Vargsången (The Wolf Song)

Nordic folk music is widely related to traditions, the landscape, the wild life, the changing seasons, the farming life and the mithology of the Viking Age.

Instrumental folk music is mainly dedicated to social entertainement or traditional dances. It uses, for example, instruments such as the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle (an eight or nine string violin), the Finnish kantele (a plucked string instrument) and the Dannish lur (a long wooden tube), the nyckelharpa and the accordion.

Vocal folk music covers various forms, including the Swedish kulning, (songs usually sung by women to herd cattle), Norwegian epic songs that originated in the Middle Age, lullabies, work songs, etc. It aso includes the Sami oral tradition represented by joik, a monotonous chant often accompanied by a drum.

Here is a song, Vargsången, from the soundtrack of a 1984 film called Ronja Rövardotter (The Robber's Daughter) based on a book by Astrid Lindgren, the famous Swedish writer who created the character Pippi Långstrump and who also wrote the lyrics of the song. Though it is quite a modern song, it roots into traditions because of its atmosphere and the relation to nature.

Here you have got the sound file.

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