Sigrid Undset

Sigrid Undset was born in Kallundborg, Denmark. Her father was a noted Norwegian archaeologist and her mother was Danish. While she was still a child her father moved his family back to Oslo. Until the German invasion, Madame Undset made her home in a medieval house near Lillehammer in Norway, which dates back to the year 1000 and is near the scene of some of the heaviest fighting between the German invaders and the Allied-Norwegian forces.

She was in Oslo, lecturing to a student group on the fateful night of April 7th, when the air-raid sirens shrilled the first news that German invasion had begun. But Oslo did not know what they meant. It was not until next morning that the truth became clear, Madame Undset writes:

"On that black ninth of April Anders and Hans escaped from occupied Oslo. Next morning they both joined the Norwegian army near Lillehammer. Three weeks later Anders was killed in action, up in his home valley. Hans finally joined his mother in Sweden. went with her all the way through Russia, Siberia, Japan, to America. But when the Norwegian army was being re-formed somewhere in Great Britain, he returned to the colors. When this book has been printed he may have had the opportunity he wished for, to fight again for his king and native land. When he said good-bye to Mother in the Grand Central Terminal, to travel to the secret port where his ship waited, he told her: 'You know, Mother, if we get our country back again from the Germans, nothing matters. And if not, and if you and I should have to live nevertheless, we must acknowledge that Anders was the only lucky one in our family.' "

But we Norwegians know for certain that we shall have our country back again, free and swept clean of the forces of evil....

Some day—maybe soon—we will be able to unfurl our flag over every home in Norway—or over the ruins of homes to be rebuilt.... And on that day, when we can again hoist the Christmas sheaves of grain at our front doors, we will finally know that Happy Times in Norway have returned to the land of our forefathers and our children.

—from the dust jacket