Ormurin Langi
Ormurin Langi ("The Long Serpent") is a
Written in 86 verses in
History
Around 1800 there was an increasing amount of attention paid to the store of
The old ballads were seen as having special historical value, but there was also interest in more recent ballads, e.g. comic ballads (táttur), and new ballads were composed in the old style. One poet who attracts particular notice is Jens Christian Djurhuus (1773–1853), who was a farmer in Kollafjørður. The most famous of his works is Ormurin Langi, "The Ballad of the Long Serpent". His most individual work, however, is perhaps Púkaljómur (‘The Devils Ballad’), a religious epic based on a Danish translation of ‘Paradise Lost’ by the 17th-century English poet John Milton.
Otherwise he mainly takes the subject matter for his ballads from the Norse sagas, e.g. ‘
- "The old farmer Jens Christian Djurhuus of Kollafjørður has composed many ballads based on the sagas. They have been very successful and are sung everywhere with pleasure, since their language is pure and they are very much in keeping with the old style; his ballad about Olaf Tryggvason or the battle at Svolder, the ballads about Sigmund and Leif, and his version of Milton's Paradise Lost with its unusual metrical structure are particularly worthy of note."
Description
Ormurin Langi takes its subject matter from the account well given in Heimskringla of the famous sea battle off the island of Svolder in 1000, when the Swedish and Danish kings, together with the Norwegian Eiríkr Hákonarson, attacked the Norwegian king, Olaf Tryggvason, while he was on his way home from Wendland to Norway on his ship, the Long Serpent, accompanied by his fleet.
They attack in turn and King Olaf repulses the assaults of the two kings, but is defeated by his countryman Eiríkr Hákonarson.
The outcome of the battle is known; when Olaf realises that the battle is lost, he leaps overboard together with his surviving men. It is not known where this battle took place, with it being doubtful whether there ever was an island called Svolder.
In the ballad the poet has Olaf sailing from the Baltic into the
Stamps
Various scenes from the drama described in the ballad appear on ten stamps, issued in 2006 by
The location where the song is composed is unknown.
Versions and history
The oldest version dates back to 1819 and was made by Jóannes í Króki of Sandur. He also collected a version in 1823.
When
Nowadays the ballad is referred to as Ormurin Langi (i.e. "The Long Serpent"), but that was not the title used by the poet himself. He referred to it as Olaf Trygvasons kvad ("The Ballad of Olaf Trygvason"), and other recorders did that as well, including Jóannes í Króki.
It was not until a version from around 1846 that it was discovered that the song got its title from Olaf Trygvason's ship, (Ormurin langi). When Hammershaimb had the ballad printed in his principal work, Færøsk Anthologi (A Faroese Anthology) of 1891, he used the title Ormurin langi, and the same title was used when it was serialised a few years earlier (1882) in the Dimmalætting newspaper.
The lyrics of the ballad vary slightly from version to version, but when the ballad is performed today, it is always in the form known from Færøsk Anthologi.
Nor do the old versions agree on which refrain (and therefore which tune) to use. The refrain that reigns supreme today is found in only one of the oldest versions. It is the one used in Færøsk Anthologi and is, incidentally, familiar from some of the old ballads. Færøsk Anthologi has had a standardising effect and its text has in some ways become the authorised version.
The song appears in the Icelandic Viking movie In the Shadow of the Raven.
See also
- Ormen Lange (longship)
References
- ^ "Stamps.fo". stamps.fo. Retrieved 2022-02-08.
External links
- Ormurin Langi (original text in Faroese from Föroysk kvæði by Jóannes Patursson, 1925)
- Ormen Lange (Norwegian translation by Per Sivle 1857-1904)
- Stamps.fo[permanent dead link] (Public Domain source)
- Tjatsi.fo (theme site by Postverk Føroya)
- Ormurin langi Archived 2006-08-28 at the Wayback Machine (original text in Faroese)