UNDSET, SIGRID. - Norwegian novelist, b. at Kallundborg (Denmark) on 20 May 1882, d. at Lillehammer (Norway) on 10 June 1949. Her father was a distinguished Norwegian archaeologist; when Undset was still a young girl, she lost him and was forced to take employment to earn her living. She married the Norwegian painter A. S. Svarestad, from whom she was divorced in 1925, retaining custody of their four children.
Her early novels reflect her experiences and difficulties and are stories of young women whose lives bitterly contrast with their ideals. Of these, the most notable as a study of feminine psychology is *Jenny* (1911), written after a journey to Italy, to which may be added the volume of short stories *Fattige Skjaebner* (1912). Undset’s interest in medieval Catholic Europe is already evident in her adaptation of Arthurian legends: *Kong Artur og ridderne af det rund bord* (1915) and in other writings inspired by the Middle Ages in Norway; her major work, *Kristin Lavransdatter* (1920–22),
is set in 14th-century Catholic Norway. Alongside this voluminous trilogy, which is Undset’s masterpiece, one should recall her other medieval and national novel: *Audunsson* (1925–27). Having converted to Catholicism in 1926, Undset wrote pamphlets and articles on religious subjects, deepening her study of Christian philosophy and spiritual literature. She visited Italy several times. Abandoning medieval subjects, she returned to contemporary themes, publishing other notable novels, among which *Den braendende busk* (1930), *Den trofaste hustru* (1936), and *Madame Dorothea* (1939), the latter among her finest works. In 1940, during the German occupation of Norway, she was forced to flee first to Sweden and then to the United States, returning to her homeland after the war. In 1928 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.