Sigrid Undset (1882-1949), Novelist and Convert

Last updated on: June 10, 2009 at 6:10 am by Pat McNamara

Sigrid Undset (1882-1949), Novelist and Convert 2009-06-10T06:10:00-06:00 Pat McNamara

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Today marks the death of author Sigrid Undset (1882-1949), winner of the 1928 Nobel Prize for Literature. A convert to Catholicism, her trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter is considered by many to be the great Catholic novel of the twentieth century. The following is taken from Catholicauthors.com:

My father’s family came from Østerdalen. The first ancestor of ours of whom anything at all was known was one Peder Halvorsen who, in 1730, lived in Grytdalen in the Sollien valley of the river Atna where some men from Østerdalen had been allowed to settle and farm the land. My father’s folk remained there until my grandfather, Halvor Halvorsen, came to Trondhjem as a non-commissioned officer and became warden of a workhouse. He took the name of Undset from a hamlet in which my grandmother had lived when she became a widow.

My father, Ingvald Martin Undset, obtained his doctorate in 1881 with a thesis on The Beginnings of the Iron Age in Northern Europe. In the same year he married my mother, Charlotte Gyth of Kallundborg, whose family had, for some obscure reason, settled in Denmark toward the end of the eighteenth century. Since most of my father’s life consisted of travelling to almost every part of Europe, he set up a temporary home at Kallundborg. It was there that, in 1882, I first saw the light of day – the eldest of three sisters. In 1884 my father moved to Norway to take up a post at the Museum of Antiquities which was attached to the University of Christiania. I was sent to a school run by Mrs. Ragna Nielsen because my father was already aware that his days were numbered, and he was anxious for me to acquire a good education and follow in his footsteps. Mrs. Nielsen’s school was co-educational and heavily committed to progressive educational ideas. It played an important role in shaping my character, inspiring me with an indelible distrust of enthusiasm for such beliefs! It was not that I disliked Mrs. Nielsen or suspected her of not being so noble-minded or attached to her principles as she appeared to be. No, it was those very principles which filled me with boundless scepticism; I knew not why either then or for a long time afterwards. Many years later I was to find some kind of an answer in the words uttered by St. Augustine concerning the leader of the Donatists: «securus judicat orbis terrarum». At the time, however, my only reaction was to roll myself up into a tight ball of resistance and it was thus, hedgehog-wise, that I went through my school years.

My father died in 1893 and Mrs. Nielsen offered my mother free education for all of us three children. Then when I was about fourteen, a memorable thing happened. Mrs. Nielsen called me into an empty classroom and told me that though she would keep her promise to my mother, «You, dear Sigrid, show so little interest in the school and there are so many children who would dearly love to be in your place and enjoy a free education, that I am asking you now: are you sure you want to take your entrance examimations?» «No, thank you», was my reply. Mrs. Nielsen looked somewhat startled but all she said was, «Very well then, you must now decide about your future like a grown-up person». I am afraid that my behaviour that day was more akin to that of a small animal! Mrs. Nielsen was as good as her word where my sisters were concerned, but this was one of the few decisions in my life I have never regretted.

My mother had no choice but to send me to a commercial school in Christiania. I did not like it there but it had one great advantage over my old school; no one there expected me to like anything!

Later on, I went to work in an office and learned among other lessons to do things I did not care for, and to do them well. I remained there for ten years – from the age of 17 until I was 27. Before I left this office, two of my books had already been published – Fru Marte Oulie in 1907, and Den lykkelige alder (The Happy Age) in 1908. After leaving the office job, I went to Germany and Italy on a scholarship.

I have published a number of books since, my last two novels being set in the Middle Ages. They are Kristin Lavransdatter, which appeared in three volumes (192O-1922): Kransen (The Garland), Husfrue (The Mistress of Husaby), Korset (The Cross); and Olav Audunssøn i Hestviken (1925 ) [The Master of Hestviken] and its sequel Olav Audunssen og hans børn (1927) [Olav Audunssøn and his Children].

In 1912, I was married in Belgium to the Norwegian painter A. C. Svarstad. I was received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1924, and my marriage was then dissolved, since my husband had earlier been married to a woman who is still living. We have three children.

Since 1919, I have lived in Lillehammer.

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