O. E. Rølvaag’s epic historical novel Giants in the Earth was first published in Norwegian in two volumes in 1924 and 1925 before its acclaimed English translation appeared in 1927. The novel chronicles the harrowing journey of Per Hansa and his family, Norwegian immigrants who leave Minnesota to establish a homestead in the Dakota Territory in the 1870s. The story follows their intense struggle to survive and build a home on the vast, unforgiving prairie, while exploring the profound psychological and spiritual challenges of pioneering. Rølvaag’s themes include The Immigrant’s Dream and the Psychological Price of a New Kingdom, The Fragile Struggle to Build Civilization in the Wilderness, and The War Between Worldly Ambition and Spiritual Dread.

The novel is deeply rooted in the author’s own experiences. Rølvaag, like his characters, was a Norwegian immigrant who left a fishing village for the plains of South Dakota in 1896. He wrote his novels in Norwegian to preserve the psychological and cultural realities of the immigrant experience. The narrative is set against the backdrop of the Homestead Act of 1862, which fueled mass westward migration in the United States.

Upon its American publication, Giants in the Earth became a bestseller after being selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club and is regarded as a classic of American immigrant literature. It is the first book in a trilogy, followed by Peder Victorious (1929) and Their Fathers’ God (1931). In 1951, composer Douglas Moore adapted the novel into an opera that won the Pulitzer Prize for Music.

This guide is based on the 1999 Perennial Classics edition published by HarperCollins Publishers.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain depictions of mental illness, suicidal ideation, child death, and illness or death, as well as depictions of racism and anti-Indigenous racism, including the use of outdated language.

Plot Summary

The story centers on Per Hansa, a bold and restless homesteader, and his wife Beret, whose growing despair under the weight of isolation threatens to destroy both her mind and their family.

The novel begins with a small caravan creeping westward across a vast, trackless prairie. Per Hansa, a stocky, broad-shouldered Norwegian immigrant, walks at the head, followed by his eldest son Ole, his wife Beret driving two decrepit wagons, their younger son Store-Hans, their toddler daughter And-Ongen, and their cow, Rosie. The family has been traveling for over four weeks from Fillmore County, Minnesota, toward Dakota Territory, where Per Hansa intends to claim land. He has lost the trail and cannot locate Split Rock Creek, the landmark that would guide him to the settlement where his old friend Hans Olsa, the talkative Syvert Tönseten, and the two Solum brothers have already arrived. Beret weeps silently, filled with dread at the featureless expanse. Unable to sleep one night, Per Hansa walks miles to a ridge, discovers evidence of previous travelers, and traces the trail to a creek where he finds a dried mutton leg left by Hans Olsa. Elated, he returns to find Beret beside the wagon. She embraces him in anguished relief.

The caravan reaches the Spring Creek settlement, where they will begin to build sod structures on the open prairie. A sod house is built from blocks of dense prairie turf stacked like bricks, the only available building material where no trees grow. Hans Olsa, a man of immense physical strength, has reserved the quarter-section of land, 160 acres, north of his own for Per Hansa. Per Hansa files his claim at Sioux Falls, receiving a temporary deed dated June 6, 1873, and throws himself into work. He builds an unusually large sod house, combining dwelling and barn under one roof. Beret accepts her husband’s plans, but does not reveal her hope that having the animals nearby will ease her terrible loneliness. Per Hansa plants potatoes and all the seeds Beret has brought, makes a trip to the Sioux River for timber and supplies, and dreams of a white house with green cornices, orchards, and a picket fence.

Beret struggles against mounting dread. Sitting on a hilltop, she traces in memory every stage of their migration, from Norway across the Atlantic through a succession of American towns, each carrying her farther from home. She discovers a Native American burial site on the hilltop. When a band of Native Americans arrives and camps nearby, the women are terrified, but Per Hansa approaches with Store-Hans as interpreter. He finds a man with a badly infected hand and treats it through the night. When the group departs, the man presents Per Hansa with a fully saddled pony in gratitude. Shortly after, all four of the settlement’s cows vanish. Many of the settlers want to blame the Native Americans. Per Hansa rides out alone and finds the cows at a Norwegian settlement on the Sioux River. When he returns, he brings a yearling bull, a rooster, and two hens, as well as the lost cows.

