Sigrid Undset: A Timeline

1881
July 29: Charlotte Gyth and Ingvald Undset get married at Vor Frue Kirke in Kalundborg.
August: Charlotte and Ingvald go to Italy.

1882:
March: Undsets return to Kalundborg, he is ill and she is expecting a child.
May 20: Sigrid Undset is born.

1883-84:
Childhood at the Gyth Estate in Kalundborg.

1884:
April 12: Her sister Ragnhild is born.
July: The family moves to Kristiania (now Oslo), to Hasselbakken opposite Vestre Aker kirke.

1886:
The family moves to Lyder Sagens gate 10, first floor.

1887:
March 7: Her sister Signe Dorothea is born. Summer in Kalundborg.

1890:
Holidays in Drøbak. The family moves to Keysersgate 5, ground floor.
August: Sigrid starts at Ragna Nielsen's school, class 3.

1892:
Summer: Holidays in Trøndelag, Sigrid reads Njål's Saga.
Fall: The family moves to Observatoriegaten.

1893:
Her father dies.

1894:
April: Her mother and the three children move to Stensgaten 5.

1896:
Spring: Sigrid and Emma Münster make "Firkløveren". Sigrid Undset reads the Shakespeare Book by Brandes.

1897:
June: Exam at Ragna Nielsen's school.
September: Sigrid Undset at commercial school.
Moves to Vibes gate 20.

1898:
July: Writes her first letters to Dea, i.e. the Swedish Andrea Hedberg.
December: Exam at commercial school.

1899:
February: Gets an occupation as secretary at the firm Ingeniör Wisbech, which represents the German Allgemeine Elektrizitäts Gesellschaft (AEG).
Participates in the cheers of the twentieth century and the progress of "the modern".

1900:
Starts writing 'Svend Trøst', an unfinished manuscript containing elements to be recognized in Kristin Lavransdatter.
Confides in Dea about her artistic nature.

1901:
Moves to Pilestrædet 49, Sigrid Undset gets a room of her own.
Sigrid Undset becomes a secretary of her boss, the managing director Carsten E. Bruun.

1902:
Puts aside 'Svend Trøst', starts writing 'Aage Nielssøn til Ulvholm'. (Some similarities with The Master of Hestviken).
Summer: Lives in a boarding house at Nordstrand for two months.

(Hopefully to be continued).

Thanks for putting together this timeline! :)
--BJ

(#1 continued)

1903:
Moves to Eilert Sundts gate 52.
May: Sigrid visits her pen pal Dea in Malmö.
Summer: The family rents a house at Strømmen.

1904:
May 12: Gets her first article published in Aftenposten (newspaper) with the signature "Ogsaa en ung Pige" (~'Also a Young Girl').

1905:
June 7: Experiences the dissolution of the union with Sweden in front of Stortinget (the parliament building) at Carl Johan (main street in Oslo).
July: Delivers 'Aage Nielssøn til Ulvholm' to Gyldendal Forlag (publishing house) in Copenhagen.
August: The manuscript is returned from Gyldendal. Starts writing a modern novel.

1906:
Delivers 'Fru Marta Oulie' to Aschehoug forlag. The book is recommended by Gunnar Heiberg.

1907:
February: 'Fru Marta Oulie' is accepted by Aschehoug forlag.
August: Holidays at Høvringen.
October: 'Fru Marta Oulie' in the bookshops.

1908:
'Den lykkelige alder'
Three poems published in Samtiden: "Credo", "Maiaften" (An evening in May), "Høstvarsel" (An omen of fall).
Delivers a play (one act), "I graalysningen" (At dawn), to Nationaltheatret. No response.

1909:
May 1: Finishes her secretary job.
June 8: Goes to Denmark.
Summer: Holidays at Samsø.
October: Travels in Germany.
Fall: An article in Samtiden honours her as a Kristiania's writer, and she is compared to the painter Anders Castus Svarstad.
Publishes 'Fortellingen om Viga-Ljot og Vigdis' (The story of Viga-Ljot and Vigdis).
December: Arrives at Rome. At first she lives at Casa Bloch in Via Gregoriana. Then she moves to Via Frattina 138.
Xmas: Is introduced to Svarstad.

