A TALE OF THE VIKINGS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 113, 6 February 1937, Page 23

A TALE OF THE VIKINGS

“Gunnar’s Daughter,” by Sigrid Undset. (London: Cassell).

Unlike some of- Sigrid Undset’s other works, this book is a short one. Set mainly in Norway but partly in Iceland, it is a story of the old viking days when living was a stern business and human life was held cheaply. It tells of the love of Lyot, an Icelander, for Vigdis, Gunnar’s daughter, of how Lyot did Vigdis an unforgiveable wrong and how Vigdis dedicated her life to revenge. There is a fine description of how Vigdis, her aged father slain in defending her honour against an insult by a neighbour, herself killed her father’s murderer and then, with her illegitimate son by Lyot, fled through the snowbound forest to find, at the end of a terrible journey, safety for herself and the boy. In the course of time Vigdis, through her' son, gains her revenge, a somewhat empty one she finds, against the man she had loied in spite of all and who had himself continued to love her.

Sigrid Undset suits her style admirably to the subject matter of the story. In a fashion so simple and direct that it is sometimes stark she tells a tale that is often stark but one which, at the same time, reveals much of the manner of life led by the adventurous Norsemen hundreds of years ago.