66 pages • 2 hours read
Sigrid UndsetKristin Lavransdatter
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1920A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Crown
When Kristin marries Erlend, she is adorned with a wedding crown made of flowers and leaves. This laurel wreath is a traditional symbol in Norwegian marriages; everyone in the congregation understands the significance of the crown, which denotes the bride’s virginal purity on the day of the marriage. When she is taken into the bed chamber at the end of the night, for example, the crown is removed as a symbolic acknowledgement of the loss of virginity. The symbolic importance of the crown has a broader symbolism in the context of the society. These shared symbols illustrate the unified Christian symbolism of the region and the way in which traditional pagan practices, such as the laurel wreath, have been incorporated into the rituals of Christianity. The crown and its symbolism are not to be found in the Bible. Instead, the crown represents The Tension Between Pagan and Christian Beliefs, merging to form a syncretic, Norwegian interpretation of Christianity. The broad understanding of the symbolism of the crown represents the extent to which this blend of religions has become the culture of Norway. The crown symbolizes marriage, not only between Kristin and Erlend, but between the past and the present, between Christianity and something much older.
For Kristin, however, the crown has a far more troubling symbolism. She knows that she is pregnant and that the baby will arrive so soon after the marriage as to leave no doubt that she did not wait until her wedding night to have sex with Erlend. She understands the shame that will fall upon her pious father, as well as the judgment that will be directed at her. Kristin is worried not only about the sin she has committed, but also about the ramifications for her family and her new husband. To her, the crown is a heavy reminder of the falsity of her promise. This symbol of supposed virginal purity weighs down on her head, serving as a constant reminder of the problems that will soon be delivered to her life. She will have the child and everyone will know that she broke her vow; when the baby arrives, everyone will know that the symbolic meaning of the crown was utterly empty. For Kristin, the crown symbolizes a pernicious anxiety, a fear that afflicts what should be the happiness of her wedding day. While everyone else praises her beauty and wonders at the crowd, she can only imagine the trouble that will soon follow when everyone recognizes the lie that the crown represents.
After the birth of Naakkve, Kristin feels immense guilt. To atone for this guilt, she is told to make a pilgrimage. When she arrives at the cathedral, she will confess her sins to the bishop and donate the crown to the Church. The surrendering of the marriage crown is, in itself, a symbolic act. She is handing back the crown as a symbolic acceptance of the lie it represents. In the context of the novel, however, the crown takes on an additional meaning. When Kristin hands the crown over to the priests, they dutifully take out a ledger. They weigh the crown and enter the measurements into the ledger, placing it alongside the accounts of all the other donations that the cathedral has received. They do so in a prosaic manner, almost the opposite of the performative nature of the wedding ceremony. This is a flat, routine procedure, in which a personal sin is atoned through an accounting practice. The manner in which the crown is entered into the books symbolizes the commonality of sin and the routine way in which the Church offers absolution to those who can afford it.
The Cross
Christianity is the dominant religion in Medieval Norway. While the people may turn to pagan rituals in time of need, they do so secretly and with shame. In contrast, the iconography of Christianity is publicly displayed in a clear demonstration of devotion. The cross is the most obvious symbol in the Christian religion. As such, the preponderance of the crosses and crucifixes in the novel symbolizes the extent to which Norway has become a Christian nation. The people are proudly Christian and they are sincere in their beliefs. They may occasionally dabble in paganism, but they do not waver in their devotion to the Christian religion. The churches are found at the center of every community and the crosses are at the center of every church. People wear crucifixes around their necks, rubbing the small crosses in moments that test their spirituality. The sheer number of crosses in the novel represents the importance and centrality of Christianity to the culture of Medieval Norway.
In Jørundgaard, the church is an important social hub. The church is not as grand or as splendid as the cathedrals described in the larger towns and cities of Norway, but the local people imbue their church with a sense of community pride. They are proud of their church and of the relics and treasures inside, and they view the church as a physical embodiment of their devotion, allowing them to show the world that the people of Jørundgaard truly care about their relationship with God. When a storm causes a fire in the church, however, this physical symbol of devotion is threatened. The entire town rushes to help, and the people of Jørundgaard risk their lives to save what they can of the church’s treasures. During this incident, Erlend wins Lavrans’s respect by risking himself to salvage whatever he can from inside the church. Lavrans rescues the cross. He is described in heroic terms as he emerges from the burning church with the cross born across his shoulders, having risked his life to save the most enduring symbol of Christianity. By saving the cross from the burning church, Lavrans is able to symbolically demonstrate his status as the community’s most pious and venerable man. He has a reputation for being very religious, but the image of him emerging from the fire with the cross on his back bolsters this reputation like nothing else. In this moment, his devotion takes on a new, symbolic dimension. He becomes a local legend, one that is imbued with the symbolism of the cross as well as the symbolism of the most pious man who saved it.
