Hamsun's prose often contains rapturous depictions of the natural world, with intimate reflections on the Norwegian woodlands and coastline. For this reason, he has been linked with the spiritual movement known as pantheism ("There is no God," he once wrote. "Only gods."). Hamsun saw mankind and nature united in a strong, sometimes mystical bond. This connection between the characters and their natural environment is exemplified in the novels "Pan", "A Wanderer Plays on Muted Strings", and the epic "Growth of the Soil", "his monumental work" credited with securing him the Nobel Prize in literature in 1920.