Technicolor! My goodness. You sense powerfully how this book appealed to Hollywood.
Lavrans once told Kristin, and she herself some pages back admitted, that she is cruel to those she loves most. She now turns on Erlend's brother Gunnulf, a priest, who has come to this town, whatever its name is, to comfort Kristin.
"No good has come of it, Gunnulf, when you have stepped in, in Erlend's affairs and mine. None has judged him so hardly as you--his brother and God's servant!"
Gunnulf had been hard on Erlend--for leading 16 year-old Kristin astray!--but as Gunnulf says he was no harder on Erlend than he must be, as "God's servant" and as any reasonable man.
To say that, now, is so cruel. Gunnulf is older than Erlend, his health not great, he is deeply shaken by Kristin's cruelty, I would not be surprised if this kills him.
"I will go home. I can more easily--at home I can morely easily gather my thoughts--that I may do all that lies in my power for Erlend and you. God--God and all holy men preserve my brother's life and freedom. Oh, Kristin--never believe that my brother is not dear to me--"
Bitch.
Now, Erlend can do no wrong! Now Erlend never did do any wrong! This fucking ridiculous (so it seems now) plot of Erlend's--When Gunnulf tells Kristin that the last time a noble attempted to dispossess a Norwegian king of his throne, Gunnulf does not say what happened but I bet as consequence the nobleman was sad--this doomed enterprise is now transmogrified by Kristin:
"...my husband, I see it now, had taken up a cause so great that none of the other chiefs of this land dared set a hand to it--"
Brother Gunnulf interrupts to say tellingly,
"That had he. Ho ho ho. So great a cause that many will deem it an ill thing..."
Kristin cried out and started up...Wildly and feverishly she turned on the monk and cried loudly:
"'Twas not Erlend did it--it was doomed so to be--..."
King Erlend the Faultless Ho Ho Ho.
I was not crude for crudeness' sake when I wrote that Kristin got wet with desire for Erlend.
Now was it with her again as in her youth [Now she would wait in town and fantasize that on her visits to see Erlend] by some chance they would be left alone for a moment, and would fall into each other's arms, with endless passionate kisses and wild embraces.
OMG in margin.
Simon rides up on horseback again. Not as out-of-the-blue this time, he is married to Ramborg. He was too fat for Kristin, his eyes were too close together or something, but now!
...there came a noise of people riding into the courtyard. A moment after, the door was opened, and a tall, stout man in a riding-cloak...with jingling spurs and trailing sword...her brother-in-law's heavy sunburned face and small strong eyes.
Simon the swordsman with the small--but strong! eyes.
Simon's a good guy. His character has not changed. He is honorable, wise, and does not hold grudges...Is Simon going to betray Erlend and Kristin?! Evil thought. He seems too consistently good for Miss Undset's taste in her chosen characters.
Simon met and spoke with Erlend. Simon "marvelled" that the meeting "had moved him so much." Erlend has been changed into technicolor. Not only to Kristin but to Simon (with one humorous exception). Now,
Erlend quite unafraid, clear-eyed, untroubled by either fear or hope--he was a fresh, cool, manful fellow...He stood there like a man who had dared a desperate throw, had lost it, and knew how to suffer defeat well and manfully.
...
Erlend's first and last thought was to come through this business without the names of those with him in the plot being discovered.
Tis a far far better thing I do now...
The humorous exception follows immediately:
He had promised all who had joined in his counsels...that if it came to the worst, the blow should fall on his hands only, "and never yet have I betrayed any that put their trust in me." Simon looked at the man--Erlend's eyes were blue and clear; 'twas plain that he said this of himself in all good faith.
Ha! in margin.
Lavrans once told Kristin, and she herself some pages back admitted, that she is cruel to those she loves most. She now turns on Erlend's brother Gunnulf, a priest, who has come to this town, whatever its name is, to comfort Kristin.
"No good has come of it, Gunnulf, when you have stepped in, in Erlend's affairs and mine. None has judged him so hardly as you--his brother and God's servant!"
Gunnulf had been hard on Erlend--for leading 16 year-old Kristin astray!--but as Gunnulf says he was no harder on Erlend than he must be, as "God's servant" and as any reasonable man.
To say that, now, is so cruel. Gunnulf is older than Erlend, his health not great, he is deeply shaken by Kristin's cruelty, I would not be surprised if this kills him.
"I will go home. I can more easily--at home I can morely easily gather my thoughts--that I may do all that lies in my power for Erlend and you. God--God and all holy men preserve my brother's life and freedom. Oh, Kristin--never believe that my brother is not dear to me--"
Bitch.
Now, Erlend can do no wrong! Now Erlend never did do any wrong! This fucking ridiculous (so it seems now) plot of Erlend's--When Gunnulf tells Kristin that the last time a noble attempted to dispossess a Norwegian king of his throne, Gunnulf does not say what happened but I bet as consequence the nobleman was sad--this doomed enterprise is now transmogrified by Kristin:
"...my husband, I see it now, had taken up a cause so great that none of the other chiefs of this land dared set a hand to it--"
Brother Gunnulf interrupts to say tellingly,
"That had he. Ho ho ho. So great a cause that many will deem it an ill thing..."
Kristin cried out and started up...Wildly and feverishly she turned on the monk and cried loudly:
"'Twas not Erlend did it--it was doomed so to be--..."
King Erlend the Faultless Ho Ho Ho.
I was not crude for crudeness' sake when I wrote that Kristin got wet with desire for Erlend.
Now was it with her again as in her youth [Now she would wait in town and fantasize that on her visits to see Erlend] by some chance they would be left alone for a moment, and would fall into each other's arms, with endless passionate kisses and wild embraces.
OMG in margin.
Simon rides up on horseback again. Not as out-of-the-blue this time, he is married to Ramborg. He was too fat for Kristin, his eyes were too close together or something, but now!
...there came a noise of people riding into the courtyard. A moment after, the door was opened, and a tall, stout man in a riding-cloak...with jingling spurs and trailing sword...her brother-in-law's heavy sunburned face and small strong eyes.
Simon the swordsman with the small--but strong! eyes.
Simon's a good guy. His character has not changed. He is honorable, wise, and does not hold grudges...Is Simon going to betray Erlend and Kristin?! Evil thought. He seems too consistently good for Miss Undset's taste in her chosen characters.
Simon met and spoke with Erlend. Simon "marvelled" that the meeting "had moved him so much." Erlend has been changed into technicolor. Not only to Kristin but to Simon (with one humorous exception). Now,
Erlend quite unafraid, clear-eyed, untroubled by either fear or hope--he was a fresh, cool, manful fellow...He stood there like a man who had dared a desperate throw, had lost it, and knew how to suffer defeat well and manfully.
...
Erlend's first and last thought was to come through this business without the names of those with him in the plot being discovered.
Tis a far far better thing I do now...
The humorous exception follows immediately:
He had promised all who had joined in his counsels...that if it came to the worst, the blow should fall on his hands only, "and never yet have I betrayed any that put their trust in me." Simon looked at the man--Erlend's eyes were blue and clear; 'twas plain that he said this of himself in all good faith.
Ha! in margin.
