Nicoline Kirkegaard was a schoolmistress and popular author and grew up in a schoolmaster’s family in Randers. She had a keen interest in folk high schools and was ambitious, but her marriage in 1882 postponed her writing career. Together with her husband, she ran a lower secondary school in Aarhus, bringing eleven children into the world at the same time.
From her debut with the novel Provstinden in 1899, she developed during the course of twenty novel titles into a major writer of the people, so much so that her best known works were issued as popular editions by Hus og Hjem publishing house right up to 1952. A central figure in her books is the witch, who through dramatic and colourful actions presents the demonic aspect of femininity.