Lavrans owns a small crucifix that he hangs around his neck. This cross passes from one person to another and, at the end of the novel, it is in the possession of Kristin when she enters the convent with the ambition of becoming a nun. She surrenders all her earthly possessions, but she cannot bring herself to give up this cross. It is the final reminder of her father, so she clings to it with a devotion that is both religious and personal. When the black death arrives in Norway, however, her faith is tested. She has spent her life seeking out atonement for a sin that she committed when she was a teenager. She enters the convent for this reason. Only by saving the boy from sacrifice, however, and recovering the abandoned body is she able to perform a spiritual duty that comes close to matching the atonement that she strives to achieve. She falls sick and, on her death bed, she finally gives up this crucifix as a way to fund the masses that she wants to be said for the poor innocents who have died. She asks Ulf to give up the cross, the symbol of his father and the symbol of her past, to pay for an atonement of others. By giving up this cross, Kristin is performing the selfless act that can finally put her soul to rest.
Jørundgaard
For the young Kristin Lavransdatter, Jørundgaard is the world. The novel begins with her sudden realization that the world she inhabits is much larger than the valley in which she was born and raised. In spite of this, Jørundgaard endures as an important symbol of her youth. The farm represents her simple, almost idyllic childhood. Growing up, she did not need to worry about sin and shame. She did not need to worry about husbands or political conspiracies. She could simply enjoy her life at Jørundgaard, surrounded by bountiful nature and not yet old enough to realize the tragedies that affected her parents. To Kristin, the moment in which she realizes that the world is bigger than Jørundgaard is a symbolic shedding of innocence, but also the consolidation of her youthful nostalgia. When she remembers Jørundgaard, she remembers it before this point. Later, as she travels away from the farm and away from the valley, she looks back fondly on Jørundgaard and the youth and innocence that it once represented to her.
After marrying Erlend, Kristin lives on his much larger estate at Husaby, though she must work hard to ensure that it runs even half as efficiently as her father’s farm. When Erlend becomes embroiled in a conspiracy, however, his lands are confiscated. He loses everything, but Kristin retains Jørundgaard. The family returns to Jørundgaard, but the symbolism of the farm has changed for Kristin. She can no longer solely enjoy the nostalgia that it once represented. Now, Jørundgaard is tinged with a sadness and a bitterness. Her move from Husaby to Jørundgaard symbolizes the collapse in the family’s fortunes. In this sense, Jørundgaard comes to represent the folly of Erlend’s ambitions, which have condemned them to these diminished circumstances. Furthermore, the move back to Jørundgaard invites less than flattering comparisons between Erlend and Lavrans, as he will never run the farm as well as his father in law, nor enjoy the adoration of the community that Lavrans once enjoyed. Kristin returns to Jørundgaard only to feel like an outsider, forced to live in the remnants of her nostalgic past with the added bitterness of her present failure. Amid Erlend’s downfall, even her fond nostalgia for the past is taken from her.
When Gaute inherits Jørundgaard, the change in ownership represents the passage of time. By this point, the original inhabitants of the farm are mostly dead. Kristin’s parents and her husband have perished, as have a number of her children. Naakkve and Bjørgulf have resolved to leave, while Ulf has also departed from the area. As such, there are few connections between the Jørundgaard of the present and the Jørundgaard that still exists in Kristin’s mind. Kristin comes to accept that she must leave the farm so that her son can make a life for himself with his wife. She must relinquish control of Jørundgaard and, in doing so, symbolically accept that her time has passed. As Kristin leaves Jørundgaard for the final time, she is swept up in a turmoil of homesickness and nostalgia. She longs to return to Jørundgaard, but the Jørundgaard of her past, not that of her present. As such, Jørundgaard comes to represents the idealized, nostalgic image of the past that is unreachable. Kristin longs for Jørundgaard, but she longs for what Jørundgaard represents rather than the physical farm itself. To her, the farm becomes more important as a symbol than a place, representing everything that she must leave behind on the final step of her journey.