1910:
Sends letters about her journeys to Morgenbladet (Norwegian newspaper).
April: Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (Nobel prize 1903) dies in Paris. Svarstad goes with the coffin to Norway.
May: Moves to Ursulinnernes gate.
June: Goes to Paris to be with Svarstad.
August: Returns to Eilert Sundts gate to work as a temp for Signe in an office.
Fall: 'Ungdom' (Youth)

1911:
January: Visits Nini Roll Anker with Svarstad.
Summer: lives at Svartskog and at Nedre Bålerud boarding house at Bundefjorden and finishes the manuscript of 'Jenny'.
Fall: 'Jenny' is her breakthrough as an author.

Boy, I was way off base here. I thought she was a Mistress of the Middle Ages and was writing about her personal experiences with the local culture, a kind of Hildegard von Bingen of literature.

Boy, egg on my face.

(#3 continued)

1912:
February: Racket meeting about 'Jenny'.
June: Goes to Copenhagen. Svarstad joins and they go to Antwerpen.
June 30: Sigrid Undset and Anders Castus Svarstad get married at the Norwegian consulate in Antwerpen.
July: The Svarstad couple puts up at The Grove 4, Hammersmith, London.
Fall: 'Fattige skjebner' (Poor Fates), dedicated to Anders Castus Svarstad. "Nogen Kvindesaksbetraktninger" (Some feminist considerations) in Samtiden (Norwegian periodical), "Vanfør" (Disabled) in Julehelg (Norwegian magazine).
December: Goes to Rome, lives (again) at Via Frattina 138.

1913:
January 24: Sigrid Undset gives birth to her first child, a son who gets the name Anders Castus.
April: Goes by train back to Kristiania (now Oslo) with her sick child.
Summer: Rents the ground floor of the house Solvang at Ski, Svarstad returns from Rome.
Women get their rights to vote for parliament (Since 1910 women could vote at local election).

1914:
February: Svarstad goes (with scholarship) to Paris for three months.
March: Sigrid Undset is the first woman making a speech at Studentersamfundet (Students' Society) with "Hædre din far og din mor" (Honour your father and your mother).
May: She visits her husband in Paris.
Member of The Norwegian Authors' Society and its Expert Committee. (Later called The Literary Council).
June: World War I starts (The shots in Sarajevo).
Fall: 'Våren' (The Spring).

1915:
Spring: Polemics with Knut Hamsun (Nobel prize 1920) about "barnemordersken" (The female child murderer).
Fall: "Fortellinger om kong Artur og ridderne av det runde bord" (Stories about King Arthur and the knights of the round table)
October 29: Maren Charlotte is born.

1916:
Spring: Moves from Ski to the first floor in a big wooden house at Sinsenveien 33.
Fall: She takes care of Svarstad's three children of his first marriage: Ebba (13), Gunhild (11), and Trond (8).
Fall: Maren Charlotte (Mosse) gets her first attacs of convulsions.

1917:
Mosse has a medical check-up at Rikshospitalet (The National Hospital of Norway)
Spring: The Russian Revolution starts.
Summer: Holidays at Laurgård with her two children and the Geijerstam family.
Fall: "Splinten av trollspeilet" (The splinter of the Magic Mirror)

1918:
November: First World War is ended, more than ten millions people lost their lives.
Fall: "De kloge jomfruer" (The Wise Virgins)

1919:
The couple Svarstad buys a house at Kampen, Brinkes gate 2. Sigrid Undset await moving in and goes to Lillehammer with her own children.
August: Rents an old wooden house at Nordseterveien and moves in with Anders and Mosse.
August 27: Hans Benedict Undset Svarstad is born.
Fall: "Et kvindesynspunkt" (From a woman's point of view).
December 14: Hans Benedict is baptized. Sigrid Undset's first party at her new home at Lillehammer.

