Vera Henriksen

1927 - 2016

Norway

Vera Henriksen was born in Oslo, now lives in Lom in Gudbrandsdalen, is a qualified architect, and is married with three children. In 1964 she converted to Catholicism.

Her debut work, published in 1961, was the novel Sølvhammeren, about the life and mentality of women in the eleventh century. In the two subsequent volumes, Jærtegn, 1962, and Helgenkongen, 1963, the dominant theme is religious conflicts in connection with Olaf the Holy’s Christianisation of Norway. The conditions of women and religious conflict are also consistent themes in her later novels, which are also critical of earlier recordings of history. Dronningsagaen, 1979, settles accounts with Snorre’s sagas of kings, and her trilogy Bodvars saga, 1983-1989, completes the sagas of the Icelandic clans.

She has also written factual prose on historical topics, such as Sagaens kvinner. Om stolthed og trelldom, kjærlighet og hevn, 1981, Hellig Olav. Historien om vor nasjonalhelgen, 1985, and Selja og Stad. Legender, saga og historie, 1992. In 1997 she published the novel Stavkjerringa, again set in the Middle Ages.

Additions by the editorial team 2011:

The above biography was first published in 1998. Since then, Vera Henriksen has written the novels Klangen av en lutt, 2001, Ildens sang, 2002, and Jarlefeiden, 2003.