''Giants in the Earth'' (Norwegian: ''I de dage'') is a novel by

Norwegian-American Norwegian Americans ( nb, Norskamerikanere, nn, Norskamerikanarar) are Americans with ancestral roots in Norway. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the latter half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the ...

author Ole Edvart Rølvaag. First published in Norwegian as two volumes in 1924 and 1925, it was published in English in 1927, translated by Rølvaag and author

Lincoln Colcord Lincoln Ross Colcord (August 14, 1883 – November 16, 1947) was an American journalist and author of short fiction. He wrote for a number of American newspapers and magazines beginning in 1908, and throughout the Woodrow Wilson presidency (191 ...

(1883–1947).

Overview

The novel follows a pioneer Norwegian immigrant family's struggles with the land and the elements of the

Dakota Territory The Territory of Dakota was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of N ...

as they try to make a new life in America. In 1873, Per Hansa, his wife Beret, their children settle in the Dakota Territory. They are joined by three other Norwegian immigrant families—Tonseten and his wife Kjersti, Hans Olsa and his wife Sorine, and the Solum brothers. Part of a trilogy, it had two sequels: ''Peder Victorious'' (''Peder Seier'') in 1928 and ''Their Fathers' God'' (''Den signede dag'') in 1931. The books were based partly on Rølvaag's personal experiences as a settler as well as the experiences of his wife’s family who had been immigrant homesteaders in

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large porti ...

. The novels depicts snow storms,

locust Locusts (derived from the Vulgar Latin ''locusta'', meaning grasshopper) are various species of short-horned grasshoppers in the family Acrididae that have a swarming phase. These insects are usually solitary, but under certain circumstanc ...

s, poverty, hunger, loneliness, homesickness, the difficulty of fitting into a new culture, and the estrangement of immigrant children who grow up in a new land. ''Giants in the Earth'' was turned into an opera of the same name by

Douglas Moore Douglas Stuart Moore (August 10, 1893 – July 25, 1969) was an American composer, songwriter, organist, pianist, Conducting, conductor, educator, actor, and author. A composer who mainly wrote works with an American subject, his music is genera ...

and Arnold Sundgaard; it won the

Pulitzer Prize for Music The Pulitzer Prize for Music is one of seven Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually in Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first given in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year, and this was eventually converted ...

in 1951.

References

External links

Introduction to the text edition of Rolvaag's Giants in the Earth
(Copyright 1929 by Harper and Brothers)

(Dorothy Burton Skardal. The Norwegian-American Historical Association. Volume 21: Page 14) Norwegian-language novels Novels set in Dakota Territory Works about Norwegian-American culture Novels about immigration to the United States Novels adapted into operas {{1920s-hist-novel-stub

Overview

References

See also

External links