ABSTRACT
In a letter dated 1 November 1899, the Swedish author and Nobel laureate Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) wrote to her friend Elise Malmros (1849-1937): “I have not read any Kierkegaard for a long time, but it is certain that you become overwhelmed in many ways when you read him, though I have to say that I find him much more clever than wise.”1 The letter was written two years after Lagerlöf’s outstanding debut with Gösta Berling’s Saga (1891),2 and two years before the first volume of the great work Jerusalem (1901-02) was published.3 The letter to Malmros is apparently the only place where Lagerlöf refers directly to Kierkegaard. This challenges the aim of this article which is to analyze the places where Kierkegaard appears as a source in the writings of Lagerlöf.
