Undset, Sigrid

The Norwegian author and Nobel Laureate Sigrid Undset was born in Kalundborg, Denmark. Her mother was Danish. Already in 1884, the family moved to Oslo, or Christiania as the city was called at the time, where her father, the noted Norwegian archaeologist Ingvald Undset, got a position at the university. Her father, who was closest to Sigrid, gave her an early foundation for her interest in history. However, he died when Sigrid was eleven. Sigrid Undset, who rather had been dreaming of a life as an artist, instead received her education at the Christiania School of Commerce. From the age of seventeen and ten years ahead, she by and large supported her mother and younger sisters through low-paid office work at AEG, which at this time was electrifying Norway. In the nights, however, she wrote, and she also got her first books published.