Kristin Lavransdatter

By the time Erlend meets Kristin, he is already disgraced, having begun a sexual relationship with the wife of the man he served. Eline bore two children through this affair, with Erlend promising her that he would marry her as soon as her husband died. This relationship has marked Erland as an outsider—someone who will never again fully belong to the community. The world knows about Erlend’s unruly romantic life, but Kristin—still innocent and naïve, living among the nuns—has never heard of him. After he saves her from a gang of robbers, she falls immediately in love with him. Erlend charms Kristin as he once charmed Eline. He knows of her betrothal to Simon, but he courts her anyway, arranging for her to meet him in private so they can have sex. He argues that if they have pledged themselves to one another, then they are as good as married, but Erlend’s seduction of Kristin is another example of his recklessness. He acts emotionally, without thinking of the consequences, and—worst of all, his godly brother suggests—he leads others into sin alongside him. Erlend’s life is a list of ways in which he has violated the community’s standards of behavior and encouraged others to do the same.

Erlend’s ability to charm other people into misdeeds is not limited to romance. Eline pays for Erlend’s mistakes with her life, while Kristin pays with her reputation. She is shamed and nearly ostracized from her community when she gives birth so soon after her marriage, but Erlend’s forays into politics are far more damaging in a material sense. Erlend’s recklessness leads to a collapse in his family’s reputation. His family were important members of the Norwegian nobility, but by the end of the series, this grandeur is as old and dirtied as Erlend’s estate at Husaby. Aware of how much his family’s reputation has suffered, Erlend embroils himself in a conspiracy against the king. While many people are involved, only Erlend is impetuous enough to be caught. He leaves an incriminating letter in the bed chamber of a woman with whom he is having an affair. Erlend is caught and tortured because of his attempts to restore his family’s pride and status—attempts fueled by the same reckless emotion that informs his romantic relationships. Though Erlend keeps his life, he loses his lands and what little reputation he had left. He gambles and loses, damning his wife and sons to suffer alongside him.

After he is released, Erlend retreats into ignominy. He loses contact with the people who urged him into the conspiracy—evidence of how much they used and manipulated him. Their quietness in the face of his suffering is an embarrassment to Erlend, who—for the very first time—looks to the future to restore his family’s status. He may not have the cunning and foresight to elevate his family, but he trusts in his sons. Through them, he will vicariously achieve everything that he could not achieve on his own. Erlend tries to train his sons to be the warriors that he could not be. For many reasons, however, he fails. Mostly importantly, his hotheaded, emotional reaction to Kristin’s insults sends him into a self-imposed exile. Once a nobleman, he now lives in poverty out of pride, refusing to return to Kristin until he hears that she is in trouble. When he returns, he is promptly killed during a scuffle over his wife’s honor (the same honor that, through his recklessness, he called into question many years earlier). Erlend dies before he can see his family name restored; through his actions, he lowers his family’s name even further. He dies without confession, with many regrets, killed by his own recklessness.

Simon is betrothed to Kristin at a young age. In theory, he is a good match for her. He is a local man from a good family, whose status matches that of Lavrans and whose personality suggests that he will be a kind and loving husband. The only problem is that Kristin does not love him. She tries to convince herself of her attraction to Simon, but he never inspires in her the immediate affection and passion that Kristin feels when she sees Erlend. The result is that she betrays Simon to marry Erlend, a pivotal moment in Simon’s life. Simon cannot bring himself to be angry with Kristin. He feels betrayed and sad, yet he never explodes into anger (as Erlend might have done). Simon possesses a maturity beyond his years, so much so that his principal concern in the breakup of the relationship is that Kristin must take responsibility with her father for the relationship’s failure. Simon is disappointed in Kristin, but he cannot bear the thought of Lavrans being disappointed in him or thinking of him as anything other than an honorable, principled man.

Simon values his standing in the community and his friendship with Lavrans. The end of his betrothal to Kristin garners him much sympathy from the community, which is bolstered by his making a suitable marriage to an older widow. This marriage expands Simon’s fortunes and furnishes him with an heir, suggesting that Simon has done everything expected of him to recover from Kristin’s betrayal. Objectively, Simon might be the most successful and beloved character in the novel. From Simon’s private point of view, however, none of this success means anything compared to what he has lost. He loves Kristin for the rest of his life and he holds a grudge against Erlend. When Erlend saves his life in a fight and Kristin practices magic to save his only son, his resentment toward the couple is further complicated. Simon is forced to live in proximity to the woman that he loves and who betrayed him, adding an element of tragedy to his success. Even his marriage to Ramborg, Kristin’s sister, unites the families as his marriage to Kristin was intended to do, but Simon cannot enjoy this marriage, because Ramborg only reminds him of the love that he cannot express to Kristin. Simon dies in tragic circumstances, after having lived a tragically successful life. He does everything right, follows society’s expectations, but dies with his love unrequited.