1920:
July 29: Speech at Maihaugen (Lillehammer) about St. Olav (The Norwegian king Olav Haraldssøn was beaten at Stiklestad (Mid Norway, near Trondheim) at July 29th 1030, and became later a saint).
August: Sigrid Undset rents the house for one year.
Fall: "Kristin Lavransdatter. Kransen" (Kristin Lavransdatter. The Wreath)

1921:
March: Vadstena. First trip abroad since Paris 1914.
August: Buys the estate. It is called Bjerkebæk.
Aschehoug (Norwegian publishing house) publishes "Samlede fortællinger og romaner fra nutiden" (Collected Stories and Novels of the Present Time) volume 1 - 5.
Fall: "Kristin Lavransdatter. Husfrue" (Kristin Lavransdatter. The Wife). Dedicated in memory of her father.

1922:
Fall: Mosse has a new medical check-up at dr. Frølich's klinikk.
"Kristin Lavransdatter. Korset" (Kristin Lavransdatter. The Cross)
November: Gets The Norwegian National Author's Salary.

1923:
April: Goes to Denmark. Visits De Kellerske Anstalter at Jylland.
May: Takes care of Ragnhild's two children during summer because her sister is ill.
Starts taking lessons with priest Kjelstrup.
Translates three Icelandic sagas, 'Viga-Glum's saga', 'Kormak's saga', and 'Bandamanna saga'.

1924:
Buys and gets moved an old wooden house from Nordre Dalsegg in Sør-Fron.
October: Separation from Anders Svarstad.
November 1: Sigrid Undset is admitted in the Catholic Church.
November: Moves in at her own house, gets her own working room separated from her children and from the rest of the house.
The story "Vilmund Vidutan og fællerne hans" (Vilmund Vidutan and his friends) in 'Kimer I Klokker' (Norwegian magazine).
December: Is fallen out with Nini Roll Anker.

1925:
Goes to Italy with her mother and Anders, the journey takes three months.
Fall: "Olav Audunssøn i Hestviken" (The Master of Hestviken).
"Sankt Halvards liv, død og jærtegn" (The Life, Death and Signs of St. Halvard). Hardcover with a new edition of "Fortællingen om Viga-Ljot og Vigdis" (The story of Viga-Ljot and Vigdis, cf. 1909).

1926:
Translates "Christ in the Church" by Robert Hugh Benson: 'Kristus i Kirken'.
Summer: Holidays with Hans at Geijerstams in Storevik. Visits Selja.

1927:
January: Sends Hans to St. Sunniva school in Oslo.
Spring: "Katholsk propaganda". Polemics with the vicar Sigurd Normann about Luther.
Writes "Østenfor sol og vestenfor måne" (To the East of the Sun and to the West of the Moon) to be conducted as a toy theatre at Lillehammer.
Summer: The Marta Steinsvik debate.
October 2: The Church of St. Dominikus in Neuberggaten is consecrated.
Fall: "Olav Audunssøn og hans barn" (Olav Audunssøn and his children (vol. 2 of 'The Master of Hestviken').

1928:
January: Orders a type-writer.
March 7: Admission as a nun (dominikanerinne) of third degree and gets the name sister Olave.
April: Visits Ebba in England. Ebba has converted.
Translates "The Friendship of Christ" by Robert Hugh Benson: 'Kristi venskap'.
Writes "De tre kongsdøtrene i berget det blå" (The three princesses in the blue mountain) to be conducted as a toy theatre at Lillehammer.
November: The Nobel Prize.

Is this a case of life imitating art? Undset becomes a nun like Kristen Lavransdatter! No wonder religious themes are such a huge part of this novel.

Yes, I suppose life's imitating art. Undset was admitted in The Catholic Church in 1924, and the last volume of 'Kristin Lavransdatter' was published in 1922. But I imagine she was a religious woman even before she wrote 'KL', so maybe art is imitating life as well??

"1928, March 7: Admission as a nun (dominikanerinne) of third degree and gets the name sister Olave."

