The Ultimate Fantasy Series Ranking

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Margit Sandemo

1 universe Last reviewed 2026-08-31

Margit Sandemo was born April 23, 1924, in Lena, Norway, the daughter of Norwegian poet Anders Underdal and Swedish noblewoman Elsa Reuterskiöld, from whom she claimed descent from numerous European royal houses. Her childhood was marked by significant trauma, including sexual assault and her parents' divorce in 1930, and she survived a suicide attempt at age seventeen. Before turning to writing, Sandemo pursued various creative pursuits including painting, sculpture, textile art, and acting. She married Asbjørn Sandemo in 1946 and had three surviving children. She wrote her debut novel, Tre Friare ("Three Suitors"), at age forty, and the manuscript was rejected by more than one hundred publishers before finally being serialized in a magazine, launching her literary career. Sandemo went on to become the best-selling author in the Nordic countries from the 1980s onward, with her books translated into at least eight languages. Her most famous creation is The Legend of the Ice People (Sagan om Isfolket), a sprawling forty-seven-book saga begun in 1982 and inspired by a medieval church painting; it follows a Nordic family across centuries as they battle a supernatural curse, blending historical fiction, suspense, and the supernatural against richly researched medieval Scandinavian and Icelandic settings. She also wrote the fantasy series Häxmästaren, Legenden om Ljusets rike, and Trollrunor. Sandemo died September 1, 2018, at age ninety-four, in Scania, Sweden, leaving behind one of the most commercially successful bodies of fantasy fiction in Nordic publishing history.

Universe(s)

The Legend of the Ice People

  • Core Canon books: 47
  • Current rank: #754 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 3.78
  • Award recognitions: None recorded

Books

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