Oleanna (song)

Violinist and composer Ole Bull

Oleanna (Oleana) is a Norwegian folk song that was translated into English and popularized by former Weavers member Pete Seeger. The song is a critique of Ole Bull's vision of a perfect society in America. Oleanna was actually the name of one of Ole Bull's settlements in the New Norway colony of Pennsylvania. His society failed, and all of the immigrants moved away since the dense forest made it hard to settle there. The lyrics concern the singer's desire to leave Norway and escape to Oleanna, a land where "wheat and corn just plant themselves / then grow a good four feet a day / while on your bed you rest yourself".^[1]

Oleanna in English

Pete Seeger entertaining Eleanor Roosevelt 1944

The lyrics for Oleanna were written by Ditmar Meidell, a Norwegian magazine editor who set his words to the melody "Rio Janeiro".^[2] The song was first published on March 5, 1853 in Krydseren, a satirical magazine which Meidell had founded. ^[3]

Theodore C. Blegen included the song in his 1936 book Norwegian Emigrant Songs and Ballads, which had the original lyrics, a literal translation by Martin B. Ruud and musical notation.^[3] Eight years later Blegen himself wrote a singable translation consisting of 22 verses.

Folksinger Pete Seeger learned Oleanna from Blegen's book and in 1955 wrote a six-verse translation that was later published in Sing Out! magazine. In 1960 Theodore Bikel^[4] and Alan Lomax^[5] each published versions of Oleanna that drew on Seeger's translation, Ditmar Meidell's original lyrics and their own imaginations. Jerry Silverman translated 19 of the 22 verses in 1992. ^[6]

Seeger made two recordings of Oleanna for Folkways Records. They appeared on Folk Songs Of Four Continents in 1955 and With Voices Together We Sing in 1956. Bikel recorded Oleanna for his 1959 album Folk Songs From Just About Everywhere on the Elektra label. In 1959 The Kingston Trio included Oleanna on their chart-topping album Here We Go Again!. Their version of the song had new lyrics which had nothing to do with Meidell's original text.

See also

• Compare the song to "Big Rock Candy Mountain".
• Oleanna (play)

References

1. ^ Folk Songs Of Four Continents (New York City, NY: Folkways Records, 1955).
2. ^ Emigrantviser by Svein Schröder Amundsen and Reimund Kvideland, (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1975).
3. ^ ^{a b} Norwegian Emigrant Songs and Ballads by Theodore C. Blegen, (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1936).
4. ^ Folksongs and Footnotes by Theodore Bikel, (New York: Meridian Books, 1960).
5. ^ Folk Songs of North America by Alan Lomax, (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1960).
6. ^ Mel Bay’s Immigrant Songbook by Jerry Silverman, (Pacific, MO: Mel Bay Publications, 1992).

External links

• Lyrics and music to "Oleanna" on Digital Tradition.
• Oleana lyrics in Norwegian.
• The Ballad of Oleana: A Verse Translation by Theodore C. Blegen.
• Pete Seeger's translation of Oleanna at Smithsonian Folkways. For complete lyrics download PDF file of liner notes. The Digital Tradition version is missing one verse and includes a verse not written by Seeger.
• Ole Bull's Colony at ExplorePAhistory.

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