I had hoped to finish a few more books before starting KL than I've managed, but I'm ready to go anyway. I might jump in tonight and read a little, but tomorrow I will officially begin dragging it about with me! I will be reading the new translation by Tiina Nunnally. Nunnally won the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize for this. There is another translation out there, however. I always find it interesting comparing translations. So here goes:
"When the earthly goods of Ivar the Younger of Sundbu were divided up in the year 1306, his property at Sil was given to his daughter Ragnfrid and her husband Lavrans Bjorgulfson. Before that time they had lived at Skog, Lavrans manor in Follo near Oslo, but now they moved to Jorundgaard, high on the open slope at Sil.
Lavrans belonged to a lineage that here in Norway was known as the sons of Lagmand. It originated in Sweden with a certain Laurentius Ostgotelagman, who abducted the Earl of Bjelbo's sister, the maiden Bengta, from Vreta cloister and fled to Norway with her. Herr Laurentius served King Haakon the Old, and was much favored by him; the king bestowed on him the manor Skog. But after he had been in this country for eight years, he died of a lingering disease, and his widow, a daughter of the house of the Folkungs whom the people of Norway called a king's daughter returned home to be reconciled with her kinsman. She later married a rich man in another country. She and Herr Laurentius had had no children, and so Laurentius's brother Ketil inherited Skog. He was the grandfather of Lavrans Bjorgulfson." (Tiina Nunnally translation)
My library has the older translation by Charles Archer:
"When the lands and goods of Ivar Gjesling the younger, or Sundbu, were divided after his death in 1306, his lands in Sil of Gudbrandsdal fell to his daughter Ragnfrid and her husband Lavrans Bjorgulfson. Up to then they had lived on Lavran's manor of Skog at Follo, near Oslo; but now they moved up to Jorundgaard at the top of the open lands of Sil.
Lavrans was of the stick that was known in this country as the Lagmandssons. It had come here from Sweden with that Laurentius, Lagmand of East Gothland, who took the Belbo Jarl's sister, the Lady Bengta, out of Vreta convent, and carried her off to Norway. Sir Laurentius lived at the Court of King Haakon the old, and won great favour with the King, who gave him the Skog manor. But when he had been in this country about eight years he died in his bed, and his widow, who belonged to the Folkunga kindred, and had the name of a King's daughter among the Norwegians, went home and made matters up with her relations. Afterwards she made a rich marriage in another land. She and Sir Laurentius had no children, so the heritage of Skog fell to Laurentius' brother, Ketil. He was father's father to Lavrans Bjorgulfson." (Charles Archer translation).
In the translator's introduction to my edition Nunnally writes:
"The three volumes of Kristin Lavransdatter were translated into English in the 1920s, but the translaters chose to impose an artificially archaic style on the text, which completely misrepresented Undset's beautifully clear prose. They filled her novels with stilted dialogue (using words such as 'tis, 'twas, I trow, thee, thou, hath, and doth), and they insisted on a convoluted syntax."
It sounds as though the original translators also may have left out passages they thought too sexually explicit for readers at that time. Nunnally says there were a total of eighteen pages left out, some with key passages. I am glad to hear this modern edition has not left out anything from the original, and tone of the author's original intent and prose is as it reads in the Norwegian. Is everyone else reading the Nunnally translation?