By Ahrvid Engholm: The Norwegian-Swedish – born in Norway, lived in Sweden and wrote in Swedish – fantasy author Margit Sandemo passed away September 1 at age 94.

She wrote the long-running Sagan om Isfolket (“The Ice People Saga”) paperback series, 47 books in total, as well as other long book series like Häxmästaren (Witch Master) and Legenden om Ljusets Rike (The Legend of the Realm of Light). Her different series would sometimes connect to each other, in a genre described as “magic romance”. Despite beginning to publish only at the age of 40, she authored at least 185 books, including an autobiography.

The Wikipedia entry about Sandemo says:

Her books, which weave supernatural themes with historical facts, have made her well-loved throughout Nordic countries and beyond. Her books can be read in Danish, Finnish, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish and Swedish.

Sandemo is reputed to have sold nearly 40 million books worldwide.

Her work is available in English with half a dozen titles, the first being Spellbound (The Tagman Press, 2008), the beginning of the Ice People Saga.

But her books are very popular and she has her own fan club, Sagan om Isfolket-föreningen (“The Ice People Saga Association”) and there are several fan sites on the Net (e.g. https://www.facebook.com/SaganomIsfolket/ ).

Being widely read and able to entertain readers isn’t the worse fate for an author.