Sigrid Undset

First published in the US by Alfred A. Knopf in 1928 in this English translation by A. G. Chater, now public domain. Set in 13th-century Norway, The Axe is the first volume in Undset's epic tetralogy, The Master of Hestviken. In it, we meet Olav Audunsson and Ingunn Steinfinnsdatter, who were betrothed as children and raised as brother and sister. In the heedlessness of youth, they become lovers, unaware that their ardor will forge the first link...

Originally published in Norwegian in 1920, this first 1923 English translation was by C. Archer and J. S. Scott, now public domain. Kristin Lavransdatter is the daughter of Lavrans, a charismatic, respected nobleman in a rural area of Norway, and his wife Ragnfrid, who suffers from depression after the loss of three infant sons and the crippling of her younger daughter Ulvhild in an accident. Raised in a loving and devoutly religious family, Kristin...

The winner of the 1928 Nobel Prize for literature telling of events in the life of a Norwegian woman, Kristin Lavransdatter, in the first half of the 14th century.