This is a traditional Folk lullaby from Iceland. Icelandic lullabies are famed for being somehow mysterious of frightening and this one has a well known ghost story as background that you can read at the end of the video.
If you are so kind to leave a comment on youtube I'm grateful, you can enable captions and Lyrics for ICELANDIC / ENGLISH or SPANISH
A very old ghost story
The legend says a woman became pregnant out of wedlock and as that was punishable with a severe penalty she set up to abandon the child in the forest to die of exposure in the dark woods. She wrapped the creature in rags and left it to the elements. This practise was not that uncommon in the past as we can see recurrently in many fairy tales. Some years later while the mother was milking the ewes she sourly complained aloud of not having fine clothes to attend a popular Ring dance (the "Vivivaki" festival") and then she heard the spectral voice of a child humming a song, precisely this one featured in the video. The ghostly voice sung the words of this lullaby
LYRICS AND TRANSLATION
Móðir mín í kví, kví
kvíddu ekki því, því;
ég skal ljá þér duluna mína
duluna mína að dansa í
ég skal ljá þér duluna mína
duluna mína að dansa í
Mother of mine in the sheep pen
You don't need to worry, worry
You can wear this these rags of mine
so you can dance and dance
Upon hearing this the woman quickly went insane as she remembered her crime and thought the child's ghost had returned to curse her. I'm not native Icelandic speaker so I hope I have not mispronounced much
The ghosts of these children would be called útburður, the name suggests they were often carried outside and were then left to die in the wild. They are a gangári type ghost meaning they can follow their victims but unlike the other ghosts they can actually cast a curse on a whole family for generations to come.
The musical instruments used
This song is very old yet its first written version was published arranged by Sigfús Einarsson (1877–1939) in a journal of Icelandic literary Society (1913)
The little stringed instrument I play is a kantele, just the Finn name of a family of instruments of Baltic Psalteries. Name varies in different countries (Gusli in Rusia, Kokle in Latvia). It sounds very much like a mix of lyre and bells.
And this is a jouhikko (as it is called in Finland) or Talharpa. One of the earliest bowed instruments in Europe, as vikings incorporated a bow to their lyre as observing from other Southern cultures. It means "hair" because the strings and the bow are made of horse hair and it has in fact a very rustic sound. You can hear it in soundtracks like "The Lord of the Rings"
Find the Ratties
As always we have some ratties as guests... in this video Tuula hides in two spots in the video, let me know if you saw her. Because it's rather difficult to find I give one of the "two " sightings LOL
Support by downloading the song at:
Thanks always to all my patrons for making my channel and music possible.
Patrons can download the song for free at:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/modir-min-i-kvi-46900505
If still wanting to support it's also available at bandcamp as well at:
https://priscillahernandez.bandcamp.com
pd. Collar is FAUX fur. I do not support fur trade.
pd. I am from Spain, not from Iceland, and since I shared this video barely a few days ago I am happy to have received lovely feedback from natives, as I was afraid my pronunciation might be off. They've been the kindest so I'm very encouraged to revisit more of norse folk songs.