The Axe

Sigrid Undset

The Axe

Sigrid Undset was born to Norwegian parents in Denmark in 1882. Between 1920 and 1922, she published her magnificent and widely acclaimed trilogy of fourteenth-century Norway, Kristin Lavransdatter (composed of The Bridal Wreath, The Mistress of Husaby, and The Cross). And between 1925 and 1927, she published the four volumes of The Master of Hestviken (composed of The Axe, The Snake Pit, In the Wilderness, and The Son Avenger). Ms. Undset, the author of numerous other novels, essays, short stories, and tales for young readers, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. During the Second World War, she worked with the Norwegian underground before having to flee to Sweden and then to the United States. After the war, she returned to Norway, where she died in 1949.

ALSO BY SIGRID UNDSET

Kristin Lavransdatter

The Bridal Wreath (VOLUME I)
The Mistress of Husaby (VOLUME II)
The Cross (VOLUME III)

The Master of Hestviken

The Axe (VOLUME I)
The Snake Pit (VOLUME II)
In the Wilderness (VOLUME III)
The Son Avenger (voLUME IV)

VINTAGE BOOKS EDITION

Copyright © 1928 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Renewal Copyright 1956 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto. Originally published in hardcover in Norwegian by H. Ascheboug & Company, Oslo. Copyright 1925 by H. Ascheboug & Company, Oslo. This translation was published in hardcover as part of The Master of Hestviken by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., New York, in 1930.

Translated from the Norwegian by Arthur G. Chater.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Undset, Sigrid, 1982–1949.
[Olav Audunssøn i Hestviken. I. English]
The axe / Sigrid Undset.
p. cm.—(The master of Hestviken / Sigrid Undset ; v. 1)
Originally published in Norwegian as part 1 of Olav Audunssøn I
Hestviken (2 v.).
eISBN: 978-0-307-77306-7

1. Norway—History—1030–1397—Fiction.
2. Middle Ages—History—Fiction.
I. Title. II. Series: Undset, Sigrid, 1882–1949.
Master of Hestviken ; v. 1.
PT8950.U5061513 1994
839.8′2372—dc20    94-16662

v3.1

CONTENTS

Cover

About the Author

Other Books by This Author

Title Page

Copyright

Part One - Olan Audunsson Takes a Wife

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

10

Part Two - Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

PART ONE

Olan Audunsson
Takes a Wife

1

THE STEINFINNSSONS was the name folk gave to a kin that flourished in the country about Lake Mjösen at the time the sons of Harald Gille held sway in Norway. In those days men of that stock held manors in every parish that bordered the lake.

In the years of trouble which later came upon the land, the Steinfinnssons thought most of keeping their estates unshorn and their manors unburned, and for the most part they were strong enough to succeed in this, whether the Birchlegs or any of the opposing bands were to the fore in the Upplands. They seemed not to care greatly who in the end might be kings in Norway; but some men of this line had served King Magnus Erlingsson and later Sigurd Markusfostre faithfully and well, and none of them had aided Sverre and his kinsmen more than they could help. Old Tore Steinfinnsson of Hov and his sons joined the cause of King Skule, but when there was once more peace in the land they paid allegiance to King Haakon.

But from that time the family began to lose something of its repute.