For her powerful portrayals of life in the Middle Ages Sigrid Undset was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. In Fortellingen om Viga-Ljot og Vigdis («The Story about Viga-Ljot and Vigdis»)the reader is transported back to the 11th century. The German publishing house Hoffmann und Campe Verlag have chosen to publish a new translation of this novel, about the very dramatic relationship between the main characters, this autumn (2019).
Sigrid Undset was the eldest of three sisters, born in the Danish harbour town Kalundborg on the northwestern coast of Zealand. Her mother was Danish and her father was Norwegian. Both of them encouraged the young Sigrid to read and learn about Norse history and the Middle Ages. This would become useful knowledge for the author Sigrid Undset.
Shocking Statement
Sigrid Undset played theatre for her little sisters, drew pictures and wrote stories. She had many talents, and her writing talent triumphed. Her literary debut was the contemporary novel Fru Marta Oulie («Mrs. Marta Oulie») from 1907. It starts with the statement «I have cheated on my husband», and it shocked.
Unhappy Love
Sigrid Undset continued to write contemporary material. She wrote several novels and short stories about young women and their lives and love – most often unhappy love. Her breakthrough novel Jenny was published in 1911. There are many similarities between the painter Jenny Winge and the author Sigrid Undset. Both of them went to Rome to live the artist life. But while Sigrid Undset found the love of her life in the Roman city, she let Jenny’s life end tragically there. She wrote: «Love does not establish any laws; it breaks them all».
For a Thousand Years
Sigrid Undset placed her greatest stories in 13th and 14th century Norway – a period she knew so well through literature and archeology that she claimed she had lived in this country for a thousand years. She spent a long time preparing her medieval novels, then impressively quickly wrote her trilogy about Kristin Lavransdatter: The Wreath, The Wife and The Cross. She follows Kristin from early childhood until she dies of the plague in a convent. Later she wrote the story about Olav Audunssøn, where grace becomes an important topic.
The Nobel Prize
For her powerful portrayals of life in the Middle Ages Sigrid Undset was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. In Fortellingen om Viga-Ljot og Vigdis («The Story about Viga-Ljot and Vigdis»)the reader is transported back to the 11th century. The German publishing house Hoffmann und Campe Verlag have chosen to publish a new translation of this novel, about the very dramatic relationship between the main characters, this autumn (2019).
Sister Olave
Working with her medieval novels, Sigrid Undset became closely acquainted with catholisism, and she chose to convert and become a catholic herself in 1924. She was also ordained as a lay sister in the Dominican Order and chose the sister name Olave after her great saint St Olave (Olav II Haraldsson of Norway).
Marriage and Maternity
Undset thought a woman should marry the man she was willing to call master, and be subservient to him. She married the painter Anders Castus Svarstad, who she met in Rome. Did she become subservient to her husband? They were divorced, and she became a single mother for their three children.
She wrote articles about her view of women and women’s role in society. She thought that a woman’s most important undertaking was children. Having children wasn’t work, it was life, she thought. She gathered the articles in Et kvinnesynspunkt («A Woman’s View»), that was published in 1919. Her opinions resulted in her getting into conflict with the feminists.
War and Exodus
Sigrid Undset was a shrewd debater. She wrote many articles, and in the 1930s she was very outspoken about her opinions on what was happening in Germany. As a result, her books, that had been high up on the bestseller lists, were blacklisted. When Norway was occupied by the Germans, she had to flee the country.
Around the World
She embarked upon a long flight via Sweden and the Sovjet Union to Japan, across the Pacific Ocean to San Fransisco, and on across the American continent to New York, where she stayed for five years. These were long and strenuous years, but she worked hard and went on tours holding lectures about Norway, about the jews’ plight and about America’s role in the war.
A Life with Flowers
Sigrid Undset was brave in literature and in life. She spared no-one, not even herself. But everywhere and always she found great joy and encouragement in plants and flowers, gardens and nature – even in America during the war. After the war she came home to Bjerkebæk – the old, tar-painted log houses in the big garden. Germans had been living here since 1942, and that had left its traces.
She mourned the loss of her eldest son Anders, who was killed in battle one of the very first days of the war. She threw herself into refurbishing Bjerkebæk again – both house and garden.
Bjerkebæk – an Oasis in Lillehammer
Sigrid Undset created a very personal home. The old houses, that had been moved from the Gudbrandsdalen valley, were raised in the vicinity of Maihaugen, the open-air museum at Lillehammer. The museum, the mountains and the valley were a great inspiration to Sigrid Undset when writing her great love novel about Kristin Lavransdatter.
She called her home Bjerkebæk («Birchcreek»), a combination of the words «birch» and «creek». There was a birch grove here and a creek running across the property, and the creek is still there. The houses are surrounded by a big, flowering garden and a forest grove – a good place to visit even today.