As you’ve probably noticed, on those increasingly frequent evenings when my skull contains only a couple thoughts rattling around, none of them usable here, I resort to posting music. Often it’s Scandinavian music. I’d like to pretend I do this because I grew up with it, but in fact I heard very few of these songs in my childhood, except the hymns. I learned them as an adult.

“Hils Fra Meg Derhjemme” is regarded as the Scandinavian-American anthem. I had the idea it was originally a Swedish song, but this article says it was first performed in Denmark. Nonetheless, all the Scandinavian immigrants adopted it. It’s a song of homesickness, and quite heartbreakingly beautiful.

There are a number of versions available on YouTube, but only a couple live performances. And most of those are either instrumentals or an odd, C&W adaptation. So I’ll have to settle for a performance performed in 2014 by Lynn Peterson and Garrison Keillor, on Prairie Home Companion. I’m no longer a fan of Keillor’s, and am loath to feature him here, but needs must.

As you can read in the article linked above, the song tells of a sailor at sea, standing watch at night. He sees birds flying north, and fancies they’re headed for his homeland. He asks them to take his greetings back to his family, to the green mountainsides and bright fjords (Swedish and Danish versions vary those details a little).

I don’t believe this song is well known in Norway. The last time I was there, I had an evening with the cousins at Avaldsnes, and Cousin Edna brought out her guitar. She asked people to share their favorite songs, and I suggested “Hils Fra Meg Derhjemme.” Nobody had ever heard of it.