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Ole Edvard Pedersen Rolvaag (1876 - 1931)

Kaylin, thanks for noticing and for trying to be accurate. As he was born in Norway, he would have been named in the Norwegian method: his father's name was Peder Jacobsen, so he would have been named Ole Pedersen (though to be strictly accurate, it would use Norwegian orthography). When he started at Augustan Academy in 1898, he took the name Rolvaag from the area he was born.

Sources: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ole_Edvart_R%C3%B8lvaag

Encyclopedia.com https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/rolvaag-o-e

The text of Giants in the Earth, and a good biography, are available online https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks05/0500711h.html

In Giants in the Earth, the characters discuss the question of names:

But here came Tönseten with a question that made them forget everything else for a while. The conversation had died of its own inertia; no one could find a thought that seemed worth expressing. Then Tönseten straightened up where he sat on the chest, demanding to know what nam

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About the Author

Ole Edvart Rölvaag was born on April 22, 1876, on the island of Dönne and lived in Nordland, the far north of Norway. His family had been fishermen and seafaring people for generations. After a meager education Rölvaag worked for several years as a fisherman, but in 1896 he emigrated to the United States to work on his uncle’s farm in Elk Point, South Dakota. He worked his way through Augustana College, South Dakota., from 1897 to 1901 and through St. Olaf’s College, Minnesota, where he received a bachelor of arts degree in 1905. He then returned to Norway to spend a year at the University of Oslo.

Returning to America in 1906, Rölvaag joined the faculty of St. Olaf’s College. In 1908 he became a United States citizen and married Jenny Berdahl; they had four children. In 1910 Rölvaag received his master of arts degree from St. Olaf’s.

Rölvaag had begun writing during his early teaching years. His first book, written in Norwegian, appeared in 1912 under the title Amerika-Breve (Letters from America); with a succeeding volume, Pa° Glent

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RÖLVAAG, O. E. (1876-1931)

Photograph of Norwegian author Ole Edvart Rolvaag

Born April 22, 1876, to Peder Jakobsen Rölvaag and Ellerine Pedersdatter Vaag, Ole Edvart Rölvaag grew up in the Norwegian hamlet of Rölvaag, a small fishing community on Dønna Island just below the Arctic Circle. Rölvaag immigrated to Elk Point, South Dakota, at the age of twenty and represented this immigrant experience throughout his fictional work. Nevertheless, impressions from his early years remained in his use of Norwegian ballads, hymns, folklore, and classic literature; his utilization of sea-going themes and images; and his blend of the romantic and realistic inspired by the stunning beauty of Dønna.

In his first published novel, the autobiographical The Third Life of Per Smevik (1912), Rölvaag detailed his hardships as a new immigrant in the West, explored the costs of immigration to America, and began to reveal his ideas on cultural integrity, that is, ensuring cultural identity is not sacrificed in the wake of the American Dream. He continued th