Interesting. Neither the German nor the English Wiki mentions any of this. Was this really an admission as a nun or simply a retreat ("Exerzitien" in German, a stay at a convent for a longer period, but without actually joining the convent)?
Kjellika, have you read the English Wikipedia on K. Undset (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigrid_Undset#Catholicism)? Do you think it hits the mark concerning the atmosphere in Norway and the reactions towards her conversion? (The article does seem to suffer a bit of NPOV in these paragraphs, it seems).

Kjellika wrote: Yes, I suppose life's imitating art. Undset was admitted in The Catholic Church in 1924, and the last volume of 'Kristin Lavransdatter' was published in 1922. But I imagine she was a religious woman even before she wrote 'KL', so maybe art is imitating life as well??

Would it be a rash conclusion to assume the 1921 visit to Vadstena was a monastery retreat? Vadstena is a very small town and probably perceived as relatively far away, given this was her first trip abroad for 7 years. So unless she had relatives in Vadstena, why would she choose to go there if not to visit a monastery or maybe as a pilgrimage in honor of Saint Bridget?

Regarding her nunnery admission in 1928: Would she even have had the possibillity to become a vowed nun as she was/had been married? Even though they had separated by then, the Catholic Church would still consider her married before God and the church, I assume.
I also recall that she continued to live at her house outside Lillehammer until she had to escape to Sweden and later the United States during WWII.

#11

Sigrid Undset went to Stockholm in 1921 to visit her sister Ragnhild (who was suffering from a rather bad state of health and a difficult family position). Sigrid stayed at a hotel for some days, and then she went to her proper destination, Vadstena Monastery (Does it still exist? Is it near Stockholm?). There she wanted to stay at Easter with contemplation and her newly purchased "Birgittas åpenbaringer" (Birgitta's Revelations).

I'm not sure what it means that she was admitted a 'dominikanerinne' (I couldn't find an English name for it, sorry) of third degree, but I imagine she not ever became a vowed nun, probably according to the circumstances you mention.

I'll continue the timeline (WWII, etc.) soon, I hope.

#10
I guess Sigrid Undset didn't join the convent (cf. my answer to #11).
What is NPOV?

I have read the English Wikipedia on S. Undset, and I'll have to consult a History of Norway to answer your question about the atmosphere in Norway in the 1920s. I don't have the time for it now, alas.

Thanks for checking that out, Kjell! Yes the nunnery in Vadstena still exists. I just checked their homepage out. They have all of 13 nuns now ... I used to live not so far from there, so I've actually visited the monastery with my school a long time ago. Vadstena is a given day trip for the schools in the area as the town carries a lot of medieval history. It is located about 200 kilometers southwest of Stockholm, on the east shore of lake Vättern. At Undset's time there were railroads going all the way there from Stockholm.

ETA: As a matter of fact, there are two nunneries in Vadstena now. As the town has a total population of 5000 or so, the convents are rather hard to miss ... The second convent, however, did not yet exist in the 1920's. Also, that one started out Lutheran but converted to catolicism a couple of decades ago, so even if it had been there it might not have had the same attraction to Sigrid Undset if she was leaning toward turning catholic.

Another intresting thing about Vadstena with respect to Kristin Lavransdatter, is that the royal Folkunga (aka Bjälbo) dynasty, that Lavrans supposedly descended from were originally from Bjälbo, not far from Vadstena. The "Bjälbo Dynasty Palace" is still there in central Vadstena. Maybe Sigrid Undset was looking for a little inspiration for her writing there as well?

I found something about the "third degree": As I suspected, it is something outside the regular Dominican order, called "the Third Order", a lay movement:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Order_of_Saint_Dominic
"The Third Order as it exists to-day can be divided into two categories: regular, i.e. comprising Tertiaries, whether men or women, who live in community and wear the habit externally; and secular, i.e. whether married or single, cleric or lay, who live their lives like others of their profession, but who privately take up practices of austerity, recite some liturgical Office, and wear some symbol of the Dominican habit."
Here is an official site: http://curia.op.org/en/index.php/about-us/laity

RE: NPOV: It should be POV (point of view), after re-reading my own message above. NPOV is the rule at Wikipedia not to introduce personal opinions into an article or interpretations that are clearly influenced by your own point of view on the issue at hand. That even-handedness seem missing from part of the article (IMHO).

