Viking-Venus-Art-Catalog

EXPLORERS’ LOUNGE | DECKS 7–8
SIGRID UNDSET
Sigrid Undset is one of the most influential authors in Norwegian history. She is best known for the historical and ethnological accuracy with which she depicted
medieval Scandinavian society, as well as her active role in public debates on women’s rights, religion and Nazism. Her extensive body of work includes novels, short
stories, essays, hagiographies, autobiographical texts, poems and plays.
Undset was born in 1882 in Kalundborg, Denmark, as the eldest of three daughters to Norwegian archaeologist Ingvald Martin Undset and his Danish wife, Charlotte
Gyth. When Undset was two, the family moved to Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway, and she spent the remainder of her childhood there. During those early years, she
was introduced to her father’s work and developed an interest in ancient and medieval history. However, with her father’s death in 1893, the family was faced with
economic hardship, and Undset made the decision to find employment rather than pursue higher education. Thus, from the age of 17 to 27, she worked as a secretary
at an engineering firm, all the while crafting her writing skills.
In 1907, she published her first book, Marta Oulie. And two years later, when the Norwegian government granted her a travel scholarship, Undset left her secretarial
position and made her way to Italy. It was during this time that she not only met the painter Anders Castus Svarstad, whom she married in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1912,
but she also had her major breakthrough with the publication of Jenny in 1911. The novel offered meticulous accounts of poverty, urbanization and the bourgeoisie,
but its open exploration of female sexuality was considered highly controversial. Undset’s opinions on women’s rights, claiming modernity and capitalism were some
of the main reasons for the plight of women, were ahead of their time and hard to accept for many of her contemporaries.
Undset also viewed modern individuality and capitalism as the sources of alienation and societal deterioration. As a result, she looked to the Catholic Middle Ages for
inspiration, both as an author and in her daily life, and ended up converting to Roman Catholicism in 1924. This conversion greatly impacted her subsequent work as a
writer and her voice in the Norwegian public sphere, becoming a leading figure on topics regarding the Roman Catholic Church.
Between 1920 and 1922, Undset released one of Norway’s most celebrated literary masterpieces: the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy. The three volumes—The Wreath
(1920), The Wife (1921) and The Cross (1922)—follow the life of their eponymous heroine, a farmer’s daughter, from birth to death, through her hardships and the
solace she finds in the Catholic faith. Among its main themes is the conflict between individuality and faith; that is, whether Kristin should follow her heart’s desires or
the words of God. In 1928, it was primarily for this body of work and its depictions of life in Norway during the Middle Ages that Undset was awarded the Nobel Prize
in Literature. To date, Undset is one of three Norwegian novelists and the only Norwegian woman to have received the prize.
From the early 1930s, Undset was vocal about her critique of Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany, as well as her opposition to the regime. Consequently, her works were
banned in Germany, and in 1940, following the Nazi occupation of Norway, she was forced to flee to the United States. During her time there, she tirelessly fought for
Norwegian independence, holding speeches and writing articles on politics and the war. When World War II ended in 1945, Undset returned to Norway, where she
lived until her death in 1949.
LEFT: SIGRID UNDSET IN HER HOME, BJERKEBÆK | 1923
RIGHT: SIGRID UNDSET IN HER TWENTIES | 1907
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