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Giants in the earth

Chapter 117: Footnotes
By O. E. Rølvaag
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About This Book

A multi-section novel traces the experience of immigrant settlers who claim and attempt to cultivate a vast prairie, exposing the physical hardships of plowing sod, unpredictable weather, and isolation. The narrative centers on a household whose resolve to found a home is tested by loneliness, cultural dislocation, and mounting psychological strain, leading to a tragic collapse of hope for at least one member. The landscape is rendered as a living presence that shapes thought and fate, while community rituals, faith, and stubborn perseverance are shown as both sustaining and limiting forces. The work juxtaposes frontier-building practicalities with inward, psychological cost.

THE END

Footnotes

  • [1] In most dialects of Norway the name Ole becomes Ola when spoken.
  • [2] A companion on the winter fishing grounds at the Lofoten Islands.
  • [3] The combination kj in this name is pronounced like ch in church; the final i has the sound of y in godly.
  • [4] The name properly is Sörine, with the accent on the second syllable; but in the dialect of Helgeland it is pronounced Sörrina, with the accent on the first. These people all came from the district of Helgeland, in Norway.
  • [5] This bottle and glass would have been old family pieces from Norway, the bottle shaped something like an hourglass, with a contraction in the middle to be grasped by the hand.
  • [6] Original settlers are agreed that there was neither bird nor insect life on the prairie, with the exception of mosquitoes, the first year that they came.
  • [7] People from the district of Trondhjem, Norway.
  • [8] The cattle of the first settlers, from the wandering habits they had formed during the outward journey, had to be watched, for they wanted to join every caravan that came along.
  • [9] In the light of Norwegian peasant psychology, Beret’s fear is easily understandable; for a more heinous crime than meddling with other people’s landmarks could hardly be imagined. In fact, the crime was so dark that a special punishment after death was meted out to it. The visionary literature of the Middle Ages gives many examples.
  • [10] People from the districts of Sogn and Voss, in Norway.
  • [11] These are the first three Norwegian settlements in the Northwest.
  • [12] People from Hallingdal, in Norway.
  • [13] The English equivalent is, “to be born with the caul.” Considerable superstition has always been attached to this phenomenon and in Norway especially so; a person born with the helmet on had been singled out by Destiny for something extraordinary.
  • [14] The name Seier, which means Victorious, was altogether unusual to Norwegian ears. The English equivalent will be used from now on. As this name plays such an important part in the psychology of Book II the reader would do well to remember the Norwegian form.
  • [15] Per, contracted from Peder;—mand, diminutive ending like the German kin; hence, Permand is equivalent to Pederkin. Olamand is formed in the same manner.
  • [16] Both names are colloquial expressions, peculiar to the dialect of Nordland; they mean the same thing, viz., Old Nick.
  • [17] During the winter seasons at Lofoten, the two clans, the Trönders and the Helgelændings, had from time immemorial fought many a bitter fight.
  • [18] The practice of changing surnames has gone on extensively with the Norwegian-American. Among the common folk in Norway it is quite customary even yet for the son to take his surname from his father’s first name; the son of Hans must be Hansen or Hanson. Likewise the girl; if she is the daughter of Hans, her surname becomes Hansdatter (Hans’ daughter), which she retains even after marriage. When the Norwegians became independent landowners in America their slumbering sense of the historical fitness of things awoke, and so many of them adopted the name of the place they had come from in the old country. Hence the many American names now ending in —dahl, —fjeld, —gaard, —stad, etc. As the Swedes, and the Danes, too, had so many Hansens and Olsens and Johnsons, the change was really a very practical one.
  • [19] Olav Trygvason, King of Norway (995–1000); St. Olaf, Norway’s martyr king (1016–1030); Peter Tordenskjold, the great naval hero (1690–1720); Tore Hund, St. Olaf’s slayer. These names are household words with every emigrant Norwegian.
  • [20] Skarv in this compound means cormorant—a rather nasty-looking sea bird; the word is often used in an adjectival sense about a deadbeat or person of low moral qualities. Holmen means the holm. Hence Skarvholmen—the holm of the cormorant.
  • [21] An old superstition that goes back to Norse mythology: the Kingdom of Darkness and Evil was located in the far north; the way to Hell led downward and in a northerly direction. In the practice of sorcery and witchcraft, whenever water was to be used it must always be taken from streams flowing from south to north, for such water had supernatural power.
  • [22] A church official having partly the duty of cantor and partly of sexton. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a candidatus theologiæ when deemed too great a blockhead to receive ordination to the holy ministry, was often appointed klokker.
  • [23] Norwegian-American newspaper published in Chicago.
  • [24] People from the mountain district of Telemarken, Norway.