Kristin Lavransdatter Characters

Lavrans Björgulfsson

Lavrans Björgulfsson, the knightly landholder of a medieval manor named Jörundgaard, in Norway. A good and gentle man who strives to live his life by strict Christian standards, he particularly loves Kristin, his oldest daughter, and allows her great freedom of speech and action.

Ragnfrid Ivarsdatter

Ragnfrid Ivarsdatter, Lavrans’ wife, who had inherited Jörundgaard from her father. She is a good woman who does her best to be a loving wife and mother, although she suffers pangs of conscience all of her life for loving another man before her marriage to Lavrans.

Kristin Lavransdatter

Kristin Lavransdatter, their beautiful but headstrong daughter, who is used to having her own way. When she falls in love with Erlend Nikulaussön, she breaks her troth to Simon Andressön, a neighbor, much to her father’s embarrassment. She has an affair with Erlend and later, during their betrothal, becomes pregnant. Though she begins married life under untoward circumstances, she becomes a good wife, looking after her husband’s lands and other property as well as giving him many sons. She and her husband have a stormy married life, however, for the husband is as vehement and proud as his wife. Always in the background, too, is the fact that Kristin dishonored her father by her premarital behavior. Kristin works hard to provide an inheritance for her sons, especially after her husband loses his lands through treason to the crown and his family takes refuge on the manor at Jörundgaard, inherited by Kristin. After her husband’s death, when her sons are old enough to fend for themselves, Kristin enters a convent. She dies there a few years later, during an epidemic of the Black Plague in 1349.

Erlend Nikulaussön

Erlend Nikulaussön, a young nobleman who falls in love with Kristin and woos her away from her betrothed. He is a handsome, violent, and contumacious man, always in some sort of scrape because he acts without thinking of the consequences. His greatest mistake is seeking to separate Norway from Sweden in the days of King Magnus VII. Charged with treason, he is found guilty and loses his lands and almost his life. Retirement to his wife’s manor is galling, and so he separates from his wife to lead a lonely life on a small farm once owned by a relative, Lady Aashild. He returns to vindicate Kristin’s honor when she is accused of adultery but is killed in a brawl upon his arrival.

Nikulaus Erlendssön (Naakve)

Nikulaus Erlendssön (Naakve), the eldest son of Kristin and Erlend, a handsome,...