Here's what I thought.
do i think this is a moral story? it's a story in which witchcraft, and prayer, dreams, premonitions, do actually have direct effects on life and death. i think these are real. and that Kristin is able to accurate interpret the signs around her in order to (for example) save a child from illness. Kristin's actions in the metaphysical realm are real and the highly symbolic outcomes (she has 7 sons) are actual manifestations of her spiritual behavior. i don't mean that Undset is writing a fable, I mean that she in fact takes the outcomes of Kristin's inner life seriously and allows them to play out in her life. which is part of what makes this book so deeply compelling.
