The teacher Selma Lagerlöf (1858-1940) is one of Sweden's most famous and beloved writers and her books have been sold in millions worldwide. She received the Nobel Prize in Literature 1909 and was selected as the first woman in the Swedish academy five years later in 1914. She grew up on the farm Mårbacka and, after her success, could buy it back and lived there until she passed away in 1940.

Among her most famous works is The Story of Gösta Berling, Herr Arne’s Hoard and Jerusalem. The latter is a novel, published in two parts in 1901 and 1902 and the narrative spans four generations in the 19^th century and focuses on the family Ingmarsson and several other families from the County of Nås who, for religious reasons, emigrated to Jerusalem to join the American Colony. 

To get an understanding of these emigrants, Selma Lagerlöf traveled to Jerusalem to meet and learn more about them. During the trip, Lagerlöf corresponded with her mother, Louise Lagerlöf, and it is through this correspondence that I have sought answers to the following questions:

Given the premise that Selma Lagerlöf, per her own opinion, had no knowledge of emigration of religious groups; how much can we understand that she learned about this colony while traveling, based on her correspondence?  To what extent can this correspondence detect observations and teachings concerning religion, religious practice and presumptuous religious people? To the extent that religious beliefs, internships or supposed practitioners are mentioned in the correspondence; are there any appreciable differences in conceptual usage based on how she may look at the other?

The hermeneutical explanation model used in this study as a theory and method has, through an analysis of the correspondence, conclude that her journey gave her great insight into the colonists, that she also learned a lot about other religions and its practitioners and that some valuational words in the letters reveal that she received a very positive image of the emigrants, but that she generally held a neutral description even of non-Christians.