Lesson 15 - Per Spelmann
Per Spelmann
Per Musician
Per the Musician
While the students are singing at the party, we interrupt the Mystery of Fantoft story with our own song. This is a Norwegian folk song called «Per Spelmann». There are multiple verses, but we'll only look at three of them here. If you would like to listen to the song, you can search for «Per Spelmann» on You Tube.
«Per» is a common Norwegian name.
«å spele» = «to play»
«mann» (m) = «man»
A «spelmann» is a man who plays music. Mostly used about fiddle players, but it can also be used on other kinds of music players.
Per Spelmann han hadde ei einaste ku.
Per Musician he had a single one cow
Per the Musician he had just one cow
When you sing the song, you are supposed to repeat line 1 and 2 twice. Line 3 («Du gamle, gode») is not repeated.
Han bytte bort kua, fekk fela igjen.
He traded away the cow got the fiddle again.
He traded away the cow and got his fiddle back
«ku» (f)
«fele» (f)
«Å byte» means «to trade», and in past tense it's «bytte». This verb belongs to a group of verbs called e-verbs, because they end with the letter «e» in past tense. We will study e-verbs later in the course.
Du gamle, gode fiolin, du fiolin, du fela mi.
You old good violin you violin you the fiddle of mine.
You old, good violin, you violin, you fiddle of mine.
Per Spelmann han spela, og fela var god.
Per Musician he played and the fiddle was good.
Per the Musician he played, and the fiddle was good
«Å spele» means «to play», and (here) its past tense is «spela». This verb belongs to a group of verbs called a-verbs, because they end with the letter «a» in past tense. We will study a-verbs more in the next lesson.
Så gutane dansa og jentene lo.
So the boys danced and the girls laughed.
So the boys were dancing and the girls were laughing.
«Danse» is also an a-verb.
Du gamle, gode fiolin, du fiolin, du fela mi.
You old good violin you violin you the fiddle of mine.
You old, good violin, you violin, you fiddle of mine.
Og om eg vert gammal som mose på tre
And if I become old like moss on trees
And if I get as old as the moss on trees
«mose» (m)»
«tre» (n)
så aldri eg byter bort fela for fe
so never I trade away the fiddle for cattle.
I'll never trade away my fiddle for cattle.
«fe» (n)
«byter» is present tense. Remember that verbs in present tense usually ends with the letter «r».
Du gamle, gode fiolin, du fiolin, du fela mi.
You old good violin you violin you the fiddle of mine.
You old, good violin, you violin, you fiddle of mine.
Adjectives get an «-e» ending when they are between a pronoun or definate article and a noun.
In basic form it is «ein god fiolin», but after a pronoun we get «du gode fiolin»
Also «ein gammal fiolin», but «du gamle fiolin» .
We will study adjectives more later.
å ha, har, hadde, har hatt
to have, have/has, had, have/has had
to have, has, had, has had
This is not a part of the song, of course, but just another important verb you should learn.
