Kjærringa mæ staven
The Old Woman With the Cane

TRANSLATION AND COMMENTS BY DR. ALF LUNDER KNUDSEN

The old woman with the cane,
High up in Hakadalen,
Kari churned four marks (1 kg) of butter
from the eight pots of cream
that Ola had brought earlier.(…in his ongoing pursuit to convince Kari to marry him — she was not interested! So it never happened.)

Alfred Paulsen (1849-1936), Norwegian-born organist and choral director who immigrated to the USA and settled in Chicago, IL, arranged this folksong — a “one-sided tragic love story” — for male chorus (TTBB). A Norwegian children’s song about the old lady (Kari) with her cane in the mountains of Hakadalen (a Township in the county of Nittedal in southern Norway).

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Kjærringa mæ stavenThe Old Woman With the Cane

Kjærringa mæ staven
The Old Woman With the Cane