Giants in the Earth

Giants in the Earth, novel by O.E. Rølvaag that chronicles the struggles of Norwegian immigrant settlers in the Dakota territory in the 1870s. First published in Norway in two volumes as I de dage (1924; “In Those Days”) and Riket grundlæges (1925; “The Kingdom Is Founded”), the novel was published in English as a single volume in 1927 as Giants in the Earth. It had two sequels, Peder Seier (1928; Peder Victorious) and Den signede dag (1931; Their Fathers’ God).

The book’s indomitable protagonist, Per Hansa, his wife, Beret, their children, and three other Norwegian immigrant families settle at Spring Creek, living in makeshift sod huts. Surviving the winters’ fierce blizzards, they see their crops destroyed by locusts in summer. They nonetheless persist; new settlers arrive, and the community grows. Beret, who cannot adapt to life on the prairie, almost dies giving birth to the son Per names Peder Victorious. Cheered when a traveling minister baptizes Peder, Beret eventually becomes obsessively religious. When another settler lies dying, Beret insists that Per find a minister for him, but Per is caught in a fierce snowstorm and dies.