(#7 continued)

1929:
April: "Etapper" ('Stages')
November: Gymnadenia

1930:
Summer: Tap water and a new bath room in her in her house.
"Hellige Olav. Norges Konge" ('Saint Olav. King of Norway'). Celebration publication related to the 900th anniversary at Stiklestad.
Fall: "Den Brændende busk" ('The burning tree').

1931:
February: Reconciliation with Nini Roll Anker.
Winter/Spring: Translates G.K. Chesterton The Everlasting Man, in Norwegian: 'Det evige menneske'.
May: Goes to Gotland and stays there for two weeks.
Selected as one of "Ten greatest women alive" by an American church organisation.
June: Hans finishes at St. Sunniva School and returns to Bjerkebæk.
July: "Begegnungen und Trennungen. Essays über Christentum und Germanentum".
July: Goes with Anders and Hans to Iceland.

1932:
February: Publishing of "Samlede Middelalderromaner" ('Collected Medieval Novels) volume 1 - 10 begins.
May 20: Sigrid Undset 50 years old. Celebrating in Sweden.
November: Christmas and Twelfth Night
Fall: Ida Elisabeth

1933:
March: Arnulf Øverland (Norwegian author) acquitted for blasphemy.
November: "Etapper. Ny række" ('Stages. A new series).

1934:
"Saga of Saints".
July: Goes to Northern Norway.
Fall: Elleve aar ('Eleven Years').

1935:
March: Sigrid Undset and Ingeborg Møller found 'Gullalderklubben' (The Golden Age Club).
April: First stay at Montebello health resort.
May/June: Goes to Finland.
November: Anders goes to Birmingham.
December 14: Ossietzky appeal.
December 20: Elected as a chairman of The Norwegian Authors' Society (Norw.: Den norske Forfatterforening).

"Begegnungen und Trennungen. Essays über Christentum und Germanentum".
????

GirlFromIpanema:
Do you think you could translate this title into English? :)

#10

I agree that some paragraphs in the Wikipedia article seem to suffer a bit of NPOV. There is almost nothing to find about this subject in my books about Norwegian History, so I guess it is considered a quite peripheral matter.

Anyway, I assume it was rather controversial to be a catholic in Norway those days, but I doubt the general public cared much about it.

Lars Eskeland had to give in as a headmaster of The Folk High School at Voss after his conversion to catholisism. He converted the year after Sigrid Undset did.

(#15 continued)

1936:
September: Hans back at school in Lillehammer.
November: Den trofaste hustru (The faithful wife)

1937:
April-May: Visits England, Scotland and Orkney Islands.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer offers $ 50,000 for the movie rights of Kristin Lavransdatter. Undset refuses.
Summer: Anders at home, gets engaged to Gunvor Hjerkinn.
November: "Norske helgener" (Norwegian Saints). Revised and enlarged edition of 'Saga of Saints'.

1938:
January-July: Gunhild's son Knut lives at Bjerkebæk.
June: "Selvportrett og landskapsbilleder" (Self Portray and Sceneries).

1939:
January 12: Mosse dies.
August 23: Sigrid Undset's mother dies.
September 1: WWII breaks out.
November: Madame Dorthea.
November 30: The Winter War in Finland breaks out.
The articles "Sognekirken" (The Parish Church), "På pilgrimsferd" (Pilgrimage), and "Klosterliv" (Convent Life) in 'Norsk kulturhistorie' (History of Norwegian Culture).
"Kristendom og Kjønnsmoral" (Christianity and Sexual Ethics).

