The article analyzes the theme of motherhood in the poems by Halldis Moren Vesaas (1907-1995) and Inger Hagerup (1905-1985). This theme is rather essential in the modern world where the traditional family models are being reconsidered. There are many modern Norwegian writers who approach this subject in their books basing upon the long tradition that has been existing in the Norwegian literature. The poems by Moren Vesaas and Hagerup are an essential stage of developing this tradition. Neither Hagerup, nor Moren Vesaas touch upon the social aspect of being mother; their poems show how the mother is trying to perceive her new role in life and feel the bonds with her young child. This article interprets the poems basing upon the archetypical symbol of The Great Mother that has been analyzed in the works by Carl Jung and his successor Erich Neumann. Jung wrote that the mother archetype is ambivalent: the great and the terrible mother. Comparing the mother image in the poems by Moren Vesaas and Hagerup we can clearly recognize these two aspects of the archetypical symbol: the positive aspect in Moren Vesaas’ poem where the mother accepts her new role and is shown as an image of the selfless and generous love, and the negative aspect in Hagerup’s poem: a mother who thinks of her child as a possible rival, but perceives that she depends on him. Such an open expression of the most intimate woman’s feelings was doubtless new in the Norwegian poetry of that period.