Winter 2011 - Norwegian-American Historical Association - St. Olaf ...

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Page 6 Volume 140“ D 2 O 2 Y N 2 ? D . F @ ”N A H A A ? O T U C 2 @ U ; A O A U < ;The archive of NAHA is awonderful place to spend a coldDecember in Minnesota. It is aplace to temporarily forget theoutside world and bend overbrittle manuscripts, some of themmore than a hundred years old.For a good portion of December2010 I was fortunate to find time tostudy in the archives, placed in thebasement of the Rølvaag library.To someone who is interested inNorwegian-American life andculture it is a must, a place of bothstudy and meditation and eagernote taking. The shelves of boxesfill you with awe and a sense ofmeeting a world of the past, evenif the documents originated just afew generations back.I had been there before, back inthe days when Charlotte Jacobsenand Lloyd Hustvedt guided theprecious collection. The mainpurpose of my stay this time was toread Ole E. Rølvaag’s manuscriptsof Giants in the Earth, in theNorwegian original, for a plannedscholarly edition of the novel (sofar just an electronic edition)which is now being planned inNorway by Det norske språk- oglitteraturselskap (The Societyfor Norwegian for Languageand Literature). The novel willhopefully be provided with notesand commentaries, notes I wouldnot have been able to produce if ithad not been for a chance to readthrough the original in Rølvaag’sown handwriting, pages properlystored and saved in the NAHAarchives.O.E. Rølvaag,Copyright St. Olaf ArchviesComposing the English languageedition of Giants in the Earth(published in 1927 and todayconsidered to be the standardversion of the novel) was adifficult and complicated taskin itself, involving a number ofpeople who worked with Rølvaag(1876–1931) on the text. But Ihad no idea that Rølvaag, in hishandwritten original manuscriptin Norwegian, changed, crossedout and suggested new sentences.Constantly! He admitted oncethat he rewrote sections of thenovel fifteen times in the originalNorwegian version. The finalresult is a Midwestern classic
Page 7about pioneer days, written by anAmerican writer in the Norwegianlanguage. As Rølvaag once said:“I was drawing a picture of themaking of America.” Luckily hewrote the novel before the timeof the computer. Rølvaag could ofcourse not delete his first choice ofwords but just crossed over wordswith his pencil, so that the presentreader of the manuscript may stillsee how he worked. It is a privilegeindeed to be able to read theoriginal in the NAHA archives.The archive of NAHA is atempting place to be. StephanGreenblatt, the renowned scholarof American New Historicism,once explained his interest in olderliterature by saying: “It all beganwith a desire to speak with thedead.” If you share that desire, theNAHA archive is a true blessing.There are enough life memoriesthere to even lead you astray fromyour intended course of study.As I was getting out the boxes ofmaterial on Rølvaag, I discoveredto my amazement that the churchrecords and the ministerial booksof Østen Hanson’s AspelundChurch, just southeast ofNorthfield, had been photocopiedand published in book form. Ihave selected material relating toØsten Hanson for years. He was aleading figure in the Hauge Synodduring the 1880s and 90s.read and photocopy pages inthe NAHA achives. Hanson’sAspelund congregation was just afew hundred yards across the fieldfrom Muus’ Holden Church. Therecords, in Norwegian, provide uswith pieces of American churchhistory, voices of the dead, whichare now read by just a few. Theyinclude stories of some who wereready to leave Muus and enter theHanson’s Haugean congregation.One would think that they werewelcomed and needed in a muchsmaller congregation, but theirfaith was ardently scrutinized bythe Haugeans before they could beaccepted. The whole book is fullof practical arrangement like whowas to get, pay for, sew, and hangnew curtains in the church andhow much that would cost, nextto passages of fierce theologicaldebate on the meaning of grace.You met immigrants and theirfamilies and their concern forreligion on every page.As I left the NAHA archives late ina cold December afternoon it waslike both Ole Rølvaag and ØstenHanson had spoken to me.Oyvind T. GulliksenProfessor emeritus,Telemark University CollegeAuthor of Twofold Identities(New York, 2004)I knew this material existedbut I did not know that I could
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Winter 2011 - Norwegian-American Historical Association - St. Olaf ...

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