Marta Steinsvik (23 March 1877 – 27 July 1950) was a Norwegian author and translator. She was a champion of women's rights, a proponent of

antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

and

anti-Catholicism Anti-Catholicism is hostility towards Catholics or opposition to the Catholic Church, its clergy, and/or its adherents. At various points after the Reformation, some majority Protestant states, including England, Prussia, Scotland, and the Uni ...

, and promoter of the use of

Nynorsk Nynorsk () () is one of the two written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language ( no, Landsmål) parallel to the Dano-Nor ...

. She was the first female to graduate from the Norwegian School of Theology.

Biography

Steinsvik was born in

Flekkefjord is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Lister. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Flekkefjord. The villages of Sira, Gyland, Rasvåg, Kirkehavn, and Åna-Sira are lo ...

. She studied medicine in

Kristiania Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, but never finished her studies because she was against

vivisection Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for experiment ...

. She studied several other subjects including

Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , '' -logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. In 1902, Marta Steinsvik studied oriental languages including

Assyria Assyria (Neo-Assyrian cuneiform: , romanized: ''māt Aššur''; syc, ܐܬܘܪ, ʾāthor) was a major ancient Mesopotamian civilization which existed as a city-state at times controlling regional territories in the indigenous lands of the A ...

n and ancient

Egyptian Egyptian describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of years of ...

. She also became interested in

Esotericism Western esotericism, also known as esotericism, esoterism, and sometimes the Western mystery tradition, is a term scholars use to categorise a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas a ...

. She was influenced by the thinking of both English

Theosophist Theosophy is a religion established in the United States during the late 19th century. It was founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and draws its teachings predominantly from Blavatsky's writings. Categorized by scholars of religion a ...

Annie Besant Annie Besant ( Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a British socialist, theosophist, freemason, women's rights activist, educationist, writer, orator, political party member and philanthropist. Regarded as a champion of human f ...

and Austrian philosopher, Rudolf Steiner. She was the first woman to graduate from the Norwegian School of Theology, but was not allowed to practice. She was the first Norwegian woman to preach in a church, during 1910 at the Grønland Church in Oslo. She was invited to an international women's conference in Geneva, and planned to give a talk on women priests, until the Pope forbade all Roman Catholic Church, Catholic women to attend if she did, forcing her to give a speech on another subject. In 1894, she started writing in the newspaper, ''Den 17de Mai'', which had been started that same year by her future husband Rasmus Steinsvik. She was employed as secretary to Hans Tambs Lyche, editor and founder of the cultural journal ''Kringsjaa. In 1910 she became editor of the paper ''Kringsjaa''. She was multilingual and translated several books into

, including ''Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, by the Sieur Louis de Conte'' written by Mark Twain and ''Quo vadis?'' written by Henryk Sienkiewicz. In the early 1920s, she was active in spreading anti-semitism and was one of the most important proponents of antisemitism in Norway. Among other things, she delivered lectures based on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. In 1928, she published an anti-Catholic book ''Sankt Peters himmelnøkler'' ("Saint Peter's keys to Heaven"). Marta published ''Frimodige ytringer'', ("Frank Speech") in 1946. It was about the Norwegian treatment of suspects when they were punishing traitors after the Second World War. The book includes examples of Norwegian resistance movement torturing suspected Nazism, Nazi sympathizers in the summer of 1945. It also discussed the legality of withdrawing a group's human rights, (those who were members of Nasjonal Samling, the Norwegian National Socialist party, after 9 April 1940), by an ex post facto law that set aside the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907), Hague Convention which Norway had ratified. The papers left behind on her death are currently being organised at the Norwegian cultural institution, The Blue Colour Works. Several people have announced their plans to write a book about Marta Steinsvik.

Works

* ''Ben-Hur. Ei forteljing um Kristus'', translation 1896 from english ''Ben-Hur. A tale of the Christ'' written by Lewis Wallace, Full text
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo
* ''Nordan um folkeskikken elder Ei leikstemna tilfjells'' by Erp. (written 1898), 1901, Full text
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo
* ''Jeanne d'Arc. Kva eg kjem ihug um henne'', translation 1905 from english ''Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, by the Sieur Louis de Conte'' by Mark Twain, Full text
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo
* ''Ivan Mortensson: "Skogtroll"'', anmeldelse, 1906 * ''Ein liten adelsmann'', translation 1909, from english ''Little Lord Fauntleroy'' by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Full text 1. edition
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo
* ''Jerusalem'' 1 and 2, translation 1909 from swedish ''Jerusalem'' 1 and 2 by Selma Lagerlöf * ''Ægteskabet og forplantningen'', 1910, Full text
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo
* ''Äktenskapet och fortplantningen'', swedish translation by L. W. G. 1910 * ''Jeanne D'Arc : Orleans-møyi'', new edition 1913 from english ''Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, by the Sieur Louis de Conte'' by Mark Twain, Full text
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo
* ''Kvendi og preste-embættet. Fyredrag halde paa landsmøtet for L. K. S. F. 8de juli 1916'', 1917, Full text
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo
* ''Det skapende "ord". Et foredrag av Credo'', 1917, Full text
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo
* ''Gammelægyptiske mysterie-indvielser'', 1917, Full text
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo
* ''Bispen. Eit sjæle-drama i 3 akter'', 1918, Full text
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo
* ''Isis-sløret. Mysterie-drama i 5 akter'', 1921, Full text
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo
* ''Ein liten adelsmann'', translation 1909, 2. edition 1923 from english ''Little Lord Fauntleroy'' by Frances Hodgson Burnett, Full text 2. edition
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo
* ''Eventyr. 1. Karavanen'', translation 1923 from german ''Die Karawane'' by Wilhelm Hauff, Full text
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo
* ''Sankt Peters himmelnøkler'', 1928, 2. edition 1930, 3. edition 1932, Full text 1. edition
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo
* ''Hellig Olav og Den norske statskirke'', 1930, Full text
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo
* ''Kvinner som prester'', 1934 * ''Kvinnornas självmordspolitik. Barnbegränsning och kvinnornas andra ungdom'', in swedish 1938, Full text
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo
* ''Kreftens gåte'', 1940, 2. oplag 1944 * ''Tang og tare som vitaminkilde'', 1943, 2. edition 1944, Full text 2. edition
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo
* ''"Frimodige ytringer"'', 1946, Full text
Nasjonalbiblioteket, Oslo

Personal life

She was born Marta Tonstad on the farm Skjeggestad in Bakke, Norway, Bakke ( now part of

) in the county of Vest-Agder, Norway. Both of her parents Torkild Tonstad (1852–1908) and Ingeborg Evertsdatter Haugan (1848–1922) came from old farming families. Her father worked as a teacher in Flekkefjord and owned the farm Skjeggestad, where Marta lived until she was three years old. On 16 May 1896, she married Rasmus Steinsvik (1863–1913), the founder and editor of ''Den 17de Mai''. She had problems in childbirth and her doctor told her a sixth child would be likely to kill her, so she moved away from her husband. Her husband had a friend who was a doctor who diagnosed her as insane as soon as he heard she believed in reincarnation, and her husband had her committed. While institutionalized, she took the opportunity to study psychology. Another doctor became interested in her case and was able to get her released. This episode was often later used against her in newspaper debates. Her husband died in 1913 after an operation, barely 50 years old.''Rasmus Steinsvik'' (Store norske leksikon)
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Steinsvik, Marta 1877 births 1950 deaths Anti-vivisectionists People from Flekkefjord Nynorsk-language writers Norwegian translators MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion and Society alumni Norwegian journalists Norwegian women writers