Olav Audunssn: II. Providence

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The second volume in the Nobel Prizewinning writers epic of medieval Norway, finely capturing Undsets fluid, natural style in a new English translation, the first in nearly a century

As Norway moves into the fourteenth century, the kingdom continues to be racked by political turmoil and bloody family vendettas that serve as the backdrop for Sigrid Undsets masterful story about Olav Audunssn and Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter. Betrothed as children and raised as foster siblings, their unbridled love for each other sets in motion a series of dire eventswith a legacy of betrayal, murder, and disgrace that will echo for generations. In Providence, the second of Olav Audunssns four volumes, Olav settles in 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 pairs 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 Ingunns 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 Audunssn 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 fluid prose. Undsets writing style is by turns straightforward and delicately lyrical, conveying the natural world, the complex culture, and the fraught emotional territory against which Olavs story inexorably unfolds.

Reviews

"Undset brings the setting to life with rich descriptions of the natural world, well-captured in Nunnally's stunning translation. Those interested in Norse history will appreciate this modern classic of Norwegian literature."--Publishers Weekly

"Vows is an unexpected gift in a year that would welcome more of them."--Lit Hub

"Long out of print, the first volume [of Olav Audunssn] now appears in a captivating new translation by Tiina Nunnally . . . This is an absorbing, psychologically rich tale that promises to grow deeper and more memorable in each successive volume."--Wall Street Journal

"Undset matches the precision and force of her characters' inner lives--lacerated by indecision, sunk in sorrow or transported by joy--with her evocation of a vanished age and depictions of the life-affirming beauty of nature. This is a novel you wish would never end--and it doesn't, not yet: The following volumes will be appearing over the next three years."--Star Tribune

"Thirteenth-century Norway is a blend of pagan and Christian. Women have no rights, and the male head of an extended family makes all decisions. It is a world we rarely are invited into, and if you have patience, you will be rewarded."--Pioneer Press

"Tiina Nunnally's new translation captures the dark imperatives of a land where clan loyalties and ancient codes of honor have become ensnarled in the struggle between rising powers: the church and the royal court."--Alida Becker, The New York Times Book Review

"Sigrid Undset's gift was to take readers inside the hearts and minds of people who lived and worked, struggled and connived in the fjords, villages, farms, and estates of thirteenth-century Norway. Tiina Nunnally's gift is to bring these characters to today's readers in clear, lyrical prose. Here we have the story of Olav Audunssn and Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter, betrothed as children and constantly challenged by people who turn their sweet and simple love story into a fraught, twenty-year journey to that final kiss. No one but Undset could have written Olav Audunssn, and no one but Nunnally could do it justice in translation. Read it--and spend time in the thirteenth century as it really was."--Nicola Griffith, author of Hild

"Tiina Nunnally is that rarest phenomenon: a translator whose translations sound entirely natural, idiomatic, and true. This new translation of the first volume of Sigrid Undset's Olav Audunssn is a heroic undertaking, which Nunnally has accomplished with her accustomed elegance and flair."--John Banville, author of Mrs. Osmond

"This tetralogy, less known and less beloved than Kristin Lavransdatter, may be Sigrid Undset's masterwork. Arthur G. Chater's translation is now nearly a century old. Calculatedly archaic and smoothly florid, it retains the charms of its time and place. This new version by Tiina Nunnally performs Undset in a blunter and terser style which would not be out of place in one of those Norse sagas whose grim ethos lives on in the midbrains of the characters. It is a style entirely in keeping with the bleakness of this story of an honorable man whose loving self-sacrifice calcifies his heart."--William T. Vollmann, author of The Lucky Star

Author Bio

Sigrid Undset (18821949) was a prolific Norwegian writer and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1928. 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.

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