Sigrid Undset (1882–1949) was a Norwegian novelist. This winner of the 1928 Nobel Prize in Literature is best known for her historical novels about medieval Norway, which are informed by the legend, folklore, the history of Norway, and her own life story.
Undset was born in Kalundborg, Denmark, the daughter of a noted Norwegian archaeologist. From 1899, she worked in an electrical engineer’s office. The problems facing young contemporary women helped form the basis of her early novels, including Splinten av troldspeilet (1917; Images in a Mirror) and Jenny (1911.)
Undset’s masterpiece, Kristin Lavransdatter (3 vols., 1920–22,) tells a graphic story of love and religion in 14th-century Norway. Kristin Lavransdatter was followed by Olav Audunssøn (4 vols., 1925–27; The Master of Hestviken) and Den trofaste hustru (1936; The Faithful Spouse, 1937.) She became a Roman Catholic in 1924, after which her work deepened in religious intensity.
During the Nazi occupation of Norway during World War II, Undset fled the country and spent the remainder of the war years in the United States, lecturing and writing on behalf of her war-torn country and its government-in-exile. Her flight from Nazi-occupied Norway, published originally in English, is Return to the Future (1942; Norwegian Tillbake til fremtiden.)
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And when we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans–and all that lives and move upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused–and to save us from our foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself.
—Sigrid Undset
Topics: Christmas
No doing without some ruing.
—Sigrid Undset
Topics: Consequences
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