Homo viator Olav Audunssøn

Abstract

Sigrid Undset published the historical novel entitled Olav Audunssøn (The Master of Hestviken) relatively shortly after the international success of her trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter. The reception process of the second work was strongly affected by the reader’s expectation horizon, which turned out to be inadequate in view of the complexity of artistic values of the text and its psychological aspects. The article focuses on the structure of the fiction and points out the function of so called romantic irony. It also provides a brief overview of Czech translations of Undset’s works.