Poeming Kristin Lavransdatter

"Bestiary"

Hello, Poetry Friend

Welcome back to my occasional series, sharing poems inspired by reading and rereading Sigrid Undset’s Kristin Lavransdatter.

This sentence, from the introduction, sums up why I cannot get enough of this story. It’s the everyday interplay between the pagan and the Christian. The casual allusion to a belief in Norse mythology alongside a deeply Catholic worldview. I want to live in a world where there are elf maidens and pilgrimages, monks and witches.

Perhaps I already do. Perhaps my view of the world is too small.

Here is a poem about that larger world, sprinkled throughout this story.

Bestiary

Beneath the rivers
Under stones
Someone sleeps
Someone groans

When you speak
Who listens close?
When you step
Who pulls your cloak?

Unseen, outside 
Near us they dwell 
Our paths to cross
Our secrets, tell

Elf or angel, sea
ogress bright
Hel with brooms
Northern lights

–Megan Willome

Happy poeming!

Megan