A short life of the author
Sigrid Undset (1882–1949) was born on 20 May 1882 in Kalundborg, Denmark, and grew up in Christiania (now Oslo), Norway. Her father was an archaeologist, which gave her a deep grounding in medieval Scandinavian history.
Life and Career
Jenny (1911) — about a Norwegian woman painter in Rome — was her first major novel. She converted to Roman Catholicism in 1924, a significant step in predominantly Lutheran Norway.
Kristin Lavransdatter — a trilogy comprising The Wreath (1920), The Wife (1921), and The Cross (1922) — is set in fourteenth-century Norway and follows Kristin from her childhood through her passionate, troubled marriage to Erlend Nikulaussøn, her years as the mistress of a great estate, and her final years as a penitent. Tiina Nunnally’s 1997–2000 translation replaced the earlier Charles Archer translation and brought the trilogy to new readers.
Olav Audunssøn (English title: The Master of Hestviken, 1925–1927) — a four-novel cycle set in thirteenth-century Norway — is equally ambitious.
Major Works and Themes
Undset wrote about marriage, faith, sin, and the moral life with a gravity and depth that made her the great medievalist novelist. She won the Nobel Prize in 1928.
Key Works
- Kristin Lavransdatter (1920–1922)
- The Master of Hestviken (1925–1927)
Collecting Undset
Norwegian originals (Aschehoug) are the primary collected form. The Nunnally translations (Penguin) are the standard English editions. Early English translations (Knopf, 1920s–1930s) bring $50–$200. Undset died in 1949.