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

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