While exploring the settlement’s western boundary, Per Hansa discovers claim stakes bearing Irish names on the corners of Tönseten’s and Hans Olsa’s land. He secretly removes the stakes, fills the holes, and burns the wood. Beret finds the stakes before he destroys them and is horrified, believing that destroying another person’s landmarks is a grave sin. When Irish settlers arrive to claim the disputed land, a confrontation ensues. The Irish leader cannot find his stake and threatens Hans Olsa with a sledgehammer. Hans Olsa knocks the man down with one punch. The Irish eventually settle on unclaimed land to the west. Per Hansa tells the full story proudly, but Beret condemns the act before the group, accusing them all of losing their morality. A coldness grows between husband and wife.

As winter approaches, Per Hansa makes a trading trip for provisions and supplies since Beret will soon give birth to their fourth child. While he is away, Beret begins packing the immigrant chest, planning to flee east. Store-Hans discovers her; the sheer impossibility of the plan, written on his face, stops her. She feels the baby kick, cries out to God, and unpacks the chest before Per Hansa returns. Winter descends with relentless cold. Beret deteriorates visibly. She stops washing, lies awake through the nights, and grows consumed by the conviction that her life on the prairie is divine retribution for conceiving Ole out of wedlock, defying her parents, and following Per Hansa to America. She begins preparing the immigrant chest as her coffin.

On Christmas Eve, Beret goes into labor. Per Hansa paces outside all night, unable to enter, and a suicidal impulse flickers when he notices a rope and crossbeam in the stable. Near dawn, a boy is born in such poor condition that Sörine, Hans Olsa’s wife, urges immediate her husband to immediately baptize the baby. Hans Olsa reads the ritual in a trembling voice, christening the child Peder Victorious. The boy is born with the caul, a membrane covering the face traditionally seen as a sign of special destiny. Per Hansa weeps with relief. Beret lies peacefully asleep, the terror gone from her face.

The baby, nicknamed Permand, transforms the settlement’s mood. Through the winter, Per Hansa makes fur-trading expeditions, earning $140 despite dangerous conditions. In spring, he becomes the first to seed wheat. A blizzard buries the field and he takes to his bed in despair, but the wheat sprouts when the snow melts. That summer, the first plague of grasshoppers appears. The dark cloud of insects threaten to devour everything that the settlers have planted. Per Hansa’s fields escape the worst, but he finds Beret and the children huddled inside the immigrant chest, believing the devil has come for them. The plague returns in the ensuing years, prompting talk of a plague.

A traveling minister arrives and holds the settlement’s first divine service, using the immigrant chest as an altar. During the baptismal rite, when the minister pronounces the name Peder Victorious, Beret erupts. She believes that no one can be victorious where the evil one claims them all. Per Hansa carries her out. The minister counsels Per Hansa to keep the child with Beret and show her constant tenderness. When the minister returns for Communion two weeks later, Beret begins to soften. She sings hymns and tends to Per Hansa again. Overhearing her husband refuse Hans Olsa’s offer to take Permand for Beret’s safety, insisting that Beret risked her life for the boy and shall not lose him, Beret is overcome with gratitude. Her despair begins to lift and Per Hansa noticed with relief the change that has come over his wife.

During the catastrophic winter of 1880-81, Hans Olsa goes out in a blizzard to rescue his cattle. He is caught in the snow and a terrible cough takes hold. Beret sits at his bedside and tells him plainly he must seek Communion before it is too late. Hans Olsa begs for the minister. Per Hansa resists, knowing the journey across the prairie to the minister at the James River is almost certainly fatal. Beret insists someone must try and puts on her coat to go herself. Sörine comes to plead, telling Per Hansa that they all feel nothing is ever impossible for him. After a fierce internal struggle, Per Hansa borrows two pairs of skis and sets out alone into the storm, unable to face a direct goodbye to Beret.

The following spring, a group of boys searching for stray cattle discover Per Hansa’s body sitting against a haystack on a hillside, halfway between the settlement and the James River. He has two pairs of skis, a heavy stocking cap, and a staff in each hand. His face is ashen and drawn, his eyes set toward the west.