1940:
February: Three Finnish children arrive at Bjerkebæk.
April 6: Lecture in The Students' Society on "Kristendommen og vår tid" (Christianity in our time)
April 9: The war reaches Norway.
April 20: Leaves Bjerkebæk.
May 10: Arrives in Stocholm. The next day she gets to know that Anders was killed at Segalstad bru April 27.
July 13: Leaves Stockholm to travel with Hans to USA via Moscow, Vladivostok and Japan.
August 26: Arrives in San Francisco and goes on to New York. Lives at Hotel Algonquin in 44th street at Manhattan. Starts a tour of lectures. Gets an apartment in Margaret Hotel at Columbia Heights 97 in Brooklyn.

"July 13: Leaves Stockholm to travel with Hans to USA via Moscow, Vladivostok and Japan."

Imagine that...- pretty much incredible in our day of airline travel. I remember travelling to Portugal by car with my parents in the mid-1970s (five days on the road), and in the 1980s my Uni mate would travel to Spain by train regularly to see her family. Even these distances are now covered by plane.

(#18 continued)

1941:
April 27: Anders' dying day. Hans visits her.
Summer: Lives in Montery in Western Massachuttets.

1942:
January: Return to the Future translated into English by Henriette C.K. Naeseth.
Summer: Back in Monterey.
President of the new founded society Fritt Norge (A Free Norway). Member of the executive committee of Nordmannsforbundet (The Union of Norsemen)
Happy Times in Norway translated into English by Joran Birkeland.

1943:
Summer: Back in Monterey.
August 22: Anders Castus Svarstad senior dies.
Fall: Sigurd and his brave Companions. A tale of Medieval Norway.

1944:
Arne Skouen (Norwegian film director) arrives in USA.
Project from "The American Commission for the Protection and Salvage of Artistic and Historic Documents in War Areas".

1945:
May 8: The peace is celebrated.
July 21: Leaves Brooklyn by the Norwegian ship "Montevideo".
July 30: Arrives in Oslo.
August 8: Back at Bjerkebæk.
November: "Tilbake til fremtiden" (return to the Future) is printed to be published in Norwegian. The Soviet Russian ambassy objects, and the impression is held back in the publishing house.

1946:
October 17: Speech at the unveiling of the memorial of killed people in Gudbrandsdalen and Lillehammer.

1947:
May 20: "Lykkelige dager" in Norwegian (cf. 1942 Happy Times...).
July 7: Gets ST. Olav's Great Cross.

1948:
Sends Caterina av Siena to an American publishing house.
May: Holidays in Denmark with Ingeborg Møller and Tove Rasmussen.
'Caterina av Siena' is returned.

1949:
May 29: Meeting at Domkirkeodden in Hamar.
June 9: Is ill and is hospitalized at Lillehammer Hospital.
June 10: Sigrid Undset dies.
June 15: Requiem-Mass at St. Torfinn's Church at Hamar. Buried at Mesnalia churchyard.
November: Tilbake til fremtiden is published.

1951:
"Caterina av Siena" is published in Norwegian.

1955:
Sigurd og hans tapre venner in Norwegian.

Done!

Thank you for all this interesting information. It is much appreciated.

Thank you for the information on Sigrid Undset. What a long and interesting life. Reading this book makes me want to visit Norway.

Sigrid Undset was a Dominican tertiary (what is currently referred to as a Lay Dominican), as you have discovered. The Third Order (currently referred to as Lay Fraternities of St. Dominic) is canonically part of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans) together with friars and nuns. When Sigrid Undset 7 March 1928 (four years after becoming a Catholic) promised to live according to the Rule of the Third Order Secular (revised a few years before, in 1923), she thus committed herself to a kind of life recommended to all Christians, to all Catholic laity - but inspired and directed by Dominican saints, Dominican tradition, Dominican friars and Dominican sisters.

When her biographer Tordis Ørjasæter tried to make sense of it all and made Sigrid Undset into some kind of nun, she was mistaken about this.

See my article (in Norwegian, I'm afraid - but I suppose you can make some sense of it using Google translate or something) on the subject here: http://legdominikaner.wordpress.com/2010/02/27/sr-olave-sigrid-undset-t-o-p/