Olav Audunsson: II. Providence

Olav Audunssøn and Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter's passionate love sets off a series of tragic events in Sigrid Undset's Providence, the second volume of her epic of medieval Norway. The consequences of sin, suspicion, and familial obligations threaten their happiness more than their long years of separation. Undset's writing is authentic and compelling, capturing the natural world, culture, and emotional terrain of the Middle Ages.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 280 pages
Publication date: 11 November 2021
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press

The second installment in the renowned Nobel Prize-winning author's epic of medieval Norway, skillfully capturing Undsets fluid, natural style in a new English translation, the first in nearly a century. As Norway enters the fourteenth century, the kingdom remains plagued by political turmoil and bloody family vendettas, serving as the backdrop for Sigrid Undset's masterful tale about Olav Audunssøn and Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter. Betrothed as children and raised as foster siblings, their unbridled love for each other sets in motion a series of dire events—with a legacy of betrayal, murder, and disgrace that will echo for generations. In Providence, the second of Olav Audunssøn's four volumes, Olav settles at his ancestral estate of Hestviken and soon brings Ingunn home as his wife. Both hope to put their troubles behind them as they start a new life together, but the crimes and shameful secrets of the past have a long reach and a tenacious hold. The consequences of sin, suspicion, and familial obligations may prove a greater threat to the pair's happiness than even their long years of separation.

Set in a time when royalty and religion vie for power, and bloodlines and loyalties are effectively law, Providence summons a powerful picture of Northern life in the medieval era, as the Swedish Academy noted in awarding Undset the Nobel Prize. Conveying both the intimate drama of Olav and Ingunn's marriage and the epic sweep of their story, it is at once a moving and vivid recreation of a vanished world tainted by bloodshed and haunted by sin and retribution.

As with her classic Kristin Lavransdatter, Sigrid Undset immersed herself in legal, religious, and historical writings to create in Olav Audunssøn an astoundingly authentic and compelling portrait of Norwegian life in.

Weight: 342g
Dimension: 140 x 209 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781517911607