Olav Audunssn: IV. Winter

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The fourth and final volume in the Nobel Prizewinning writers epic of one mans 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 Undsets spellbinding masterpiece now follows the fortunes of Olav Audunssn 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 is set in motion that eventually leads 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 Audunssn 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 Olavs story at its conclusion, Winter is a moving and masterly recreation of a vanished world tainted by bloodshed and haunted by sin and retributionyet one that might still offer a chance for redemption.

As with Kristin Lavransdatter, her earlier medieval epic, Sigrid Undset wrote Olav Audunssn 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 Undsets natural, fluid prosein a style by turns plainspoken and delicately lyricalto convey the natural world, the complex culture, and the fraught emotional territory against which Olavs story inexorably unfolds.

Author Bio

Sigrid Undset (18821949) was a prolific Norwegian writer and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. From 1940 to 1945, she lived in the United States in exile during the German occupation of Norway. She is best known for her epic medieval trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter and the tetralogy Olav Audunssn. Her novel Marta Oulie is also published in translation by the University of Minnesota Press.

Tiina Nunnally is the award-winning translator of many works of Scandinavian literature, including Sigrid Undsets Kristin Lavransdatter, which was awarded the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club translation prize. She has translated books by Tove Ditlevsen, Ola Larsmo, Vidar Sundstl, and Per Olov Enquist, as well as The Complete and Original Norwegian Folktales of Asbjrnsen and Moe (Minnesota, 2019).