Sigrid Undset

Lavransdatter, Sigrid Undset integrates the relationship between Catholicism and folk beliefs, ultimately highlighting how characters navigate the difficulties and complexities of medieval Norwegian society. While the Catholic Church holds a more significant influence, the characters, specifically Kristin, often intertwine traditional beliefs with their Christian faith to address challenges, revealing a better understanding of a religion's role when shaping their lives. Sigrid Undset helps to convey

main character Kristin. Early on in his life “Lavrans was married at a young age; he was only twenty-eight...but after his marriage he lived quietly on his own estate...rather moody and melancholy and did not thrive among the people in the south” (Undset 3). In regards to this situation, Capellanus’ sixth rule of courtly love states, “Boys do not love until they arrive at the age of maturity” (Capellanus #6). After marrying his wife at an age considered young during his time, Lavrans is not mature

In Sigrid Undset’s book, Kristin Lavransdatter 1: The Wreath, she tells the story of the youth and romance that the title character goes through during her childhood and teenage years, which eventually leads to her marriage to Erlend Nikulaussøn. Being set in medieval Norway, it gives a picture, although at times through rose-colored glasses, of life at the time, especially for young women. While such elements such as love and marriage are embellished at times, others such as the hold of religion

Sigrid Undset and Pearl Buck won the Nobel Prize in Literature for their historical accounts (Jewell 108). Similarly, Svetlana Alexievich’s Nobel Award winning work, Voices from Chernobyl, is an oral history of witnesses of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl