Lady Inger

The play, the fourth work of the Norwegian's career, reflects the birth of Romantic Nationalism in the Norway of that period, and had a strongly anti-Danish sentiment.

It centers on the Scandinavia of 1510–1540 as the Kalmar Union collapsed, the impacts of the Reformation were becoming evident in Norway, and a last desperate struggle was being mounted to maintain Norwegian independence.

Ibsen was a major participant in a flood of nationalistic romanticism that followed the "Four Hundred Years of Darkness" and is recognized as one of the great four contributors of this period (the others being Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson, Alexander Kielland, and Jonas Lie).

A unity of purpose pervades the whole period, recreation of a national culture based on the almost forgotten past.

Subsequent research has shown the play Fru Inger til Østeraad deviates rather liberally from the actual historical events, and should be understood in its context as a statement of nationalism.