Crazy Bridget

An old Irish woman the settlers turn to for help when they are sick. The Norwegians think she is a fraud but concede that she has "a remarkable way with sick folks."

And-Ongen Hansa

See Anna Marie Hansa

Anna Marie Hansa

Anna Marie is Per and Beret's daughter.

Beret Hansa

Beret symbolizes the moral foundation of the pioneer experience, and critics call her the most completely drawn of Rolvaag's characters. She is pregnant when the party sets off from Lofoten and is skeptical of the westward journey from the start. The product of a rigid, moralistic upbringing that considered God as the incarnation of law, Beret is ill-equipped for life as a pioneer. Fear is her motivating emotion. "Oh, Per!" she says as they make their way across the prairie. "Not another human being from here to the end of the world!" Beret is so lonely that...