Character Analysis
Tönseten is your typical blowhard who likes to talk as though he knows everything. As he says when we first meet him,
"I was the first one to find this place, you know… But there's no telling how soon the drift will loosen, the way folks were talking back East last winter" […] Tönseten spoke with all the importance of a man who has inside knowledge. (1.2.3.14)
Now, truth be told, the guy knows much more about farming than his neighbors. But that just makes his defeat all the more crushing when Per Hansa's farm succeeds out of sheer dumb luck and Tönseten must struggle to keep pace. You can tell that Mr. Know-It-All doesn't much like that.
When the Norwegian cows first go missing, Tönseten is the first to blame the Native Americans who've been seen in the area. But he's not bloodthirsty—he's way too pragmatic for that. As the narrator says,
To Tönseten's mind, all that remained of the problem was how to get hold of the beasts again without causing bloodshed and war. (1.3.12.17)
So while he may be quick on the draw when it comes to blaming Native Americans, he's not quick on the draw when it comes to… drawing guns. This might have a little something to do with the fact that he's a scaredy-cat. When it comes time to get down and fight (specifically with the Irish), Tönseten runs to bed and says he's sick:
Tönseten stayed safely in bed until late in the afternoon; then Kjersti came and told him that the strangers had gone. (1.4.11.23)
Aww, that's kind of cute. The Big Bad Blowhard is doing the 19th Century equivalent of holding a thermometer to a light bulb on the day of a math test.