Typical features for works of Margit Sandemo are among other things history, fantasy, romance, suspense and supernatural phenomena.

In the central role are distinct amulets, old writings and symbols, which the main characters decipher in order to solve riddles stage by time, while fighting against evil powers.

The events of the majority of her novels take place in Europe in the Middle Ages and in the beginning of Modern Times, especially in Norway and Iceland.

Medieval knight castles, bewitched forests and old-fashioned, idyllic manor milieu are among the settings the stories take place in.

Other sources of inspiration have been classical music, such as the compositions of Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as well as old Europeans folk stories.

Underdal was born in Valdres out of wedlock, and according to Sandemo herself, after an alleged affair between the Nobel Prize–winning Norwegian author Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910) and a 17-year-old croft girl named Guri Andersdotter (d. 1949).

[4] Elsa was a teacher, born in Blekinge as the 4th eldest of nine children of the county chief Axel Gabriel Adam Reuterskiöld (1863 – 1938) and Finnish-Swedish countess Eva Beata Gabriella Oxenstierna (1864 – 1949) from Korsholm and Wasa.

[5] According to her own claims, Sandemo on her mother's side was a descendant of numerous European noble families, and over 800 kings and 112 emperors were counted among her ancestors.

[7] Elsa Reuterskiöld met Anders Underdal the first time in her summer holiday journey in a valley in Valdres.

They married quite soon after that on 15 June 1921 and Underdal bought a small farm, located in Huldrehaugen, Grunke, Moen, close by Fagernes.

Without any permanent address, the family had to spend irregular vagrancy life living in the corners of their relative's manors in various parts of Sweden.

During the German occupation of Norway in World War II he supported the Nazis openly - for which Margit would never forgive him.

In October 2004, she stated in an interview given to Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that she killed her third rapist, a peddler, to whom she fell victim at the age of twelve.

[12] After she finished her autobiography Livsglede in the beginning of 2010, Margit Sandemos sister, Eva Underdal, told her she was actually raped a fourth time.

[9] In 1945, Margit met her future husband Asbjørn Sandemo (1917–1999) during the haymaking in the West Mountains of Vestre Slidre in Valdres.

Asbjørn, a son of Ludvig Andersen (1879–1972) and Hulda Karlsson (1889–1956) came from Idd in Baleen and was a plumber by trade and a WWII veteran.

By now, Margit's mother, Elsa Reuterskiöld, had ended her wandering life style and settled down in Valsberga in Södermanland.

Margit wrote her thirty first novels at Siesta Café Konditori, the railway coffee bar in Fagernes.

She initially wasn't excited about the idea, and decided to continue writing novel series for magazines, but, in her own words, changed her mind in 1981 when she saw a picture of a medieval church painting in a newspaper.

Main characters of Trollrunor are a young girl named Iliana and her partner Ravn, who is a younger son of evil lord Bogislav.

[needs update] Spellbound by Margit Sandemo (the first book in the Sagan om Isfolket series, translated as The Legend of the Ice People) was published in English in the UK by The Tagman Press on 30 June 2008.