Biography:
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- When Germany invaded Norway in 1940, the author
Sigrid Undset fled and began writing and lecturing on
behalf of her war-torn country. She went first to Sweden
and then to the United States, where she remained for
five years. She wrote of her flight from Nazi-occupied
Norway in `Return to the Future' (1942). Sigrid Undset
was born on May 20, 1882, in Kalundborg, Denmark, of
Norwegian ancestry. Her father was Ingvald Martin Undset,
a renowned archaeologist. Sigrid grew up in Christiania
(now Oslo), Norway. She worked for an electrical
engineering firm for ten years before she married artist
Anders Svarstad. Only after her marriage did she begin to
write. Her early novels dealt with the place of women in
the middle class. They included `Jenny' (1911) and
`Images in a Mirror' (1917). After these early books,
Undset turned her attention to writing the historical
novels on which her reputation rests. The author's
greatest work was the trilogy `Kristin Lavransdatter'.
The first volume, `The Bridal Wreath', appeared in 1920;
the second, `The Mistress of Husaby', in 1921; and the
third, `The Cross ', in 1922. A grim and foreboding novel
about a determined and strong-willed woman in the Middle
Ages, it won world acclaim. Undset became a Roman
Catholic convert shortly after the third novel was
published. Her next large novel was `The Master of
Hestviken' (1925-27). She was given the Nobel prize for
literature in 1928. She died on June 10, 1949, in
Lillehammer, near Oslo.
Compton's
Encyclopedia
See also: - Biography
by Gidske Anderson
- Autobiography
(from the Nobel site)
- On
her conversion to the Roman Catholic church
- Kristin
Lavrandatter, The Film (review)
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