Literature: 1928

Undset, Sigrid, pronounced OON seht, SIHG rihd (1882-1949), a Norwegian author, won the 1928 Nobel Prize for literature. Kristin Lavransdatter (1920-1922), her major work, is an epic trilogy of life in Norway during the Middle Ages. It consists of the novels The Bridal Wreath, The Mistress of Husaby, and The Cross. The novels tell the story of Kristin--her childhood, stormy marriage, and dedication to Christian service after the death of her husband. The displacement of heathen customs by Christian ideals in medieval Norway is dealt with in a second but less impressive epic, The Master of Hestviken (1925-1927). The series consists of The Axe, The Snake Pit, In the Wilderness, and The Son Avenger.

Undset was born in Kalundborg, Denmark. She was the daughter of Ingvald Undset, a distinguished Norwegian archaeologist. Her father awakened in her a strong interest in the Middle Ages. After he died, Undset gave up plans for a career as a painter and went to work in an Oslo business office. While working there from 1899 to 1909, she gathered impressions which she used in her early realistic stories of lower middle-class life.

Jenny (1911), her first novel to attract widespread attention, deals with the sexual problems of a female artist. Undset wrote other novels about life in her time. They include The Wild Orchid (1929) and The Burning Bush (1930), stories of a man's conversion to Roman Catholicism. They reflect Undset's own conversion to Catholicism in 1924. Undset took refuge in the United States from 1940 to 1945, while the Nazis occupied Norway. She lectured and wrote while in the United States.

Contributor: Niels Ingwersen, Cand. Mag., Professor of Scandinavian Studies, University of Wisconsin, Madison.