Sigrid Undset (Nobel)

Sigrid Undset, a Danish-born Norwegian novelist, is celebrated as one of the greatest literary figures of the 20th century and recipient of the Nobel Prize in literature. She is best known for the trilogy "Kristin Lavransdatter", which chronicles the life of a woman in medieval Norway. Although born in Denmark, she grew up in Norway, being raised by atheist parents who nonetheless raised their three daughters in the state-sponsored Norwegian Lutheran faith. Sigrid, however, soon rejected Lutheranism finding it to be quite "anemic". Her father's death when she just 11 plunged the family into financial difficulty, forcing Sigrid to abandon her plans for a university education. At age16 she began work as a secretary. Despite several early setbacks, she published her first novel at age 25. Sigrid later married and continued to write, but was forced into exile in the U.S. due to the German occupation of Norway during which time her son was killed while repelling a German invasion. She returned to Norway after WWII. At the age of 42 Sigrid became a Catholic, which at the time was considered scandalous, since the Lutheran faith so dominated Norway. Her new found faith profoundly influenced her writing as noted in the following quote from the book Kristin Lavransdatter: “As your pierced hands were stretched out on the cross, O precious Lord of Heaven. No matter how far a soul might stray from the path of righteousness, the pierced hands were stretched out, yearning. Only one thing was needed: that the sinful soul should turn toward the open embrace, freely, like a child who goes to his father and not like a thrall who is chased home to his stern master.”