Sons of the Old Country

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by Waldemar Ager

Gamlelandets Sønner
Waldemar Theodor Ager (1926)

Sons of the Old Country
Translation by Trygve M. Ager
University of Nebraska Press, 1983
(Part of this translation can be read online at Google Books.)

 First published in 1926, Sons of the Old Country is a lively, fast-moving novel about Norwegian immigrants, who worked in the lumber mills of Wisconsin before and during the Civil War. Readers will be reminded of the pioneer sagas of Ager's countryman, Ole E. Rolvaag

These early immigrants are a vigorous, likable, hard-working lot. In summer they work in the sawmills; in winter, the logging camps. They brawl, make love, read the Scriptures, tell yarns, and struggle always to form a community. They came to America for highly individual reasons, and their integration into a new society is hastened by the Civil War. The "sons" fight on the Union side; some are imprisoned at Andersonville.