I've always loved history-from the historical fiction books I read as a grade schooler to my European history classes in college which earned me a degree in History-i love the stories of those who have gone on before us. I admit i was a bit hesitant to start in on something SO old, in my mind the 1300s Northern Europe are so hazy and far away i can't even picture real people or places being a part of it-and certainly not people are places that i could relate to or that could impact me..here..today. Any hesitation i had left just while reading the introduction about the book and learning about the author, Sigrid Undset. Her life itself was enough to write a book about and knowing how academic and historical of an approach she has taken here to respect the actual time period shows the way she honors her characters and story. Once i started reading part I i couldn't stop! I have become part of the story, somewhere in the backdrop and silently (not by choice) rooting our heroine on and wanting her to succeed in all the challenges which arose.
Life was treacherous in the middle ages, and i'm sure the life expectancy was quite short with only the strongest surviving past middle age. I know that this meant people grew up faster, they certainly worked much harder at a young age and it seemed like school wasn't even an option. It seems like Kristin was sheltered and had a "chidhood" in the sense of playing, being in a protective environment and having adventures as all kids do. Yet, as soon as she was a young teen she was struggling with love interests, fighting off a potential rapist, and needing to engage herself for marriage. I know that this was typical at this age and she was fully capable of running a home of her own, but it made me appreciate the weight of those life decisions that would forever alter the course of her life and starting at such a young age! I'm sure people in their teens have always been hormone ridden, still emotionally and mentally developing and learning to make good decisions with the help of those around them. Fast forward 700 years and people at that same age are treated so much differently and in a sense, childhood extends another decade! I guess i think of my first love, my high school boyfriend when i was 16-the passion, the desire, and love were there-but thank God that was an awkward "practice" for making the real decision about love for my adult life and is nothing more than a memory and photos. What if for all of us, those high school relationships were it and those decisions we made were possibly the most important we ever made? Can you even imagine!? All this to say i was really rooting for Arne, and was devastated when he was killed off early on..i was hoping for him to come back later but it's not a Jane Austen novel is it now!? I felt so-so about the engagement, and wanted to tell her NOT to get involved with Erlend. Thinking about her life and suddenly being cut off from her family in a foreign place, how it happened, and she experienced real passion and desire for the first time. But i think we could all spot the guy as bad news from a mile away...and she just couldn't help herself. I've been there, done that too and get it but now i fear that the rest of the novels will be about her reaping what she has sown.
More topics for other posts so that this one wasn't so long, but what are you feelings finishing the wreath and going into the next book? And did you want her to be with Simon or Erlend or neither? Do you think either man truly loved Kristin?
I was devastated about Arne, too! His death foreshadowed so much of the pain surrounding Kristin's love life for the rest of the book. I just knew that when Kristin did not tell her family about the attack made on her honor by Sira Eirik's nephew (can't think of his name at the moment) that trouble was coming.
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