Summary The desolation of winter has hit the Great Plains, but the tiny newcomer that Beret brought into the world on Christmas morning makes it less of a burden, for here is the miracle of life. To Beret, it is a wonder that she is still alive, and she begins […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book II: Chapter 1 – On the Border of Utter DarknessSummary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 6 – The Heart That Dared Not Let in the Sun
Summary Autumn comes to the plains and brings with it a further feeling of desolation. The skies darken, and everything is gray. The snow falls, and in the morning there is light, but no sun. The wind howls and the snow falls. Per Hansa and the boys work hard preparing […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 6 – The Heart That Dared Not Let in the SunSummary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 5 – Facing the Great Desolation
Summary In the beginning of October, one day Per Hansa, Hans Olsa, and Henry Solum go east to the Sioux River after wood. Beret sits at home knitting, her mood of melancholy deeper than ever. She looks out over the prairie and sees a wagon train approaching. Beret feels that […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 5 – Facing the Great DesolationSummary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 4 – What the Waving Grass Revealed
Summary Per Hansa is wrapped up in the work of building his estate and is happier than he has ever been. He works endlessly and only rests when fatigue overcomes him. As he works on his quarter section, he envisions a day when he will have another quarter section on […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 4 – What the Waving Grass RevealedSummary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 3 – Rosie! — Rosie!
Summary As the summer wears on, the settlers’ food supplies steadily vanish. The time has come to take a trip into town, but this is no simple undertaking. While no one wishes to acknowledge it, they all realize that they are living in a land where man’s strength avails but […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 3 – Rosie! — Rosie!Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 2 – Home-Founding
Summary On the side of a hill near a creek that winds its way through the prairie, Hans Olsa is building a sod house. He stops now and then to search for something. Beyond the half-completed sod house, a tent has been pitched, and around it are some rough pieces […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 2 – Home-FoundingSummary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 1 – Toward the Sunset
Summary A caravan, consisting of two dilapidated wagons drawn by oxen and followed by a tethered cow, makes its way through the tall grass of the Great Plains. Walking ahead of it is Per Hansa, a Norwegian immigrant, who with his family and all his earthly possessions is moving west […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Book I: Chapter 1 – Toward the SunsetCharacter List
Per Hansa The male protagonist, strong and virile, the natural pioneer. Beret Per Hansa’s wife, who hungers for home and hates the Great Plains. Ole (or Olamand) Oldest son of the family. Anna Marie (And-Ongen, the “Duckling”) The daughter. Hans Kristian (Store-Hans, meaning “Big Hans”) The second son. Hans Olsa […]
Read more Character ListAbout Giants in the Earth
While Giants in the Earth deals with Norwegian pioneers on the Great Plains in the latter half of the nineteenth century, it is, in a sense, a story of all the American pioneers who went before them into the west, and is a part of the story of the conquest […]
Read more About Giants in the EarthBook Summary
Giants in the Earth is the story of the early Norwegian settlers on the Great Plains and of the travail they went through in trying to build a settlement and to farm the virgin land. Per Hansa, the male protagonist, is the natural pioneer who looks to the future and […]
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