I received Olav Audunsson as part of a NetGalley giveaway.

In medieval Norway, Olav and Ingunn are promised to one another as children, their fathers old friends. They grow up side by side as foster siblings and become deeply fond of one another, but past rivalries and present circumstance tear them apart. Unable to marry one another, yet unable to marry anyone else, years of separation and tragedy elapse before fate brings them back together...but it remains to be seen whether the lovers will be irrevocably changed.

This started slow for me--I was stuck about 1/3 of the way through for a couple weeks as their childhoods and family dynamics were established. But after getting over that hump, I polished off the rest in about two days and I'm eager to read the other two volumes in the series. It was richly narrated and really immersed me in a vivid, violent I'm quite unfamiliar with. The love Olav and Ingunn have for one another is heartfelt and realistic, and I found myself wholly engaged in their story. A fascinating historical epic.

trigger warning
<spoiler> kidnapping, mention of rape, suicide attempt, mentall illness, torture, dementia, death of a parent, being orphaned</spoiler>

It is with good intentions that Olav and Ingunn are betrothed as children, and Olav is taken in by his future father-in-law as a foster child as his own father lies dying.
No one senses what troubles will come of this.

You see, the trouble was that the adults didn't think the children would remember while the children grew up in the knowledge they would spend their whole life together. Insert a bit of misfortune and complicated politics, and it gets dramatic quick.

This was not at all what I thought it would be though it fits the blurp exactly. One setback was that I did not realise as I requested this arc that this book is set after people in Norway became Christian and I was excited for the Norse mythology featuring as a backdrop to this, which didn't happen.
And teenagers doing stupid stuff really, really, really annoy me.

The book starts with a short introduction by the translator, who outlines that this is the first book of a tetralogy that hasn't been newly translated in over 100 years and it's been overdue, that Sigrid Undset was the child of an archaeologist and an artist who both inspired her.
We also get footnotes that explain terms that refer to certain things found in scandinavian medieval times. Sadly, in my version the footnotes are at the back of things so I mostly ignored them as jumping back and forth in a digital copy is no fun. I much prefer the annotations to be at the bottom of the page.

The characters are very three dimensional and especially the depiction of trauma, grief and dementia were superb. Also, this one is character driven, there is no real plot. And I don't do well with those books in the most cases, so it's safe to say that this one simply isn't for me.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

Set in idyllic Norwegian countryside, Olav Audunssøn is not just a story about two people but exploration of inner lives of families associated closely to monarchy. Olav is arranged to be married to Ingunn by their fathers and Ingunn's father promises to raise Olav as his foster son. With this knowledge set, Olav and Ingunn grow up with the knowledge of being sort-of betrothed in northern parts of country and thus begins the first part of the quartet.
Undset foreshadows sufferings for young couple from the very beginning, setting the tone of the novel. Her pragmatic writing is captivating and the melancholic prose is without judgment. There is a lot of restraint Undset shows as a writer to allow the characters to speak, behave and perform as they would in early medieval Norway when the lives of people was severely judged by faith and religion. Both faith and religion influence the characters greatly, their actions and the presumption of consequences of their actions in the eyes of God alter their motivations in accordance.
Amidst religious faith, laws of kinsmen and laws of the land, Olav finds himself at odds with his foster father's kinsmen following complications in familial relationships and <i>vows</i> made by his father. Lives change drastically following this and Olav leaves Ingunn for greater part of decade. This is where the narration shifts from Olav to Ingunn. The lovely tender younger years are seen through the eyes of young Olav, who is naive and slightly brash. He is adamant on executing his father's vow to Ingunn's father and that incubates well into his adolescence. When he is bound to leave, exiled from the land to go abroad, Ingunn is devastated and retires in an isolated castle with her aunt and grandmother.
Narration seamlessly shifs to Ingunn's perspective, the prose gets poignant as the character is now a young woman watching the world with weary eyes and missing the man she is promised to marry. She longs for him, sees the world around her move on, grow, change and Undset sets up circumstances and lets its play out with morals of the time the story is set in. This is a time where women were vilified and held to different standards and Undset presents her readers to the various reactions to the said situation, without making an judgments along the way.
I personally enjoyed Ingunn's point of view, as her actions changes the course of rest of the story and her views provide a fascinating look into societal values as set by the Church, the practice of the land and her developing sense of morality. This is a lovely book with a lot of melodrama involving too many caveats that sounds simple in modern standards but plays out as intricate drama given the time its set in.

Thank you University of Minnesota Press and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A past dream, "recalling rocks arching up in the middle of the courtyard at Hestviken...Behind the livestock sheds...a steep wall of shiny dark stone with water trickling down its face. And tall, green thickets...a low-tide shore... across seaweed...picking up snail shells...", memories of Olav's childhood on his family estate in medieval Norway, a life abruptly uprooted.

