Ole Edvart Rolvaag

Ole Edvart Rølvaag , 1876-1931, Norwegian-American novelist, b. Helgeland, Norway, grad. St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn., 1905. He emigrated to the United States in 1896 and was head of the department of Norwegian at St. Olaf from 1906 to 1931. He is most famous for the trilogy consisting of the novels Giants in the Earth (1927), Peder Victorius (1929), and Their Father's God (1931); powerful and realistic, these novels treat the life of Norwegian pioneers in the American Northwest, emphasizing both their physical and psychological struggles with the new land. Rølvaag's other novels include Pure Gold (1930) and The Book of Longing (1933). He wrote all his novels in Norwegian and assisted in their translation into English.

Bibliography: See study by P. Reigstad (1972).

Rölvaag, O[le] E[dvart] (1876–1931), born in Norway, came to the U.S. in 1896, and attended St. Olaf College, Minnesota, at which he became a professor of Norwegian (1907–31). His Letters from America (1912), like all his works, was written in his native language. This book purported to be a collection of correspondence from a young Norwegian in America to his family at home, and was a semi‐autobiographical account of the gradual adjustment of an immigrant to the U.S. Rölvaag's greatest works were Giants in the Earth (1927), Peder Victorious (1929), and Their Fathers' God (1931), a trilogy of epic power, realistically depicting the life of the Norwegian immigrants on the northwestern frontier of the U.S., and the psychological effect of the stern pioneer life upon the people whose titanic labors are a constant struggle against the impersonal forces of nature. His other novels include Pure Gold (1930) and The Boat of Longing (1933), the latter, written before his great trilogy, foreshadowing it both in its combination of realism and mysticism and in its theme of a young Norwegian's emigration to the U.S.