Sigrid Undset had a remarkable ability to see beyond the “facts,” to portray the lives of her characters in realistic fashion and yet with great psychological insight. She herself said that “to be a writer is to be able to live lives that are not one’s own.” In Kristin Lavransdatter, the meticulously researched details of medieval life provide a rich backdrop for the narrative. But for modern readers, the power of the novel lies not so much in the authenticity of detail as in the author’s deep understanding of the passions and torments of the human heart.
The last years of Undset’s life were a testament to the courage and strength of her own heart. In 1939, she lost both her mother （who had been a vital presence in her life） and her daughter. Then on April 20, 1940, the Germans began to advance north through Norway, and Sigrid Undset had to flee, with barely enough time to pack a suitcase.
Undset had long been an outspoken critic of Nazism, and her books had been banned in Germany. She had offered aid to refugees from Central Europe, and she had even taken in three Finnish children, orphaned by the war. The Norwegian government feared that she might be forced to use her considerable reputation for Nazi propaganda purposes. She was advised to leave the country at once.
After an arduous journey over the mountains and by sea, Undset finally reached Stockholm on May 11, and there she received the devastating news that her eldest son, Anders, had fallen in battle at Gausdal two weeks before. At the end of July she and her younger son, Hans, left Sweden and traveled overland through Russia and Siberia to Japan, where they boarded a ship for San Francisco.
For the next five years Sigrid Undset lived in a small apartment in Brooklyn, New York. During her years of exile she often traveled around the United States on long lecture tours, speaking about the current situation in Norway, as well as literary topics. She became friends with Willa Cather and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. She was a tireless promoter of Nordic literature and wrote countless articles for newspapers and magazines. She also published essays and children’s stories in English.
By the time Undset finally returned to Norway in 1945, the long years of the war had taken a heavy toll on both her energy and her health. She had endured great personal losses, and her home in Lillehammer would never be the same. The Germans had occupied Bjerkeb?k for several years, and what they didn’t steal they chopped up for firewood, including her father’s desk, at which she had written Kristin Lavransdatter and all her other novels. Although Undset continued to write and to plan literary projects, her artistic zeal and physical strength were spent.
In 1947, Sigrid Undset was awarded Norway’s highest honor, the Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Olav. She was the first woman of nonroyal blood ever to be recognized in this manner. The honor was given for her “distinguished literary work and for her service to her country.” Two years later, on June 10, 1949, she died.
Sigrid Undset’s great gift as a writer might best be described in her own appraisal of Charlotte Bront?, whom she much admired: [Her] sense of self is grounded in her awareness that her art is bitterly true, that her talent is merely the courage to look honestly into her own heart. [She] wished to depict life and reality the way they are—hfe and reality as they existed in her own heart, in the limitless possibilities of her heart, in her dreams and yearnings, in the mirages of hunger and thirst—and in all the tiny gray-pebble days over which life flows.
Tiina Nunnally
Seattle
February 1997
SUGGESTIONS FOR
FURTHER READING
The following reference works were used as a basis for the Introduction and may provide the reader with additional information about the author’s life and work. Unfortunately, there are few sources in English.
Bayerschmidt, Carl F. Sigrid Undset. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1970.
Blindheim, Charlotte. Moster Sigrid: Et familieportrett av Sigrid Undset. Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1982.
Ciklamini, Marlene. “Sigrid Undset,” in European Writers: The Twentieth Century, vol. 9, ed. by George Stade. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1989.
Daniloff, Jan Fr., ed. Sigrid Undset: Artikler og essays om litteratur. Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1986.
Krane, Borghild. Sigrid Undset: Liv og meninger. Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, 1970.
Pulsiano, Phillip, ed. Medieval Scandinavia: An Encyclopedia. New York: Garland Publishing Co., 1993.
Wasson, Tyler, ed. Nobel Prize Winners: An H. W. Wilson Biographical Dictionary. New York: H. W. Wilson Co., 1987.
Winsnes, A. H., ed. Sigrid Undset: Artikler og taler fra krigstiden. Oslo: H. Aschehoug & Co., 1952.