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''The Master of Hestviken'' is a tetralogy about medieval Norway written by Sigrid Undset. It was originally published in Norwegian as two volumes ''Olav Audunssøn i Hestviken'' and ''Olav Audunssøn og Hans Børn'', from 1925 to 1927. Hestviken is a fictional mediaeval farm on the East side of the Oslo fjord. The series is set partly during the Civil war era in Norway, in which period the Bagler faction frequently established themselves in the nearby Viken area. It's inspired by the summer cottages located in Hvitsten, near Drobak. In the 1920s, Sigrid Undset resided there for a brief period. Written in the direct aftermath of Undset's conversion to the Catholic Church, the tetralogy presents in a clearly favorable light the Medieval Church with its institutions and rituals; the saintly Bishop Thorfinn of Hamar as well as nearly all priests and monks appearing in the four books are positive characters. The series' central theme is also preeminently Catholic: the tragedy of Olav, a deeply pious and upright man, who feels himself damned and cut off from God because of his unconfessed sin - having secretly killed his wife's lover. Yet he cannot bring himself to make a clean breast of it and confess that deed, as doing so would expose his beloved wife's infidelity and destroy her good name, as well as exposing the bastardy of her son. Commentator Margaret Wide noted that "A modern reader is likely to feel that Olav judges himself far more harshly than he deserves - and it can be surmised that so would have a reader of Olav's own time. And surely a God as merciful as Christianity conceives Him to be would forgive Olav for a sin committed for the most understandable and honorable of motives, and expiated many times over".〔Margaret Wide, "The Medieval Church in Fiction" in Anton Wiesmueller (ed.) "Round Table on Theology and Literature", London, 1979〕 ==The series== ''The Master of Hestviken'' series is of four volumes, which are listed in order below. Depending on the publication, each volume may be published separately or with one other volume. The latter tend to be the earlier printings. *''The Axe: The Master of Hestviken'', ISBN 0-679-75273-0 *''The Snake Pit: The Master of Hestviken'', ISBN 0-679-75554-3 *''In the Wilderness: The Master of Hestviken'', ISBN 0-679-75553-5 *''The Son Avenger: The Master of Hestviken'', ISBN 0-679-75552-7 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Master of Hestviken」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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