Giants in the Earth
by O.E. Rolvaag
vReview by Scott Sobocinski
A lone wagon rolls across an endless sea of
grass, amidst the endless sound of wind. On
the horizon, unfettered by tree or mountain,
the setting sun explodes into hues of orange
and violet, and to the settlers it seems they have
passed into another realm, beyond the edge of
the map. In fact, the sky seems so big in this place
that they might not be traveling on the earth, but
into the sky itself.
In a nutshell, that is how O.E. Rølvaag begins
his novel Giants in the Earth. Written in 1924-25
and translated from Norwegian, it is the story
of a Norwegian family that comes to settle in
southern Dakota Territory in the 1870s. Per
Hansa, his wife Beret and their children struggle
against time, locusts, the changing seasons, and
themselves to survive in the strange wilderness of
North America.
For writers who have written themselves into
a corner, Chandler’s Law says: “When in doubt,
have a man come through the door with a gun
in his hand.” Rølvaag basically wrote the antithriller, here. It is a slow book, and that is the
point. The very lack of action gets you into the
mindset of the settlers in a profound way.
The daunting realities of homesteading set
in for Per Hansa, who feverishly works against
the little time they have before winter to make
hay, to turn virgin soil, to build shelter. Despite
all of the work, time moves maddeningly slow
for Beret, who thinks always of the home and
family she left behind in Norway. Living in the
antithesis of an urban setting, isolation preys
on her mind. The lack of ministry in the area
also causes her to believe that her husband
has taken them to live in a Godless desolation.
As the book progresses, Beret’s depression
deepens, as does her religiosity. Per Hansa’s
emotional stoicism, along with the demands of
the homestead, make him increasingly unable
to reach out to his wife.
Rølvaag writes about these emotions in a
surprisingly organic way. I can think of very
few books that can successfully recreate these
feelings in the mind of the reader. There were
also some
moments
where I felt
that Rolvaag
had somehow
mystically
been able to
resurrect the
experiences of
those European
settlers,
experiences which have passed beyond living
memory. What was more striking yet were the
emotional chords of farm life that echo even
today. Although I grew up on a family farm in
the 1990s, I found myself able to empathize with
the consequences of stoicism, depression, the
lack of family time, and the arguments that had
started because of too much work and had to end
abruptly for the same reason. Giants in the Earth
is stocked with fully rounded characters, intimate
descriptions of raw and unbridled nature (a
character in itself), and a sense that while the
landscape, the machinery, and the economy
has changed in the last 140 years, the emotional
demands of farm life seem to have changed little.
This depiction of family life offers the audience a
truly unique way to connect to the past.
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HERVOICEvNOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017v23