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THE AMERICAN-SCANDIN AVIAN REVIEW 
of a deathless love. She is, of course, the finer and stronger of the 
two, and the wounds Erlend deals her in his thoughtlessness rankle and 
fester in her mind. To his lighter nature she often seems unforgiving. 
Toward the end of the book, however, events occur that make both 
realize the depth and strength of their love for each other. Erlend has 
become involved in a political scheme to dissolve the personal union 
between Norway and Sweden and force Magnus Smek to abdicate in 
favor of a younger half-brother. Characteristically, he conceives the 
scheme with acumen and courage, but wrecks it by criminal careless¬ 
ness. He is left to bear the brunt of the king’s anger, and is put to 
torture to make him reveal his accomplices—a proceeding toward a 
nobleman which was absolutely unheard of in Norway. But Erlend 
bears the torture and the horrible imprisonment with smiling and deb¬ 
onair courage, refusing to yield an inch. The incident restores the 
moral and artistic balance of the book by showing Erlend possessed 
of a high spirit worthy to mate with Kristin’s. 
An almost intolerable intensity prevails throughout Kristin Lav- 
ransdatter. Though not unrelieved by humor and picturesque descrip¬ 
tion, it is in the main a story of struggle and high aspiration, of great 
emotions that sweep people out of their pettier selves and lift them to 
the greatest heights they are capable of reaching. This is true not only 
of Kristin and Erlend, but of the other leading characters. There is 
Simon, Kristin’s one-time fiance, who wrests Erlend from the hands 
of the torturers almost by sheer will power. In his longing to save the 
husband of the woman he still loves, this sturdy, jovial yeoman is trans¬ 
formed into a spiritual knight errant. And there is Gunnulf, Erlend’s 
brother, who courts the martyrdom of illness and hardship among the 
Lapps, because the martyrdom of the early saints which had fired his 
youthful imagination on his first pilgrimage to Rome is out of his reach. 
The Church naturally plays a large part in this interpretation of 
medieval life. Almost too harrowing, and yet wonderful in its tense 
beauty, is the story of how Kristin walks barefoot to Trondhjem 
cathedral to do penance for the sin which is visited upon her as inexora¬ 
bly as upon the poorest crofter’s wife. In the storm of feeling that 
sweeps over her when she first sees the dome with its soaring columns 
and wonderful stone carvings, and hears the singing, we realize what 
the Church meant in the days when it was the sole repository not only 
of spiritual consolation, but also of the arts. 
Even more intimately tender is the description of how Lavrans 
meets the procession of the Host alone in the night. He is walking 
from his own gaard to that of the priest under the stars that glitter 
on snowy peaks. 
“Suddenly he saw a small taper coming toward him. The old Deacon Audun 
was carrying it, and when he became aware of some one in the road, he rang a small 
silver bell. Lavrans Bjorgulfsson threw himself down on his knees in the snowdrift 
at the edge of the road. Audun walked past him with the taper, while the bell rang 
