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Sigrid Undset

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Gunnar's Daughter (Penguin Twentieth Century Classics) Paperback – Illustrated, April 1, 1998

by Sigrid Undset (Author), Sherrill Harbison (Editor), Arthur G. Chater (Translator)

4.6 74 ratings

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The first historical novel by the Nobel Prize-winning author of Kristin Lavransdatter

A Penguin Classic

More than a decade before writing Kristin Lavransdatter, the trilogy about fourteenth-century Norway that won her the Nobel Prize, Sigrid Undset published Gunnar’s Daughter, a brief, swiftly moving tale about a more violent period of her country’s history, the Saga Age. Set in Norway and Iceland at the beginning of the eleventh century, Gunnar's Daughter is the story of the beautiful, spoiled Vigdis Gunnarsdatter, who is raped by the man she had wanted to love. A woman of courage and intelligence, Vigdis is toughened by adversity. Alone she raises the child conceived in violence, repeatedly defending her autonomy in a world governed by men. Alone she rebuilds her life and restores her family's honor—until an unremitting social code propels her to take the action that again destroys her happiness.

First published in 1909, Gunnar's Daughter was in part a response to the rise of nationalism and Norway's search for a national identity in its Viking past. But unlike most of the Viking-inspired art of its period, Gunnar's Daughter is not a historical romance. It is a skillful conversation between two historical moments about questions as troublesome in Undset's own time—and in ours—as they were in the Saga Age: rape and revenge, civil and domestic violence, troubled marriages, and children made victims of their parents' problems.

Review

By the Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

“A better told story of its kind would be difficult to imagine, for Sigrid Undset has retained the directness and concise power of the old Norse and Icelandic sagas. . . . Beautifully told; already so early in her career [Undset] had learned the true meaning of form and proportion, pace and suspense.” —The New York Times

About the Author

Sigrid Undset (1882–1949) was born in Denmark, the eldest daughter of a Norwegian father and a Danish mother. Two years after her birth, the family moved to Oslo, where her father, a distinguished archaeologist, taught at the university. Her father’s interest in the past had a tremendous influence on Undset. She was particularly entranced by the dramatic Old Norse sagas she read as a child, later declaring that her exposure to them marked “the most important turning point in my life.”

Undset’s first published works—the novel Mrs. Marta Oulie (1907) and a short-story collection, The Happy Age (1908)—were set in contemporary times and achieved both critical and popular success. With her reputation as a writer well-established, Undset had the freedom to explore the world that had first fired her imagination, and in Gunnar's Daughter (1909) she drew upon her knowledge of Norway's history and legends, including the Icelandic Sagas, to recreate medieval life with compelling immediacy. In 1912, Undset married the painter Anders Castus Svarstad and over the next ten years faced the formidable challenge of raising three stepchildren and her own three off-spring with little financial or emotional support from her husband. Eventually, she and her children moved from Oslo to Lillehammer, and her marriage was annulled in 1924, when Undset converted to Catholicism.

Although Undset wrote more modern novels, a collection of essays on feminism, as well as numerous book reviews and newspaper articles, her fascination with the Middle Ages never ebbed, and in 1920 she published The Wreath, the first volume of her most famous work, Kristin Lavransdatter. The next two volumes quickly followed—The Wife in 1921, and The Cross in 1922. The trilogy earned Undset worldwide acclaim, and her second great medieval epic—the four-volume The Master of Hestviken (1925–1927)—confirmed her place as one of the twentieth century’s greatest writers. In 1928, at the age of 46, she received the Nobel Prize in Literature, only the third woman to be so honored.

Undset went on to publish more novels—including the autobiographical The Longest Years—and several collections of essays during the 1930s. As the Germans advanced through Norway in 1940, Undset, an outspoken critic of Nazism, fled the country and eventually settled in Brooklyn, New York. She returned to her homeland in 1945, and two years later she was awarded Norway’s highest honor for her “distinguished literary work and for service to her country.” The years of exile, however, had taken a great toll on her, and she died of a stroke on June 10, 1949.

Print length

161 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Classics
Publication date

April 1, 1998
Dimensions

5.08 x 0.55 x 7.7 inches
ISBN-10

014118020X
ISBN-13

978-0141180205
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Classics; Illustrated edition (April 1, 1998)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 161 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 014118020X
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0141180205
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.08 x 0.55 x 7.7 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #361,024 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #743 in Teen & Young Adult Classic Literature
- #9,363 in Classic Literature & Fiction
- #18,617 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.6 74 ratings

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Sigrid Undset

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Sigrid Undset (20 May 1882 – 10 June 1949) was a Norwegian novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928.

Undset was born in Kalundborg, Denmark, but her family moved to Norway when she was two years old. In 1924, she converted to Catholicism. She fled Norway for the United States in 1940 because of her opposition to Nazi Germany and the German invasion and occupation of Norway, but returned after World War II ended in 1945.