Olav's father, Audun, had worked alongside Steinfinn, Ingunn's father both as royal retainers. Encountering each other years later at a ting, a Nordic meeting, Steinfinn reconnected with Audun bringing him and his seven year old son Olav to his estate in Frettastein. The fathers, seemingly drunk, made a pact...seven year old Olav and six year old Ingunn...a small bridal couple...a gold ring placed on Ingunn's tiny finger...the children drank to their betrothal from a drinking horn...a paternal handshake sealed the deal. Very ill and weak, Audun died but not before Steinfinn promised to raise Olav as his foster son until Olav "...was a man and could lead his bride home."

"[Olav] could no more think of parting ways with [Ingunn]...than he could part ways with himself...he would be with Ingunn forever. That was the only certainty in his life. He and Ingunn were inextricably bound to one another...like solid ground beneath his feet...truly his possession and his destiny...". Olav was 16 years old, Ingunn, 15. "...everyone and everything seemed to be warning of impending change and weighty events...so Olav found it only sensible...to give serious thought to his marriage". Steinfinn's circumstances had changed...[Ingunn and Olav] must hurry up and marry so Ingunn could claim her dowry.

Medieval legal and church codes clashed. Olav and Ingunn had acted upon their emotions, after all, they were betrothed. Ingunn's kinsmen felt differently. Upon Steinfinn's death, the young couple travel to Hamar hoping that the church would uphold their union. Are there those who witnessed the betrothal so many years ago? By assuming they were betrothed, "...in a single, heated moment [Olav] seemed to understand fully what it [meant] to possess her but also to lose her". Would their vows be upheld by the church?

"Olav Audunsson: I. Vows" by Nobel Prize winner Sigrid Undset is the first book in a new English translation of the tetralogy previously translated as "The Master of Hestviken" and published in 1925. Perhaps melodramatic in nature, it describes heathen practices of murder, revenge, shame and banishment. "Two young people bound together by an early promise-ruthlessly manipulated by conniving family members and subjected to confusing laws, both secular and religious" [as stated in the the translator notes by Tiina Nunnally]. The plight of Olav Audunsson, from his POV is described in Part I of the tome, while Part II details Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter's longings and frustrations. Beautifully written, author Unset immerses the reader completely in the controversies between kinship bonds versus the laws of the church and state in 13th century Norway. This reader would love to read the remaining three volumes of the tetralogy titled "Providence" "Crossroads" and "Winter". It is hoped that the University of Minnesota Press will release these volumes in English translation. I enthusiastically recommend this tome.

Thank you University of Minnesota Press and Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What amazing world building!

The author has done a wonderful job of describing the setting woven with an unique storyline,and richly detailed with complex emotional characters!


Recommended read that is sure to whisk you away somewhere else!

Absolutely no wonder that this is a Nobel prize winner. Absolutely loved the story building here.

5/5 stars.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Loved it!!!

Unfortunately this did not live up to what I thought it was going to be and I found my attention wandering. Perhaps the translation made it seem very wooden, but there was a lot of repetition and little passion. Not for me.

I enjoyed reading Olav Audunssøn: I. Vows. Previously, I had no knowledge of medieval Norway, and I felt the book gave an interesting perspective on what life was like at that time. I’m not familiar with original Norwegian names, so sometimes it was hard to keep all of the characters straight, but I did like that it was easy to follow along with Olav and Ingunn. I felt like the translation was pleasant to read. One of my favorite quotes was, “It seemed to him they were like two trees, ripped loose by the springtime floods and set adrift in a stream, and he was frightened that the stream would separate them. In this single, heated moment he seemed to understand fully what it would mean to possess her but also to lose her.”

After reading the translator's outstanding introduction to this I thought I'd be in for a treat, but alas the repetition and unending grinding of slow-moving plot points and relationships didn't keep my attention.

I was completely engrossed in this amazing book of historical fiction,An iconic Norwegian novel in translation it drew me right in so well written so original.#netgalley#uof Minnesota,

Sigrid Undset received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928 — mostly in consideration of her Kristin Lavransdatter series which centres on the life of a headstrong woman in Medieval Norway — and now in a new English translation, her series about Olav Audunssøn (which centres on a headstrong young man in Medieval Norway and released previously as The Master of Hestviken in 1927) is evidently being rereleased, beginning with this first volume: Olav Audunssøn: I. Vows. I haven’t read Undset before and I find myself impressed by her ability to bring such a foreign time and place to breathing life without resorting to digressions on culture and customs and artefacts; everything we need to learn is organically inserted into the plot and dialogue, and it was all simply fascinating to me. The plot itself is pretty melodramatic — with murders, betrayals, seduction, and exile — but it works well to put Undset’s characters into extreme situations in order to explore Norway’s evolving religious and legal codes. This was a pleasure to read and I look forward to finding more by Undset.

