And There Were Giants in the Earth

In THIS POST from back in 2014, I chronicle a family heritage trip that our family took, venturing to South Dakota, where my maternal grandfather was raised.  We visited relatives there, toured the old family farm and spent time in a museum looking at artifacts from early settlers to the area.  My mom's maiden name is Sneve.  It is a Norwegian name.  Many people from Norway settled in the Dakotas.

My coffee mug below was given to me by my great uncle and aunt who live in South Dakota and depicts a beautiful scene painted by artist Terry Redlin, of a South Dakota farm complete with pheasants in flight.   Sometimes people look at a nice, pastoral farmstead and don't fully appreciate the work involved in farming.  There's a lot more than you think that went into making the scene you see below.  More on that in a minute.

"Country Road" by South Dakota artist Terry Redlin

After returning from our trip to South Dakota, my uncle gave me a book to read.  It is called Giants in the Earth, by O. E. Rolvaag.  I read the book and it really made an impact on me.  The book is set in the 1870's and it tells the story of the early Norwegian settlers to South Dakota and the hard work, disappointments, and trials they experienced as they tried to build a life and raise families in a land that was harsh, unforgiving and seemingly uninhabitable.

South Dakota winter @ the Old Farm

As my uncle warned me, this book is not a feel-good, happy story.  If you are looking for an inspirational book that leaves you uplifted and joyful, well, this is not your book.  I don't want to spoil the book for you, but the words, "and they all lived happily ever after" are not found in this book's final chapter.  It deals with rugged determination, persistence, and a work ethic which is all but extinct by today's standards. I want to tell you a little bit about it, for despite it's tough story, it does show the "Giants" in the earth that came before us and paved the way for where we are today.

Image Credit

The protagonist of the story was Per Hansa, a man who loved the land and because of that, I feel a kinship with him.  He had a firm belief that anything was possible with enough hard work.  Per Hansa loved his wife Beret and their children with a deep love.  This emotional narrative about the pioneers' attempt to tame the land is a well-written story.  The author successfully communicates their hopes, dreams and fears in a way that becomes very real to you.  You can feel Per Hansa's struggle, you find yourself rooting for him as you might with an underdog in a big game - you can empathize with with him after he suffers defeat after defeat after defeat. What made men like him tick?

Their toil and sacrifice, along with other pioneers, won the west, tamed the prairie and made America the nation it is today, but it came with a huge cost in human life, work, and disaster.  They were a very hardy people and worked hard to pass along a better land to their children.  Immediate gratification seemed to be a foreign principle as they remained focused on toiling to yield a better life that not they, but their children and grandchildren would be the beneficiaries of.

My Mom in front of  The Old Sneve Barn

I mentioned earlier that Per Hansa had a deep love of the land and other than being a story about pioneers, this is an agrarian story and agriculture is described in terms that true agrarians can identify with in the following excerpt about Per Hansa's preparing and sowing his first wheat crop on the virgin South Dakota soil:

"His wonder grew as he gazed at the kernels; there they lay, so inanimate, yet so plump and heavy, glowing with smoldering flame,  It was as if each kernel had light within it - life now asleep.  He thrust his hand into the sack and took out a handful of grain; it weighed like lead.  As his grasp tightened, the kernels seemed to soften under the warmth of his hand, they squirmed and twisted, slipping against one another, they seemed to be charged with a delicate life that was seeking release.  But when he opened his hand and stirred a finger among the grain, the kernels lay there as lifelessly as before - inert, yellowish, pale, yet burning faintly with inner, golden light... Reverently he lifted handful after handful from the table and emptied it into the sack."

A true agrarian, Per Hansa looked at seeds in a way that most people would think borders on insanity! He saw the life, the hope, the future that lay inside those seeds. As springtime neared, he became anxious to plant his seeds in the fertile land.  You can sense his restlessness to get out there and sow his seed - watching the weather, counting the days.

"As the mild spring weather set in, a feverish restlessness seized him, the work on the seed was done and he could not stay indoors....  The chickens were laying finely now, he was finding as many as five eggs a day. They'd better begin setting the hens pretty soon; when fall came, they would have at least fifty fowl on the place?... Next minute he was over on the prairie, talking to and caressing the oxen, and feeling of their necks where the yoke would lie... Now if the ground would only dry up! Per Hansa looked at it the first thing in the morning and felt  of it every night before he went to bed.  Today it had made fine progress.  Good Good - if the sun would only shine as warm tomorrow!... He dashed off to the neighbors, to see how the ground was coming on there.  No, it was wetter than at his place, where the land lay higher.... I'll bet my land is going to be the first to dry up? he told himself."

His wife saw his spirits lift after the long, gloomy winter and she, and the whole family, fed off the energy that was within him.

"Beret hadn't seen him in such good spirits since last spring.  He walked so lightly; everything that had life he touched with a gentle hand, but talk to it he must, his voice sounded low, yet it thrilled with a vibrant energy."

And finally it was time to plant.  The time he had waited on for so long!

"Again Per Hansa thrust his hand into the bag and his fingers closed on the grain.  He felt profoundly that the greatest moment of this life had come.  Now he was about to sow wheat on his own ground!  His hand tightened in the bag; he was on the point of lifting it out when something queer happened - the kernels were running out between his fingers!  He gave another grab, closing his hand still tighter; again the yellow kernels slipped through his fingers like squirming eels.  Then Per Hansa threw back his head and laughed.  These fellows aren't very anxious to go into the ground after riches for me!  He ran his hand around in the bag, stroking the grain caressingly, taking great handfuls and giving them a gentle squeeze."

As he began sowing the wheat, he was very serious about his work, wanting to give the seeds the best possible chance for growth, wanting everything to be perfect in order to maximize the yield.

"And now the wheat rained down in yellow semicircles from Per Hansa's hand; as the seed fell, the warm rays of the sun struck full across it, and seemed to wrap it in golden light.  Per Hansa restrained himself, working slowly and carefully - the seeding must be even and not too thick."

Although many would consider this to be hard, manual labor - not Per Hansa.  This was labor, for sure, but it was a labor of love.  In fact, the tiredness that he felt at the end of the day was a good feeling - an honest day's labor.  That's what I tell my kids: Find a job you love to do and you'll never work a day in your life.

"As long as the daylight lasted, Per Hansa kept on seeding. After supper he sat at the table without moving, he didn't want to get up; a pleasant feeling of languorous exhaustion had settled on him, the reaction from his excitement.  The next day Per Hansa worked like one possessed; he made fine progress.  Per Hansa walked home that night in great satisfaction."

I can identify with Per Hansa's love of the land and I greatly admire his work ethic and love of his family.  Something about that last sentence, as simple as it is, strikes me, "Per Hansa walked home that night in great satisfaction."  Per Hansa was able to take great satisfaction from doing the job that he loved and that makes me happy.

Giants in the Earth was a really good book.  It was a book about survival, hard-work, determination, and told the story of some really strong people who began a task that they knew would not completed within their lifetimes, but of whose toil was a work of love - Love for the land and love for their family.  Their work not only built a nation, but built great character in the generations that followed.