Welcome
Xine48, it is good to have someone who is so familiar with
Kristin Lavransdatter. May I ask which translation you have, is it the Archer or Nunnally? I have the Archer and uploaded a sample of the Nunnally, and find the Archer translation much more able to set the era of the time.
So what does everyone think of Kristin falling in love with Erlend? It is quite interesting he is relation to Lady Aashild. He seemed to be informing Kristin of the family's dirty laundry, so to speak. She says her parents protected them from knowing too much. Why do you suppose he felt it necessary to tell her these things?
pg. 116
"Then all doors are not barred against Bjorn and Aashild?" asked Erlend. Kristin said they were thought much of, and that her father and many with him deemed that most of the tales about these two were untrue. "How liked you my kinsman, Munan Baardson?" asked Erlend, laughing silly. "I looked not much upon him," said Kristin, "and methought, too, he was not much to look on." "Knew you not," asked Erlend, "that he is her son?" "Son to Lady Aashild!" said Kristin, in great wonder. "Ay, her children could not take their mother's fair looks, though they took all else," said Erlend. "I have never known her first husband's name," said Kristin. "They were two brothers who wedded two sisters," said Erlend. "Baard and Nikulaus Munanson. My father was the elder, my mother was his second wife, but he had no children by his first. Baard, whom Aashild wedded, was not young either, nor, I trow, did they ever live happily together__ay, I was a little child when all this befell, they hid from me as much as they could...But she fled the land with Sir Bjorn and married him against the will of her kin__when Baard was dead. Then folk would have had the wedding set aside__they made out that Bjorn had sought her bed while her first husband was still living, and that they had plotted together t put away my father's brother. 'Tis clear they could not bring this home to them, since they had to forfeit all their estate__Bjorn had killed their sister's son, too__my mother's and Aashild's, I mean__"
Kristin's heart beat hard. At home her father and mother had kept strict watch that no unclean talk should come to the ears of their children or young folk__but still, things had happened in their own parish and Kristin had heard of them__a man had lived in adultery with a wedded woman. That was whoredom, one of the worst sins; 'twas said they plotted the husband's death, and they brought with it outlawry and the Church's ban."
Now she came to think, too, it seemed strange Erlend should think it fit to tell such tales of his near kin. But like enough he deemed she knew it already.Did anyone feel the ballad Sivord the Dane sang, reminded you of the story Erlend had shared with Kristin? Does it also give you a strange feeling this to is what Erlend in intending for Kristin? To lead her from her family, taking her from Simon, who she has been betrothed to?
Barb, I imagine many women ended up in marriages of betrothal, or other situations that denied them true happiness. Was happiness considered a folly, back in these ages? Kristin seems so very happy, and in love with Erlend, yet I feel heartbreak is to become her.
Barb,
If marriage was an arranged contract that had little to do with love than what was sex - surely not an expression of love
I'm not so sure I agree with, sex not being an expression of love. I feel Kristin, with Erlend is experiencing real feelings, she would consider love. He, I worry is taking advantage of her. For men, I feel sex was and still is an act of lust, something that satisfies their carnal need. Not that all men have sex for only that purpose, but it sure seems back in those days many men either took it by force, or simply because they were betrothed and married to the woman, regardless if they loved each other or not.
Halcyon, We were posting at the same time. pg. 120
When he put his hands upon her breast, she felt as though he drew her heart from out her bosom; he parted the folds of silk ever so little and laid a kiss betwixt them__ it sent a glow into her inmost soul. Kristin then falls asleep in his arms and awakens, and from the promise they make to each other, I sensed the act had been committed. If not, it sure came close to it, considering the way she allowed herself to be caressed and kissed, by him.