When I pick up a piece of historical fiction, I admittedly tend to be the kind of person who often ends up overlooking the plot of the story itself (however well written it may be) in favor of getting lost in the details of whichever era I'm being transported to. And by my very odd reading standards, this makes the first book of the newly translated Olav Audunssøn epic such an immense delight for me - the research that Undset did to help recreate medieval Norway was clearly immense, I confess to knowing very little about the setting, but reading through, I just know that everything feels so correct, and structured around every available primary or secondary resource that author could get her hands on at the time.

And luckily for me, this detail-rich background is by no means the only thing to enjoy here. Once the engaging story of Olav and Ingunn is added to the mix - it's simply perfect reading for getting absolutely lost it.

Olav Audunssøn: I. Vows was an engaging read on many levels. The characters and their situation caught my interest from the start, and I enjoyed Undset's saga-like storytelling style. This book is split into two parts, with the first section told from Olav's POV and the second from Ingunn's. I liked Olav in the first section; however, I turned against him a little in the second. This, though, comes from looking at the story and judging his actions with a modern eye; his actions would have been completely acceptable for the time period in which the story is set. I don't think this book has quite the magic of Kristen Lavransdatter, but I would be keen to read on in the tetralogy nonetheless, to find out what will happen to the characters. As far as the translation is concerned, the text flows nicely, with no jarring rhythms. This was a solid 4-star read for me.

I like Tiina Nunnally's translation of Olav Audunssøn's Vows. She makes it so readable that it seems as if Sigrid Undset was living now rather than when she wrote the story in 1902 with the first draft of Olav Audunssøn. The book stems from the two fathers of Olav and Ingunn making them bound by oath to be wed someday. Giving a ring to Olav as wedding present to Ingunn. Sigrid transforms this into something that affects the lives of Olav and Ingunn with everything that they do. It takes over 10 years to bring them together. We follow their lives with the deaths of the people who have allowed this to happen. And the people who put a stop to the union with their deaths. I was amazed how the lives of Ingunn and Olav had changed over the years and followed the story with wonder. I can see how in 1928 Sigrid Undset won the Nobel prize for this story. Many things stay the same.

From a literary giant that is tragically under read in the US, this novel is a great read for lovers of Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones. Undset transports readers into the drama of the medieval period with an amazing clarity and consistency.

The Nobel Prize-winning Norwegian writer Sigrid Undset is one of my favorite novelists–to the point that I tried to teach myself Norwegian after I read  "Kristin Lavransdatter." Set in medieval Norway, this fascinating trilogy focuses on the struggles of willful, beautiful Kristin, who breaks up with her betrothed to marry Erlend Nikulaussøn, a charming but irresponsible knight with a bad reputation, whose neglected estate she must manage, along with yearly pregnancies and one handicapped child, and the consequences of Erlend’s radical politics (he goes to prison).

I am also a fan of Undset’s "Olav Audunssøn," previously translated as "The Master of Hestviken," a brilliant tetralogy set in medieval times. Somehow, this classic has been forgotten, while Kristin’s fans remain manifold.  And so I was delighted to learn that the first volume, "Olav Audunssøn: I Vows," will be published by The University of Minnesota Press this fall.  The award-winning translator is Tina Nunnally.

I have an advance copy, and it seems appropriate to review it during Women in Translation Month. (Mark your calendars: the publication date of Olav Audunssøn is Nov. 10.)  The graceful prose had me spellbound from the beginning to the end. Like "The Wreath, " the first volume of "Kristin Lavransdatter," Undset’s "Olav Audunssøn" delineates a tragic love affair.

Early loves are not always the most harmonious loves.  Olav and Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter are betrothed when they are children by their fathers–while their fathers are drunk. Is the betrothal real, or a joke? Olav, raised as a foster son in Steinfinn Toresson’s household after his father’s death, alongside Ingunn and her siblings, has always loved Ingunn. But after Steinfinn Toresson’s death, the couple meets opposition to their match. Because they have had sex, they believe their relationship is a legal marriage. Ingunn’s relatives want her to make a better match.  Eventually they go to the Bishop, who finds witnesses to the betrothal and declares they must marry eventually, but not yet. An act of violence during a fight ends in Olav’s killing one of Ingunn’s kinsmen, and he goes into exile.

Olav has adventures abroad, while Ingunn suffers a brutally lonely ten years taking care of her grandmother on her aunt’s isolated estate. Ingunn goes nowhere, and sees no one.  She is loyal to Olav, but as an adult she suffers from his absence and wants to be married like other women. She becomes friendly with a young scribe who runs errands for a priest. And   Undset shows us without moralizing the different standards for the sexes.

Christianity is an important factor in Undset’s work, and I am fascinated by her descriptions of the lives of the monks and well-educated priests, the feast days and the church services, and the structure Catholicism gives to people who suffer unforgettable and unforgivable sins wrought by themselves and others.

A masterpiece!

I read this years ago - the first book in a tetralogy called "The Master of Hestviken". I love it then and I loved reading it again, along with Kristen Lavransdattar. The detail in this translation is remarkable. it is a great translation of a pjenomemal, historic Norwegian saga.

Thank you Netgalley!