Abraham Viktor Rydberg entered the world on the 18th of December 1828 in Gothenburg, Sweden. His father Johan worked as a soldier before becoming a prison guard while his mother Hedvig Düker practiced midwifery.
Viktor Rydberg published Bibelns lära om Kristus in 1862 to introduce modern Biblical criticism to Scandinavia by using the New Testament itself to deny the divinity of Christ. The work attracted the ire of the orthodox religious establishment and is generally credited for Rydberg's exclusion from the Swedish Academy until 1877.
Between 1886 and 1889 Viktor Rydberg focused his literary work on Norse and broader Germanic mythology including Segerssvärdet in 1882 and Undersökningar i germanisk mythologi. He also published a children's version titled Fädernas gudasaga in 1887 after debating the authenticity of the poem Völuspá with Sophus Bugge.
Viktor Rydberg remained employed at the Göteborgs Handels- och Sjöfartstidning newspaper for more than 20 years starting from 1855. His first novels saw print during this time while he became a central figure of late Romanticism in Sweden by 1859.
A national day of mourning ensued all over Sweden after the death of Viktor Rydberg on the 21st of September 1895. His grave in Gothenburg stands as a national monument today while many works remain widely read in schools throughout Sweden.