Her best-known work is Kristin Lavransdatter, a trilogy about life in Scandinavia in the Middle Ages, portrayed through the experiences of a woman from birth until death. Its three volumes were published between 1920 and 1922.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Photo by Aage Remfeldt / Aage Rasmussen (1889-1983) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

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Stuart W. Mirsky

A Very Fine Example of the Saga as Modern Novel

Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2000

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In this case of medieval date rape and the grim consequences which follow hard upon it, Sigrid Undset created a wonderfully literate experience using the saga "voice". Although I detected slippages in tone, here and there, and felt the ending too contrived and overwrought to be pure saga, I was still swept along by this book, finishing it in a single sitting. It is short, yes, but also a very compelling narrative as it details the tribulations of two would-be lovers who are yet too proud and self-willed for their own good or for the society in which they find themselves. As with the typical viking hero, Viga-Ljot is overly confident of his own charms and impatient of results. And Vigdis, the maid he has set his heart on, is no less aloof and overbearing in her own way than that historical figure, Sigrid the Haughty, who so angered King Olaf Tryggvesson that he slapped her in the midst of their courtship and thereby sealed his doom. Viga-Ljot does much worse in this tale and his fate is thus forever bound up with a woman who cannot forget or forgive him. Like Gudrun Osvif's daughter in Laxdaela Saga, Vigdis bides her time and nurses her pain but, in the end, that pain is not assuaged by the actions she takes, for it is ultimately destructive to everyone it touches.

A good example of the saga form in modern literature indeed, and yet, despite the finely tuned prose of this novel, capturing the nuances and understatement of the saga voice with masterly strokes, there is an underlying stridency here, an almost emotional overreaching which is not, itself, true to the saga form. In some ways this book is too modern and its author's sensibility, at this juncture in her career, almost too young and unseasoned. Undset seems to be reaching for the tragic denouement of the Greek classics to end her tautly told tale rather than content herself with the flatly understated and finely nuanced wrap-up more appropriate to the saga form. But this Greek-like ending left me much colder than the drily tossed-off afterthought of a true saga might have done. And yet, for all that, Undset has here given us one of the better modern novels done in saga form. My hat is off to her.

By the way, for another really fine novel based on the old sagas, one, in fact, that I think outdoes even this one, try SAGA: A NOVEL OF MEDIEVAL ICELAND by contemporary Canadian author Jeff Janoda. Many have tried to evoke the sagas in modern prose but few have done it as well as he has. Janoda has written a contemporary novel that does genuine justice to its original source, Eyrbyggja Saga, while not succumbing to the overwrought sensibility which mars GUNNAR'S DAUGHTER at the end. If you like fiction grounded in the old Norse saga literature, then Janoda's book should be your very next stop.

SWM
author of The King of Vinland's Saga

36 people found this helpful

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H. Zanker

What a saga

Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2014

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A must read for those who are interested in original literature. Sigrid Undset writes Gunnar's daughter entirely in the style of an Icelandic saga (something like Beowulf) to depict the hardships and the brutishness of the Scandinavian Middle Ages.
It is a world where women have very little power, where wergild (money for life) is still practiced, and men fight each other at the smallest provocation.
Yet Gunnar's daughter emerges as a strong woman who chooses her own destiny, adheres to her principles, and refuses to marry the father of her son, raising the boy alone. The ending is not romance novel happy.
The novel is a very worthwhile read, so different from anything one is used to reading. No wonder Sigrid Undset received the Nobel Prize for the body of her work.

2 people found this helpful

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Katie L.

Overwhelming and tragic

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2011

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There is no doubt that this book is saddening and heartbreaking, but if you want a good story, whether short or long, you must go to Sigrid Undset. I read "Kristin Lavransdatter" a few years ago, which I loved and is my top ten favorite books of all time, so I was happy to see that Undset had written other books before her Nobel prize winning tome.

This book was short, but told the tale as it needed to be told in its entirety. I loved every minute, though it brought me near to tears a few times. You will like this book, if only for its Middle Age Viking setting alone. There is another series of books by Undset that I'm trying to get a hold of, probably another set of winners.

9 people found this helpful

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Shirley R. Winn

Very informative

Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2015

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Didn't realize the content would include history is Author but a good story

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Grace E.

Love and Hate. Norwegian Culture. Author won the Literature Nobel Prize. Excellent.

Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2018

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Sigrid Undset (20 May 1882 – 10 June 1949) was a Norwegian novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. She was born in Denmark, raised in Norway. She converted to Catholicism in a Lutheran majority country. I plan to read all of her books. This one is very classic, describes the culture of Norway very well, includes a love/hate story, and had me fascinated with her style of writing.

