Ólöf Sigurðardóttir á Hlöðum grew up in a poor, large farming family on Nordlandet. Only her father could read, and neither of her parents could write. Bernskuheimilið mitt, 1906, is a precise and sober account of her childhood and adolescence, during which she conceived a passionate interest for poetry, suffered from her lack of education, and was thought to be an eccentric.
She married a carpenter in 1887, wrote short stories, but was best known as a poet and published two poetry collections, both entitled Nokkur smákvæði, 1888 and 1912. Ritsafn, a collection of her tales and poems, was published in 1945. Some of them were printed in periodicals during her lifetime.
