They lawfully owned her sweat and blood and all her strength. Stripped and empty-handed, with a chieftainlike dignity, and calm he had accepted the misfortune with chieftainlike calm and dignity he lived on her father’s manor like a guest.Īnd yet everything that was in her possession lawfully belonged to her sons. He had borne it like a chieftain that his property would be dispersed, that his life was at stake. He hadn’t asked her to fight with her life to save him. He had merely conceived seven sons with her…Įrland hadn’t asked her to restore order to Husaby and his other estates. He had not asked her to bear and of the things she had taken upon her own shoulders. He had certainly never demanded this of her. She sat there and let the old, bitter thoughts rise up like good friends, countering them with other old and familiar thoughts – in feigned justification of Erlend. The Cross even presents us with a contemplative, resentful Kristin, a women who begins to question her role and her position in her changing society. The historical political and social information, Undset’s descriptions of the land and of daily life in 14th century Norway, and the struggle between old and new beliefs held my attention when the sturm and drang would have driven me to distraction. I’m finished and, no matter how much this book drove me crazy, there were parts of it I actually enjoyed. I have read this 1100+ page novel as part of a read-along organized by Emily and Richard.
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