Danish help

[Meticulous Man]

Nice song

Noschk is a beautiful language

[Meticulous Man]

Though, in Finnish, "puhua norjaa" ("to speak Norwegian") for some reason has become a slang expression for "to vomit", for example "puhuin norjaa vessanpöntölle" = "I spoke Norwegian to the toilet bowl" = ...

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Aivo½so

"puhuin norjaa vessanpöntölle" = "I spoke Norwegian to the toilet bowl" = ...

Brilliant expression- I'm telling all my friends that one.

In France they have an expression about someone's poor linguistic skills:

“Il parle le français comme une vache espagnole!”

[Cort Haus]

My favourite Danish.

[Victor Galis]

Originally posted by Gangerolf
Probably pretty old. Too bad I don't have any sound on my computer, I want to listen to this.

BTW, why did you assume it was Danish (and not Norwegian or Swedish or whatever)?

The second result when I googled "Skon Jomfru" was http://www.answers.com/topic/skon-jo...en-your-window. This might not actually be the same song, but notice the ads at the bottom of the page are in Danish (or at least have .dk URLs).

[Gangerolf]

Ok I see, I thought maybe you thought it sounded Danish

if the song was written before the 1920s or so, which it probably was, it was written in Danish or at least with Danish orthography. Hence "skøn" and not the modern spelling "skjønn".

but then again maybe it is a danish song, but performed by norwegians. I still haven't listened to it

[Gangerolf]

Originally posted by Aivo½so
Though, in Finnish, "puhua norjaa" ("to speak Norwegian") for some reason has become a slang expression for "to vomit", for example "puhuin norjaa vessanpöntölle" = "I spoke Norwegian to the toilet bowl" = ...

One Norwegian equivalent is "rope på elgen" ("call on the moose").
see, no need to offend entire nations just because you have had to much koskenkorva

[Winston]

No, I'm quite certain it's not a Danish song originally. We don't have many mountains for young maidens to walk in.

Besides, even though it is billed as "Skøn Jomfru", the lyrics page that I used for the translation has it titled as "Skjøn Jomfru", with a J. It also has the headline "Nyere viser" (newer songs), which leads me to believe the song isn't too old, albeit set in medieval (?) times.

[Gangerolf]

weird. it looks like it has been written in between spelling reforms or something. also, some words smell like some kind of west norwegian dialect. I'd guesstimate the 1930s.

[Victor Galis]

It could be more modern, designed to sound old too.

[Winston]

If one looks carefully at the first page, it says at the bottom "Denne visa er oppskrevet av Sverre Skreidsvoll. Den er trykt i Bygdebok for Træsfjord."

Does that hint at anything to you, timewise?

Sverre Skreidsvoll returns no Google hits. But the fact that it was "oppskrevet" (put down/transcribed) suggests that perhaps it is an old traditional song handed down orally, and only "recently" put to paper. Could be that the lyrics are old, and the melody and arrangement were done in recent times.

[Victor Galis]

Yeah, a lot of folk music seems that way.

[BlackCat]

I think that it's a "modern" rewriting of a way older song - something like 3-700 years old.

http://www.visearkivet.no/skjon.htm

Sorry, it's in norwegian, but shortly, the first versions can be tracked back to 1400 in germany/nederland where it ws known as "Graf und Nonne" - in that version the lady had joined the church as a nun wich was just as bad for the story. In norway it goes back some 300 years and probably came from denmark as socalled skillingstryk ~pennyprinting - cheap prints for mass distribution.

[Combat Ingrid]

Originally posted by Aivo½so
Though, in Finnish, "puhua norjaa" ("to speak Norwegian") for some reason has become a slang expression for "to vomit", for example "puhuin norjaa vessanpöntölle" = "I spoke Norwegian to the toilet bowl" = ...

When we were kids we used to refer to burping as "speaking French"

[Winston]

Originally posted by BlackCat
I think that it's a "modern" rewriting of a way older song - something like 3-700 years old.

http://www.visearkivet.no/skjon.htm

Sorry, it's in norwegian, but shortly, the first versions can be tracked back to 1400 in germany/nederland where it ws known as "Graf und Nonne" - in that version the lady had joined the church as a nun wich was just as bad for the story. In norway it goes back some 300 years and probably came from denmark as socalled skillingstryk ~pennyprinting - cheap prints for mass distribution.

I think this is correct. I talked to my mom (who is very much into traditional folk music and -dancing), I played the song for her, and although she hadn't heard it previously, she opined that it was likely to be a skillingsvise ("penny song") from an older folk song, only preserved on paper at a much later time.

A further hint to this is also the mentioning in the first verse of the men aboard the ship as "counts". Their being counts has no further significance throughout the song, and is unlikely to have been penned in modern times; it must have its origin in an age where counts were often-used characters in folk tales and ballads.