Giants in the Earth Characters

Ambitious Much? The first thing you learn about Per Hansa is that the guy has a hunger that'll never be satisfied. All he can think about is land, land, land, and his entire sense of purpose in lif...

AgoraphobiaThe first thing you should know is that Beret is that she is not a floppy hat typically warn while carrying a baguette through Paris. The second thing you should know about Beret is tha...

The eldest son of the Hansa family, Ole wants the whole world to know that he is his father's second-in-command. Of course, thinking of himself this way just makes it all the harder when he's aroun...

There isn't really a whole lot that distinguishes Store-Hans from Ole, apart from the fact that Store-Hans is younger and a little more boyish. Ole spends a lot of time trying to act like a man, wh...

Hans Olsa is the (mostly) gentle giant of the Norwegian settlers in this book. He also has the calmest and most intimate connection with the American landscape, as we read early on: His eyes had wa...

Sörine is the wife of Hans Olsa and probably the most well adjusted character in the book. She takes things as they come and does her best to make sure her settlement (and the people living in it)...

Tönseten is your typical blowhard who likes to talk as though he knows everything. As he says when we first meet him, "I was the first one to find this place, you know… But there's no telling ho...

Kjersti is the sassy wife of Tönseten, and it's good thing that she is. Without her, Tönseten would think way, way too highly of himself. Kjersti brings him back down to earth with her constant...

O.E. Rölvaag doesn't spend a whole lot of time developing the Solum Boys as characters. They're more like a couple of useful henchmen who can fill in whenever the Norwegian settlement (or the book...

The minister is a bit of a Johnny-Come-Lately in this book, seeing as how he only shows up in the last hundred pages. But once he arrives, he becomes a mentor to many of the people in Spring Creek,...