It is this third world that comes to life so poignantly in Rölvaag's novels.
He was born on Dönna Island off the coast of Norway, just below the Arctic Circle; there he spent the first twenty years of his life. The rough, desolate beauty of the surroundings and his harsh, primitive existence as a fisherman contributed to both a love of the place and a desire to escape to a richer life across the sea. Like so many Europeans, Rölvaag was attracted by the unlimited opportunity promised in letters from America which he read avidly in Norwegian newspapers, as well as by the firsthand accounts of Norwegian emigrants who occasionally visited in the parish. In 1896 he turned down an opportunity to captain his own boat in the Lofoten Islands fishing fleet, accepting instead an offer from his uncle in South Dakota to lend him money for the passage to New York as well as to provide him with a job.
After two years in America, Rölvaag was convinced that working as a farmhand was even less rewarding than his former life as a fisherman. He determined to further his education, a decision that would have been impossible in Norway.
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