Ole Edvart Rølvaag

Ole Edvart Rølvaag (Family name spelled "Rolvaag" in the United States) (April 22 1876 - November 5, 1931) was an American novelist and professor, well known for his writings on the Norwegian American immigrant experience.

Biography

Rølvaag was born in the family's cottage in a small fishing village on the island of Dønna, in the most southerly district in Nordland county, Norway. Dønna, one of the largest islands on the northern coast of Norway, is situated within about five miles of the Artic Circle. He was born with the name Ole Edvart Pedersen, one of seven children of Peder Benjamin Jakobsen and Ellerine Pedersdatter Vaag. The settlement where he was born had no official name, but it was referred to as Rølvaag, the name of a narrow bay on the northwestern point of the island where the fishermen kept their boats. At 14 years of age he joined his father and brothers in the Lofoten fishing grounds. Rølvaag lived until he was twenty years of age, and the impressions he received during the days of his childhood and his young manhood endured with him throughout his life.

An uncle who had immigrated to America sent him a ticket in the summer of 1896, and he traveled to Union County, South Dakota to work as a farmhand. He settled in Elk Point, South Dakota and worked as a farmhand until 1898. With the help of his pastor, Rølvaag enrolled in Augustana Academy in Canton, South Dakota where he graduated in 1901. He earned a bachelor's degree from St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota in 1905, and a master's from the same institution in 1910. He also had studied for some time at the University of Oslo.

Career

Rølvaag was a professor at St. Olaf College from 1906 and Head of the Norwegian Department from 1916. In 1925, Ole E. Rolvaag became the first secretary and archivist of Norwegian-American Historical Association. He would hold both positions for the remainder of his life. Rølvaag was knighted in the Order of St. Olav by the King Haakon VII in 1926.

Literary style and themes

Ole Rølvaag wrote in the Norwegian language, however his novels have a distinct American in flavor and theme. Rolvaag was deeply influenced by earlier American writers who, writing in the Norwegian language, had faithfully portrayed the experiences of so many Norwegian immigrant pioneers. In this he was strongly influenced by Hans Andersen Foss and Peer Stromme, both of whom had written novels which provided realistic aspects of the homesteader’s experience. The Emigrants by Norwegian author Johan Bojer, which was first published in 1925, follows many of these same themes. Rølvaag in turn provided an equally strong influence on future Scandinavian writers. Rølvaag attracted a number of gifted young Norwegian-Americans to St. Olaf College, among them Einar Haugen. Written decades later, Vilhelm Moberg's novels would depict the experience of Swedish-American immigrants.

Giants In the Earth

Rølvaag's authorship and scholarship focused primarily on the pioneer experience on the Dakota plains in the 1870s. His most famous book is Giants in the Earth (Norwegian: Verdens Grøde ), which is part of a trilogy. The classic story of a Norwegian pioneer family's struggles with the land and the elements of the Dakota Territory as they try to make a new life in America The book was based partly upon his personal experiences as a settler and as well of the experiences of his wife’s family who had been immigrant homesteaders. The novel powerfully and realistically treat the lives and trials of Norwegian pioneers in the Midwest, emphasizing their battles with snow storms, locusts, poverty and hunger. The book make vivid the trials of loneliness, separation from family and longing for the old country as well as difficulty fitting into a new culture and estrangement from children who grew up in the new land.

Written in Norwegian, and stemming from a rich old-world literary tradition, it is at the same time deeply and vitally American. The book provides a dramatic contrast between Per Hansa, the natural pioneer who sees promise flooding the wind swept plains, and his wife Beret, who hungers for the home ways and in whose heart the terror of loneliness gathers, penetrates to the deeper reality of life lived on the American frontier.

Memorials

• The O. E. Rolvaag House in Northfield, Minnesota is listed as a National Historic Landmark.
• The Rolvaag Library at St. Olaf College is named after O. E. Rolvaag.
• The wooden cabin where Rolvaag wrote Giants in the Earth sits on the Augustana College campus in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
• The Ole Rolvaag Collection is maintained in the Norwegian-American Historical Association Archives at St. Olaf College.

Selected Biography

• Amerika-Breve – American Letters (1912)
• Paa Glemte Veie – On Forgotten Paths (1914)
• To Tullinger: Et Billede frå idag - Two Fools: a Portrait of Our Times (1920)
• Længselens Baat - The Boat of Longing (1921)
• Omkring fædrearven – Concerning Our Heritage (1922)
• I de Dage – In Those Days (1923)
• Riket Grundlægges - Founding the Kingdom (1924)

The following three books form a trilogy:

• Giants in the Earth (combined version of I de Dage and Riket Grundlægges – translated and published in 1927)
• Peder Seier - Peder Victorious (translated in 1929)
• Den Signede Dag - Their Father's God (translated in 1931)

Last release:

• Pure Gold (translated in 1930)
• The Boat of Longing (1933)

Additional Sources

• Jorgenson, Theodore and Solum, Nora O. Ole Edvart Rölvaag: A Biography (Harper and Brothers, 1939)
• Reigstad, Paul. Rolvaag: His Life and Art (University of Nebraska Press, 1972)
• Thorson, Gerald. Ole Rolvaag, Artist and Cultural Leader (St. Olaf College Press, 1975)
• Simonson, Harold P. Prairies Within: The Tragic Trilogy of Ole Rolvaag (University of Washington Press, 1987)
• Moseley, Ann. Ole Edvart Rolvaag (Boise State University Bookstore. 1987)
• Eckstein, Neil Truman. Marginal Man As Novelist: The Norwegian-American Writers H.H Boyesen and O.E. Rolvaag (Taylor & Francis. 1990)

External Links

• “Minnesota Historic Society - Minnesota Author Biographies Project”

• “St Olaf College – Rolvaag Memorial Library”

• Two Novelists of the Northwest Prairie Frontier. (Texas Christian University Press, 1998.)

• Rolvaag‘s Search for Soria Moria by Raychel A. Haugrud (Norwegian American Historic Association. Volume 26: Page 103)

• Dear Sara Alelia: An Episode in Rølvaag's Life by Einar Haugen (Norwegian American Historic Association. Volume 31: Page 269)

• The Social Criticism of Ole Edvart Rølvaag by Neil T. Eckstein (Norwegian American Historic Association. Volume 24: Page 112)

• Rølvaag’s Lost Novel by Einar Haugen (Norwegian American Historic Association. Volume 32: Page 209)

• The Scandinavian Immigrant Writer in America by Dorothy Burton Skardal (Norwegian American Historic Association. Volume 21: Page 14)