In Scadinavia, Knut Hamsun is a conflicted figure. He is one of the most revered Norwegian novelists, yet he supported the Nazi's. Hamsun was born in Norway in 1859, and died there in 1952 at the age of 93. In between, he travelled twice to the United States, lectured in Minneapolis , wrote plays, short stories, essays, and 21 novels, won the Nobel prize, and eulogized Hitler. More of his novels have been made into movies than any other Norwegian's, from Growth of the Soil in 1921 to last year's Pan. And this year saw the premiere of a biographical film, starring Max Von Sydow as the author. The U Film Society in Minneapolis is showing a bunch of the movies this month and next, so we asked Bill Mishler, professsor in the U of M Scandinavian Studies department, for a primer on Hamsun, starting with 1890's Hunger.