PREFA CE<br >0nly one full-length study of O. E. R61vaag has been published，<br >a book written more than thirty years ago by two of his colleagues<br >at St. Olaf College， Theodore Jorgenson and Nora Solum. Their<br >book is an excellent biography， full of the minutiae of an interest-<br >ing life. But it is not an entirely， satisfactory literary study， being<br >disproportionately concerned with R61vaag as political and cultural<br >spokesman for Norwegians in Am hrica.<br > A survey of R61vaag criticism since the publication of that<br >biography reveals that most of it has been produced by social<br >scientists， who have focused attention upon his novels as lively<br >historical assessments of the cost of immigration and the westward<br >movement. To these critics R61vaag s voice is prophetic， his achieve-<br >ment dazzling. In the words of Theodore Blegen， "With more in-<br >sight and deeper power than almost any writer， he recorded and<br >interpreted the American transition of the immigrants who made<br >their way in the western world."<br > Unquestionably， there is truth in the assertion. Giants in the<br >Earth is generally regarded as one of the two or three best fictional<br >delineations of pioneer life on the prairies， and R61vaag is recog-<br >nized as an innovator capable of consummate artistry. But in<br > practice he is often dismissed after being accorded such high<br > praise. Part of the problem may be that his admirers claim too<br > great an achievement for him.<br > My concern is with R61vaag the novelist， rather than with<br > R61vaag the historian or prophet of acculturation， and I hope that<br > my study will serve as an introduction to his novels. I have used<br >~X<br ><br >