Berte Canutte Aarflot is the most important female representative of the Haugianism lay movement in Norway. She was born and grew up in the enlightened, scholastic family of a lord lieutenant on the estate of Aarflot on Sunmøre in western Norway. Her father set up the first village library in Norway and the village’s own printing house. She was instructed at home and soon began to write hymns.
According to her autobiography, her father had her collection En Gudselskende Sjæls opbyggelige Sange printed before his death in 1817. Nonetheless, her debut work is considered to be Troens Frugt indeholdende nogle aandelige Sange. En Samling af aandelige Sange, i tvende Dele, which was printed before 1832. In Berte Kanutte Siverts datter Aaflots Selvbiografi…, 1860, she writes about her powerful religious sentiment and a spiritual crisis in the busy life of a woman with many small children.
