Kristin Lavransdatter, II: The Wife

After marrying Erlend, Kristin becomes mistress of Husaby and assumes responsibility for a large estate, Erlend’s illegitimate children and the sons born during their turbulent marriage. Her penitential journey to the shrine of Saint Olav at Nidaros after the birth of her first child shows the continuing force of the guilt she carried into the wedding. As Erlend neglects property and duty, Kristin’s competence holds the household together, but resentment and pride steadily erode the intimacy for which she sacrificed her family’s trust.

The domestic story becomes entangled with the unstable government of the young Magnus VII. Erling Vidkunsson, Ingeborg of Norway and Knud Porse stand behind the regency politics of the period, while Erlend joins a conspiracy associated with the king’s cousins Jon and Sigurd Havtoresson. Betrayal leads to arrest, interrogation and forfeiture of Erlend’s estates. The family’s removal from Husaby to Jørundgaard turns a political failure into a lasting change in Kristin and Erlend’s marriage.