"" (; ) is the
national anthem
A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European ...
of
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...
. Originally a patriotic song, it became commonly regarded as the ''de facto'' national anthem of Norway in the early 20th century after being used alongside "" since the 1860s. It was officially adopted in 2019.
The lyrics were written by
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson ( , ; 8 December 1832 – 26 April 1910) was a Norwegian writer who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished ...
between 1859 and 1868, and the melody was written by his cousin
Rikard Nordraak
Rikard Nordraak (12 June 1842 – 20 March 1866) was a Norway, Norwegian composer. He is best known as the composer of the Norwegian national anthem, "Ja, vi elsker dette landet".
Biography
Rikard Nordraak was born and grew up in Oslo, Norway. Hi ...
sometime during the winter of 1863 to 1864. It was first performed publicly on 17 May 1864 in connection with the 50th anniversary of the
constitution
A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed.
When these pri ...
. Usually, only the first and the last two verses are sung, with the first being by far the most common.
History
Until the mid-1860s, the songs "
Sønner av Norge
"Sønner av Norge" ('Sons of Norway') is the common title of the song "Norsk Nationalsang" ('Norwegian National Song'), which was the ''de facto'' national anthem of Norway from 1820 until the early 20th century. From the mid-1860s, "Ja, vi elske ...
" and "
Norges Skaal" were commonly regarded as the Norwegian national anthems, with "Sønner av Norge" being most recognised. "Ja, vi elsker dette landet" gradually came to be recognised as a national anthem from the mid-1860s. Until the early 20th century, however, both "Sønner av Norge" and "Ja, vi elsker" were used, with "Sønner av Norge" preferred in official situations. In 2011, the song "
Mitt lille land" featured prominently in the memorial ceremonies following the
2011 Norway attacks
The 2011 Norway attacks, also called 22 July () or 22/7 in Norway, were two domestic terrorism, domestic terrorist attacks by far-right politics, far-right extremist Anders Behring Breivik against the politics of Norway, government, the civil ...
and was described by the media as "a new national anthem". On
Norwegian Constitution Day
Constitution Day is the national day of Norway and is an official public holiday observed on 17 May each year. Among Norwegians, the day is referred to as ''Syttende mai'' ("Seventeenth of May"), ''Nasjonaldagen'' ("National Day"), or ''Grunnl ...
in 2012,
NRK
The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company.
The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...
opened its broadcast with "Mitt lille land".
Background
Norway did not have an official national anthem until 11 December 2019, but over the last 200 years, several songs have been commonly regarded as ''de facto'' national anthems. At times, multiple songs have enjoyed this status simultaneously. "Ja, vi elsker dette landet" is now most often recognised as the anthem, but until the early 20th century, "
Sønner av Norge
"Sønner av Norge" ('Sons of Norway') is the common title of the song "Norsk Nationalsang" ('Norwegian National Song'), which was the ''de facto'' national anthem of Norway from 1820 until the early 20th century. From the mid-1860s, "Ja, vi elske ...
" occupied this position.
In the early 19th century, the song "
Norges Skaal" was regarded by many as a ''de facto'' national anthem. From 1820, the song "Norsk Nationalsang" () became the most recognised national anthem. It came to be known as "
Sønner av Norge
"Sønner av Norge" ('Sons of Norway') is the common title of the song "Norsk Nationalsang" ('Norwegian National Song'), which was the ''de facto'' national anthem of Norway from 1820 until the early 20th century. From the mid-1860s, "Ja, vi elske ...
" (originally "Sønner af Norge") after its first stanza. "Sønner av Norge" was written by
Henrik Anker Bjerregaard
Henrik Anker Bjerregaard (1 January 1792 – 7 April 1842) was a Norwegian poet, dramatist and judge.
Born in Ringsaker to Mads Bjerregard and Alet Ørtlien, he grew up in Vågå from the age of eight. He studied at the University of Copenhagen, ...
(1792–1842) and the melody by Christian Blom (1782–1861) after the
Royal Norwegian Society for Development had announced a competition to write a national anthem for Norway in 1819. "Norsk Nationalsang" ("Sønner af Norge") was announced as the winner. (also called "Nordmandssang") by
Ole Vig has also been used as a national anthem.
Henrik Wergeland
Henrik Arnold Thaulow Wergeland (17 June 1808 – 12 July 1845) was a Norwegian writer, most celebrated for his poetry but also a prolific playwright, polemicist, historian, and linguist. He is often described as a leading pioneer in the develop ...
also wrote an anthem originally titled "Smaagutternes Nationalsang" () and commonly known as "
Vi ere en Nation, vi med".
