelings for Kristin. In the mid-section of the novel, Kristin and Erlend strive to find peace with one another. While their passion for one another never died, they were never fully able to overcome the mismatch in their marriage. And in the final section, we follow Kristin as she seeks acceptance from her seven sons, and most importantly from God.

For while KRISTIN LAVRANSDATTER seems to be a novel about love, friendship, and marriage, its deepest message is about the struggle of deeply-flawed humans to reconcile themselves with God. The trilogy is set in medieval Norway and all of the characters order their lives (as best they can) around the Christian moral order. Even as they knowingly fail, the Faith is a part of the very air they breathe.

The miracle of Sigrid Undset's trilogy is the clarity of her perception into the human condition. All of these characters live and breathe, and (more startling) we see clearly how they impact each other through the tangled webs of their lives. But Undset's literary talent is embedded in a sharp religious vision, which points to God's relationship with us as sinners. Undset never denies the good in Kristin's passion for Erlend. Nor does she hide the devastating consequences their passion had on each other and on all of the lives they touched. Often, to sin is not to choose that which is evil, but rather to choose a lesser good. Yet as the saying goes, God can write straight with crooked lines, and at the end of this extraordinary trilogy, Kristin comes to see how God has been with her through all of the light *and* through all of the dark. We walk away from the novel enthralled by the grandeur of the story we live out in this fallen world, and the enormous love God has for us.

Rereading Sigrid Undset's classic trilogy has been one of my most rewarding projects this summer.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heart rending., September 2, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cross: Kristin Lavransdatter, Vol. 3 (Paperback)

I have told you in my reviews of the 2 earlier books that you become Kristin. Well, in this book you wish you were her so you could recover from her mistakes and make life right again. How tragic Erlend's ending, how sad Kristin's. I ache to this day for her. Was life really like that in those days. We will never know. But feelings and emotions seem to be timeless and I can only imagine that somewhere in sometime in someone's life they experienced all that Kristin did and I ache for them too. These books will be a part of me forever and I can not recommend them to highly to you.