Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-10-25
By the. BooklOper

set has completed her tetralogy, The
Master Of Hestviken." The previous
volumes were The Axe" The Snake
Fit and In the wilderness" In this
last volume Olav Audunsson has be-
come IAN old man" Che Is just past 50),
failing In health and growing ever more
morbid over the uneonfessed and un-
expiated sin Of his youth (the murder
of the Seducer of his betrothed. Teit, q
vagabond YOUTH. In spite Of her dis
loyalty TO him, Olav had married Ingunn
and after time had taken her bastard
son, Erik, into his home as his own son.
Keeping secret both the lapse from
chastity of Inglinn and his own murder
Of Teit, Oiav had led q life Of upright
ness among his neighboRs, none of
whom suspected the truth, and not even
ERIK knew that he was not CLAWS son.
Now Erik has become . nlan--an I'm
stable, unreliable naan-whO has always
exasperated Oiav by his presence. Erik
Is the "son avenger," but not In the
usual violent Morse way of the thir-
tenth century. His vengeance on Olav
for the murder of Teit is not, as one
might expect from the title. through
discovery of his true parentage and the
crime of Olay, followed by the eXacti0D
of blood expiatiOn from Olav; Erik
never knows that he is not CLAWS SON
and through the spiritual development
Of Erik. Olav comes to love him, un-
admittedly to himself better than any
thing else in life This is idealistic and
perhaps trif1e subtle for persons of the
coarse and violent age which forms the
setting Of the story. Erik, after wild
youth, first insults and then loves
Bothild, the foster sister of his sister
Cecilia. When Bothild dies of con-
sumption. the wasting Sickness" Erik
from sorrow and remorse, enters a con-
vent as a novice, but leaves at the end
Of his year because Of his instability of
purpose. Then he consents to CLAWS
plan for q marriage with a girl Of high
connection, GunhiId, but this marriage
is prevented by the disgrace of Erik IN
connection with q robbery committed by
his brother-in-law Jorund, the hus-
band of Cecilia. Deserted by Gunhild,
Erik marries her older sister, Eldrid, a
woman much older than he, who has
led loose life and been diSownad by
her family. It rs through Eldrid, how
ever, that Erik progresses in his spirit
ual development, and they are happy
together IL q sOmbeT way. After the
death Of Olav they both enter converts
and there end their lives.
Btrdened with his sin and growing
further and further from the possibility
OF repentance, Olav sinks deeper into
gloom. He loves his daughter Cecilia,
the only child Of himself and Tnxunn
who lived TO grow up, hut depresses her
by his dOurness; he hates his son-in-
law, Jorund, with good reason, and re-
proaches himself for bringing about the
marriage. ne u bitter and sarcastic to
ward Erik, all the more 50 because he
nndS himself, against his will growing
to love him. Then comes a crisis ia
which Olav suspects Cecilia Of the MUIR
der OF her husband and IN q frenzy
tells her that he and she win 70 away
together and expiate their crimes, but
ne does not explain what his crime was.
On this impulse he goes to Oslo to con-
Tess TO the bishop and be given penance.
put on the morning of his confession he
IaIls TO the ground, paralyZed He has
on the day before told his sin to q friar
ana Is now given dissolution because of
MS intent Back at Hestviken, he is
cared for by Erik and EIdrid; Cecilia
snuns him. On his deathbed he over
nears Erik telling Cecilia that he thinks
OlaV the nobleSt man he has ever
known; so Olav dies happy, absolved
and loved by the son who, though not his
son In the flesh, has become his son of
the spirit. Sigrid Undset is herself a
devout Catholic, and one wonders how
mucn OF ner own religious interpretive
ness sne 1mplants in her characters. 1t
Is doubtful If the men and women of
mat period spent q lifetime of gloomy
repentance over murder or a laDee
from chastity; such things were too
common. Her chief characters have the
napn OF entering converts and ending
sne!r lives In piOus expiation. Kristiu.
N ner tr1logy, "Kristin Lavransdatter. y
which was awarded the Nobel prize
passed her later years, in a convent
nursing the sick and poor. Even tho.Ieh
the characters of Sierid Undset,s h"cfs
may be more subtle, more tntrosuective
more religiously and morally sensitive
IMAM the real people of the thirteenth
century In Norway, the picture of that
period Is an unusually appealing one
In preparing her backgrounds She spent
much time in the outdoor museums Of
norway and Denmark, where the vfI-
.ages and farmsteads of previous CEN
lures are accurately reproduced. This
acGounts Tor the interesting and de-
tailed descriptions Of the manors ARA
farm buildings of the time.
y
James Joyce, author Of the much
censored Ulysses" which DR.. .Josenh
Collins boosted of having read thrnneh
entirely because he expected 10 write
an essay about it,, but doubted II anv
one else had read, is at work upon
another masterpiece, to be called
Work in Progress" The progress is
evidently to be indefinite. Three parts
nave already been published: ANNA
LlVia Plurabelle," Tales Told of Shem
ana shaun" and "Haveth Childers
everywhere" The method of writing
VNTNE a.
in Ulysses" only more so-that is. it
IS unintelligible to the average person
Inc writing Of James Joyce is said to
De immoral; fortunately few are equal
70 the EFFORT of reading his books and
OF those who try few would be very
sure what he is trying to say, if he is
sure himself. Padraic Column in q re-
view OF "Haveth Childers Everywhere"
says that the writing of Joyce has
[hn ay do quality. Perhaps it
paddypalace on the ,crossknolI with
massgo bell. sixton, clashcloshant
duominous and uncertainties to COM
mind the f1tful: doom acimdim adoom
adimdtm: and the orgel of the lauds
to tellforthS' glory: and added there
unto shallow layer to Stub out her
hellfire and posted windows for her oriel
house: gospelly pewmillieu christous
pewmillleu: zackbutts babazounded oil
guns taTarulled."
~ X \
The Glory Of the Nightingales, by
Edwin Arlington Robinson is not
collection of bird lyrics, but a MARIA
tive poem of two men and a girl.
Mallory and Nightingale have both
loved Agatha, now dead but present
as a dominating influence In the lives
OF the two men. Boyhood friends in
the town of Sharon. Mallory and Night
ingale, the last Of his family have
grown apart in their destinies. Mallory
Is doctor, Nightingale has become q
very rich man, but 1t is Mallory whom
Agatha has loved. AS in "Cavender's
House" the scene Of the poem Is by