Du gamla, du fria

The story

"Du gamla, du fria" ("You ancient, you free") was written in 1844 by the Swedish antiquarian Richard Dybeck under the title "Sång till Norden" ("Song to the North"). He set it to a variant of the ballad "Kärestans död" ("The Death of a Loved One"), a medieval ballad type (D 280 in The Types of the Scandinavian Medieval Ballad) whose Västmanland variant had been recorded by Rosa Wretman at the beginning of the 1840s. Dybeck printed the traditional text in his Folk-lore I and the melody, with his own new words, in his Runa in 1845. He first began the song "Du gamla, du friska" ("You ancient, you healthy") and changed it to "Du gamla, du fria" in the late 1850s. Song books went on printing "friska" until 1900, when a priest who had known Dybeck told the opera singer most associated with the song, Carl Fredrik Lundqvist, of the change; a recording of 1905 sung with "friska" still survives.

Dybeck's two verses were written in the spirit of Scandinavism, the movement for Nordic unity popular at the time. They praise the North (Norden) and do not name Sweden at all, and so they contain no Swedish patriotism as such. The song nonetheless came to be heard as the national anthem from the late 19th century, above all after 1893, when King Oscar II stood in acknowledgement of it at a dinner at Lund University. Not everyone thought it suitable: song books listed it under "patriotic songs" from the 1890s but sometimes as plain "folk music" until the 1920s, and a contest held in 1899 to produce a national anthem led Verner von Heidenstam to write "Sverige" but did not replace it. Several writers added verses that named Sweden, Lundqvist among them, as did Frans Österblom and Louise Ahlén, but these were never accepted into the anthem and are rarely printed or sung.

Its place was settled in the 1930s. Edvin Kallstenius made an orchestral arrangement in 1933, and in 1938 Sveriges Radio, the national broadcaster, began to close each day's programmes with it; by the end of the decade its status was established. That same year the broadcaster recorded a Southern Sámi version sung by pupils of the nomad school at Skarvsjöby in Västerbotten, with words from a 1911 songbook by an unknown author. There is also a Finnish version, "Pohjolanmaa" ("Nordic land"), by Alpo Noponen (1862–1927), used in Swedish school textbooks.

The anthem is not defined in Sweden's constitution or in any law, unlike the flag and the coat of arms. Motions in the Riksdag to give it legal status, in 1986, 2000, 2007, 2019 and 2024, have all failed; in 2000 a parliamentary committee concluded that, being the anthem by tradition, it needed no formal recognition. It is sung at state visits, at the Opening of the Riksdag, at sporting events and at the Nobel Prize award ceremony. Sweden also has a royal anthem, "Kungssången".

What it says

A song of praise to the North: the land is greeted as ancient, free and mountainous, its people's quiet joy and beauty are celebrated, and the singer remembers its great past and vows to live and die there. It names the Nordic lands rather than Sweden, and its mood is calm and devoted rather than martial.

The words