5 people found this helpful

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just an ordinary person

beautiful work

Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2014

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This is a shorter work by Singrid Undset, but worth the read. Every word is valuable to the story. I respect this authoress very much, her literary style here is almost Biblical, with weight (and no flowery language to persuade us to react the way SHE wants us to) behind every sentence. Her simple, yet profound storytelling made my heart ache. I passed it on to my daughter and plan on reading it again myself. I have also read her Kristen Lavransdatter trilogy twice, another highly recommended read.

5 people found this helpful

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Pat

Gunnar's Daughter by Sigrid Undset

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2010

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Fantastically intriguing book. Author Sigrid Undset conveys social mores & expectations for both men & women, values relating to family honor, vengance, strength, courage & love during medieval Norway & Iceland as they transition to Christianity. Very precise & straightforward writing. Introduction is very informative as to the mores of this era, but I found it best read after one has read the book per se. This book is a prelude to the author's later, more sophisticated writing, the trilogy of Kristin Lavansdatter, Nobel prize winner, which I had previously read.

3 people found this helpful

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Susan Vinicor

An Epic Tale

Reviewed in the United States on December 21, 2013

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This is an epic tale based on the Middle Ages. The introduction is very important in describing the cultural and religious customs of that period. The story also speaks to contemporary issues of women's rights. I found it hard to put down.

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Sverre Svendsen

An emotional and suspenseful yarn

Reviewed in Canada on July 17, 2015

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This was Undset’s third novel, published in 1909, when she was twenty-seven. It was a precursor of sorts to the ‘Sigrid Lavransdatter’ trilogy (1920) and the four volume ‘The Master of Hestviken’ (1925), all set in medieval Norway. ‘Gunnar’s Daughter’ is historically set in Norway and Iceland at the turn of the millennium, 1000 AD. It is written to mimic the descriptive narrative style of the Viking sagas. The phrasing is succinct and the words chosen in this translation are lyrically expressive. The Introduction and Explanatory Notes in this Penguin edition provide the reader with accurate historical background.

Viking women were known for their self-reliant confidence. Vigdis, the heroine of the story, is one such woman. Although the northern culture was patriarchal, women were generally allowed a great deal more authority and respect than in other parts of Europe. The time period Unset selected for the novel is one in which the impact of Christianity was having an increasing influence on the pagan beliefs and traditions. But most disputes continued to be resolved by violence. The cost of dishonoring someone’s pride or besmirching their reputation was often maiming or death. Scores are settled by vengeance, even from one generation to the next.

An Icelandic trader, Ljot, visiting Norway, is smitten by Vigdis’ beauty, intelligence and confidence. But she is reluctant to accept his proposal although she has become enamoured of him. He seals his own fate when he forces himself on her. To avoid the vengeance he knows will come his way he returns to Iceland in ignorance of the fact that his rape has conceived a child. Year after year he languishes. He cannot forget Vigdis. He worships the memory of her like an icon. Even though he marries a dutiful wife and has children he is never happy. Meanwhile Vigdis harbors no forgiveness and she lives in fear for Ljot’s return to Norway. Their son Ulvar has grown up to be a proud warrior. To him she expresses the desire to one day possess his father’s decapitated head.

Undset does not gloss over the brutal ways of the medieval Norse culture. But she skillfully weaves the tale with loving relationships, fateful coincidences and tragic occurrences that emotionally and suspensefully involve the reader in the eventful lives of Vigdis and Ljot.

Mrs D

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 28, 2015

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Wonderful book. Quick delivery and excellent packaging. Would definitely recommend this to other readers.

John Williams

Somewhere between a saga and a novel

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 28, 2008

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Sigrid Undset has written a story in the style of a medieval saga, but with its edges softened to make it palatable to a 20th century readership. Thus we get neither one thing nor the other, but something in between. This is not intended as a negative criticism; what Undset achieves here is no mean feat. But if you want to read a pure, unembroidered saga, then go to the originals. If you're only going to read one, then I would recommend Njal's Saga. And if you want to read the greatest historical novel that Undset (or anyone else for that matter) ever wrote, then read Kristin Lavransdatter.

Having said that, this is a good story, told in simple, saga-like language, no purple prose in sight. It is set in the times when Christianity was just getting a foothold in Scandinavia and Iceland, and paints a true and vivid picture of those strange and violent times. There is plenty more in this edition besides the story. The introduction is very informative on the subjects of Undset herself and also the historical and social backgrounds both of her own time and of the times about which she writes. There are also maps of the places where the story is set. The story is heavily footnoted, which can be a distraction but is very helpful if you have an interest in the historical background. To stop for the footnotes or not? Maybe you'll just have to read the whole thing twice, which would be no hardship.

4 people found this helpful

Joanna Parsons

Would have liked to have been longer and to have understood the ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 8, 2017

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Not a form of writing I'm used but it was fast paced and gripping. Would have liked to have been longer and to have understood the characters more deeply. Brought it while on holiday in Norway and it certainly captures the area

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