Du gamla, Du fria
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Du gamla, Du fria ("Thou ancient, Thou free") is the de facto national anthem of Sweden. Although the Swedish constitution makes no mention of a national anthem, it enjoys universal recognition and is used, for example, at sporting events. Only the first two verses are normally sung. At international sporting events, often only the first verse is played, which is really more like playing only half a verse of "God save the Queen", and ending before the last chorus-like strophes. Furthermore, many - if not most - instrumental recordings instead take up time by playing the repeated fourth and fifth strophe of the melody as an "intro" before playing the actual song. This is something that is never done with any other national anthem.
The lyrics, which originally began with the words "Du gamla, Du friska" (Thou ancient, Thou hale), were written by Richard Dybeck in 1844 to a traditional melody from Västmanland. The song first began to be used as a national anthem in the 1890s. Despite a widespread belief that the song was adopted as the national anthem in 1866, no such recognition has ever been officially accorded. In 2000 a Riksdag committee rejected, as "unnecessary", a proposal to give the song official status.
It should be noted that the true title of the song is Sång till Norden ("Song to the North"). The opening words Du gamla, Du fria as the title is more like the de facto title. Mostly everything concerning this very unofficial national anthem deals with de facto singing this way, or that way. Another very common mistake is singing "Jag vet att Du är och förblir vad du var" instead of "Jag vet att Du är och Du blir vad du var" in that strophe.
Since the song had started getting its informal status of national anthem, Louise Ahlén wrote the very unknown verses three and four in 1910. They have, however, very seldomly been published, and have remained very unknown to the public. Right wing extremist nationalists tend to know all four verses very well, and the official society does not seem to have any wish to gain the national anthem "back" from theses circles.
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[edit] Lyrics
Original verses by Richard Dybeck:
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[edit] Literal translation
Original verses by Richard Dybeck:
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[edit] See also
- Flag of Sweden
- National holiday of Sweden
- Holidays in Sweden
- Vårt land (Maamme) - Finland's national anthem, originally with Swedish lyrics
- Ålänningens sång - the official anthem of Åland
[edit] External links
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Swedish patriotic songs | ![]() |
Du gamla, Du fria | Gustafs skål | Kungssången |