Fredrikke Nielsen (1837–1912)

Fredrikke Nielsen, née Jensen, was raised by an aunt and uncle on a farm on the southwest coast of Norway. At age 16, she got a job with the Det norske Theater in Bergen and made her stage debut in 1853. Her memoirs later related an intimate relationship with Henrik Ibsen, and she may have served as his muse. The playwright gave her key roles in the first performances of two of his works, as Eline in Lady Inger of Ostrat (1855), and as Signe in The Feast at Solhaug (1856). In 1856, Fredrikke married Harald Andreas Nielsen, a fellow actor. They both joined the Norwegian Theatre in Trondheim. In 1880, after nearly 26 years on the stage in more than 300 roles, she left acting to become a preacher in the Methodist Church. She devoted the rest of her life to missionary travels around Scandinavia and the USA. Her memoirs, which had been presumed lost, were found and finally published in 1998.