"Ja, vi elsker dette landet" was written by
Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
Bjørnstjerne Martinius Bjørnson ( , ; 8 December 1832 – 26 April 1910) was a Norwegian writer who received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Literature "as a tribute to his noble, magnificent and versatile poetry, which has always been distinguished ...
and composed by
Rikard Nordraak
Rikard Nordraak (12 June 1842 – 20 March 1866) was a Norway, Norwegian composer. He is best known as the composer of the Norwegian national anthem, "Ja, vi elsker dette landet".
Biography
Rikard Nordraak was born and grew up in Oslo, Norway. Hi ...
between 1859 and 1868, and gradually came to replace "Sønner av Norge" as the most recognised national anthem. Until the early 20th century, "Sønner av Norge" and "Ja, vi elsker dette landet" were used alongside each other, but "Sønner av Norge" was preferred in official settings. Since 2011, the anthem "
Mitt lille land" by
Ole Paus
Ole Paus (1947–2023) was a Norwegian singer-songwriter and poet, widely regarded as one of the most innovative Norwegian musical figures of the 20th century and "Norway's most significant troubadour at the time of his death." Emerging during t ...
has also been called a "new national anthem" and notably featured in the memorial ceremonies following the 2011 Norway attacks. On
Norwegian Constitution Day
Constitution Day is the national day of Norway and is an official public holiday observed on 17 May each year. Among Norwegians, the day is referred to as ''Syttende mai'' ("Seventeenth of May"), ''Nasjonaldagen'' ("National Day"), or ''Grunnl ...
in 2012, the
NRK
The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company.
The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...
broadcast opened with "Mitt lille land."
In addition, Norway has an unofficial royal anthem, "
Kongesangen", based on "
God Save the King
"God Save the King" ("God Save the Queen" when the monarch is female) is ''de facto'' the national anthem of the United Kingdom. It is one of national anthems of New Zealand, two national anthems of New Zealand and the royal anthem of the Isle ...
" and written in its modern form by
Gustav Jensen. The psalm "
Gud signe vårt dyre fedreland", written by
Elias Blix and with a melody by
Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse
Christoph(er) Ernst Friedrich Weyse (5 March 1774 – 8 October 1842) was a Danish composer during the Danish Golden Age.
Biography
Weyse was born at Altona in Holstein, which was in a personal union with Denmark. He gained much interest in ...
, is often called Norway's "national psalm".
Lyrics
Bjørnson wrote in a modified version of the
Danish language
Danish (, ; , ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language from the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken by about six million people, principally in and around Denmark. Communities of Danish speakers are a ...
used in Norway at the time. Written
Bokmål
Bokmål () (, ; ) is one of the official written standards for the Norwegian language, alongside Nynorsk. Bokmål is by far the most used written form of Norwegian today, as it is adopted by 85% to 90% of the population in Norway. There is no cou ...
has since been altered in a series of orthographic reforms intended to distinguish it from Danish and bring it closer to spoken Norwegian. The text below, commonly used today, is identical to Bjørnson's original in using the same words but with modernised spelling and punctuation. The most sung verses—1, 7 and 8 (which are highlighted and in bold)—have been modernised most and have several variations in existence. For example, Bjørnson originally wrote "drømme på vor jord", which some sources today write as "drømme på v''å''r jord", while others write "drømme''r'' på v''å''r jord".
In each verse, the last two lines are sung twice, and one or two words are repeated an extra time when the lines are sung the second time (for example, "senker" in the first verse). These words are written in ''italics'' in the Norwegian lyrics below. The first verse is written down in full as an example.
Poetic translation and metric version
Two alternative
metrical versions also exist. The second closely follows the original and was learned by heart by a Norwegian who did not know the translator's name. It was published (without the translator's name) in a collection of ''Sange og digte paa dansk og engelsk'' (). There are two minor changes in the text in this version, which are presented here. Verse 2, which is seldom sung, has been omitted, and the last two lines in each verse are repeated in the same way as sung in Norwegian.
Deleted verse a tribute to King Charles IV
The original version of "Ja, vi elsker" included a verse hailing
Charles IV, who succeeded his father as king of Norway in July 1859. However, after the divisive international events of the spring of 1864, including the
Second Schleswig War
The Second Schleswig War (; or German Danish War), also sometimes known as the Dano-Prussian War or Prusso-Danish War, was the second military conflict over the Schleswig–Holstein question of the nineteenth century. The war began on 1 Februar ...
, when the
ideal of a unified Scandinavia became shattered, Bjørnson went from monarchist to republican, and the tribute to the reigning sovereign was stricken from the song.
The lyrics that were removed were:
:Kongen selv står stærk og åpen
:som vår Grænsevagt
:og hans allerbedste Våpen
:er vår Broderpagt.
In English, this reads:
:The King himself stands strong and open
:As our border guard
:and his most powerful weapon
:is our brethren pact.
The "brethren pact" the text refers to was a military treaty between Norway, Sweden and Denmark to assist one another should any of them come under military assault. But when German troops
invaded South Jutland in February 1864, none of the alliance partners came to Denmark's rescue. This perceived treason of the "brethren pact" once and for all shattered dreams of unification of the three countries.
Controversies
Norwegian independence
In 1905, the
Union between Sweden and Norway
Sweden and Norway or Sweden–Norway (; ), officially the United Kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, and known as the United Kingdoms, was a personal union of the separate kingdoms of Sweden and Norway under a common monarch and common foreign pol ...
was
dissolved after many years of Norwegian struggle for equality between the two states, as stipulated in the 1815 Act of Union. The unilateral declaration by the Norwegian
Storting
The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The Unicameralism, unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list propo ...
of the union's dissolution on 7 June provoked strong Swedish reactions, bringing the two nations to the brink of war in the autumn. In Sweden, pro-war conservatives were opposed by the Social Democrats, whose leaders,
Hjalmar Branting
Karl Hjalmar Branting (; 23 November 1860 – 24 February 1925) was a Swedish politician who was the leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party (SAP) from 1907 until his death in 1925, and three times Prime Minister of Sweden. When Branting c ...
and
Zeth Höglund
Carl Zeth "Zäta" Konstantin Höglund (29 April 1884 – 13 August 1956) was a leading Swedish communist politician, anti-militarist, author, journalist and mayor (''finansborgarråd'') of Stockholm (1940–1950).
Höglund can be credited as t ...
, spoke out for reconciliation and a peaceful settlement with Norway. Swedish socialists sang "Ja, vi elsker dette landet" to support the Norwegian people's right to secede from the union.
Nazi occupation
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the anthem was used both by the Norwegian resistance and the
Nazi
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
collaborators, the latter mainly for propaganda reasons. Eventually, the German occupiers officially forbade any use of the anthem.
Urdu translation
In May 2006, the multicultural newspaper ''
Utrop
''Utrop'' ('Outcry') is a Norwegian biweekly, multicultural
Multiculturalism is the coexistence of multiple cultures. The word is used in sociology, in political philosophy, and colloquially. In sociology and everyday usage, it is usually a sy ...
'' proposed that the national anthem be translated into
Urdu
Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...
, the native language of
one of the most numerous groups of recent immigrants to Norway. The editor's idea was that people from other ethnic groups should be able to honour their adopted country with devotion, even if they were not fluent in Norwegian. This proposal was referred to by other more widely read papers, and a member of the
Storting
The Storting ( ; ) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The Unicameralism, unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years based on party-list propo ...
called the proposal "
integration
Integration may refer to:
Biology
*Multisensory integration
*Path integration
* Pre-integration complex, viral genetic material used to insert a viral genome into a host genome
*DNA integration, by means of site-specific recombinase technology, ...
in reverse". One proponent of translating the anthem received batches of hate mail calling her a traitor and threatening her with decapitation.
See also
*
Flag of Norway
The national flag of Norway (; ; ) is red with a navy blue Scandinavian cross bordered in white that extends to the edges of the flag; the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side in the style of the ''Dannebrog'', the flag of De ...
*
Coat of arms of Norway
The coat of arms of Norway is the arms of dominion of King Harald V of Norway, and as such represents both the monarch and the Norway, kingdom (nation and the state). It depicts a standing Or (heraldry), golden lion (heraldry), lion on a Gules, r ...
Notes
References
External links
Sung May 1, 2005 in Salt Lake City Utah with Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Norwegian sopranoSissel Kyrkjebø
Sissel Kyrkjebø (; born 24 June 1969), also known abroad as Sissel, is a Norwegian soprano. She is considered one of the world's top crossover sopranos. Her musical style ranges from pop recordings and folk songs to classical vocals and operati ...
; first stanza only and then in English
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ja, Vi Elsker Dette Landet
Norwegian songs
Norwegian anthems
National symbols of Norway
1864 songs
National anthems
Compositions in A major