* Updates on the search for more information are at the bottom of this page *
In 1910, Norwegian poet Ingeborg Möller-Lindholm (1878-1964) told Rudolf Steiner about an old Norwegian poem called The Dream Song of Olaf Åsteson. The poem is about the Holy Nights between December 24 and January 6. It is unknown when it was written, although it is unlikely to have been outside of the period between the 5th and 11th centuries. Until the year 353, Epiphany on January 6 was the Christmas Day, a day which, back then, was dedicated not only to the birth of Jesus, but also the baptism, the Christ and the mystery of Golgotha. Parts of the poem reappeared in the 19th century.
Möller-Lindholm created a translation from the old Norwegian dialect into German, upon Steiner’s request, in 1910. Her son Dan Lindholm (1908-1998) published this translation under his own name in 1967 and it is still in print today. The Dutch edition is based on this German version. The English version, however, after many musicians have used it as a source of inspiration, seems to be fading into obscurity.
The poem was published in a book called The Dream Song: Draumkvaedet, Norske Folkeviser, edited by singer, conductor and composer Thorvald Lammers (1841-1922), printed in Kristiania, modern-day Oslo, in 1901 by Aschehoug & Co. Poet Eleanor C. Merry (1873-1956) made an English translation, and the first edition by New Knowledge Books appeared a few years after her death in 1961. In the 1980s this book was sold by the non-profit Rudolf Steiner Press until they took it out of print some time after 1989. They stated in an email that it was no longer cost-effective. The asking prices of second-hand editions, meanwhile, are starting at $300.
Plenty of stories tell of how this old poem was rediscovered in Norway around 1850, but some parts of these accounts are surprisingly detailed while other parts leave big mysteries unsolved. In whichever way it happened, parts of the poem did gradually reappear from obscurity through the people hereby named, and it certainly is much older than is often assumed. Let us hope its current descent back into obscurity can be halted.
The poem can be read here on the website of the Rudolf Steiner Archive.
Update #1 January 2025:
The Dutch publisher says their translated edition is based on the German translation. Ingeborg’s German text is published under Dan’s name, their texts may or may not differ.
Update #2 June 2025:
The German publisher may know about the differences between the texts, if any:
Update #3 July 2025:
No answer received from the publisher in Germany on the question raised last month.
Update #4 October 2025:
The English edition from 1961 by poet and painter Eleanor C. Merry contains parts of the Norwegian alongside the English. Merry writes in the introduction that she based her English translation upon the German translation by Eric Trummler [unknown person and unknown date of work] and cooperated with author E.M. Smith-Dapier to make sure the English correctly reflected the old Norwegian. Musicians Stanley Drake and Benedict Wood [both unknown] contributed to her book by adding the musical notes of the four melodies to the verses. Since Merry’s books were published some five years after her death, John Fletcher [writer, scholar, unknown] who has written all the introductions may have been the one creating and (re)publishing the books in 1961 in cooperation with New Knowledge Books. The book contains thirteen photographs of Merry’s paintings inspired by the poem. When seventy years pass after Merry’s death (1956), e.g. on January 1, 2027, her translation becomes public domain in the UK and Europe (100 years for North America) and can be facsimile reprinted by Old Revolutions Press. Merry mentions Magnus Brostrup Landman (1802-1880) as the one who first ‘refound’ the poem in the Norwegian region of Telemark. In 1853 Landstad published the famous Norske Folkeviser. Out of respect for the old poem, Merry only mentions herself as a translator (trans.), and there is no name on the book cover.
I continue the search for Mrs. Ingeborg Möller-Lindholm’s German translation, or at least to try to find out if her son Dan used his mother’s text 1:1 or made his own. Another interesting question is why Merry did not use Ingeborg Lindholm’s German translation but Trummler’s.
The ancient poem has been used by several artists between approximately the 1850s and today, and rarely in ways that made the original text easily accessible to the wider public. In 1904, for instance, artist Gerhard Munthe (1849-1929) used the poem to create a book (second source), added his own illustrations, lettertypes and binding, put his name on the cover and printed only a few hundred copies as an expensive special limited edition.
Some versions of the poem have 64 verses, some less.
Other artists were more open about how they used the ancient poem:
“With [Thorvald] Lammers [1841-1922], Draumkvedet acquired a fixed form, both textually and melodically. Lammers’ edition is printed in his book Norske folkeviser, Tekst og tones (Aschehoug, Kristiania 1901), Lammers published Draumkvedet as he performed it: here there are 40 verses and 4 melodies. He writes in the introduction: ‘The text has been compiled by me with the assistance of Professor Moltke Moe [1859-1913], […] substantially according to Landstad’s Norske Folkeviser (Kristiania 1853, Chr. Tønsbergs forlag)’.”
Source: https://lindemanslegat.no/?p=3012
In the gathering of old Norwegian folk tales, Professor Moltke Moe had continued the work of his father Jørgen Moe (1813-1882), a Church of Norway bishop who cooperated closely with folklorist Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (1812-1885). While Moe Jr. based his work upon Landstad, Moe Sr. had tried to sabotage Landstad:
“Norske Folkeviser had a difficult birth, in competition with a planned project of Jørgen Moe and printer P.T. Malling. Moe and Malling tried to push Landstad out, and a draft manuscript that musician and folklorist Olea Crøger [1801-1855] sent to Malling in 1842 was not returned. In the linguistic rendition of the songs, Landstad initially intended to follow the pronunciation, but in consultation with [historian] P.A. Munch [1810-1863] he chose a contemporaneous and archaizing norm, in the direction of Norse, cf. the first stanza of Draumkvedet: “Vil du meg lyða, eg kveða full kan/ um einkvan nýtan drengin,/ alt um han Olaf Ástason,/ som heve sovið sá lengi”. In the mid-1840s, Landstad had prepared a draft for a collection of poems (published 1925). Here the texts are in West Telemark language, and the opening stanza in Draumkvedet reads like this: “Vi du mæg høire, æg kvea ful’ kan /alt om dei nyte Drengjin,/ alt om han Olaf Aasteson/ som hæve sovi saa længje”.
Norske Folkviser is not a scholarly work, and Landstad was criticized for this. But the accusations that he had thrown away originals and almost mashed together the song texts were unfounded; the original texts have later come to light.”
Source: https://nbl.snl.no/Magnus_Landstad
There was antipathy between Moe Sr. and other musicians, writers, poets and folklorists. For instance, Olea Crøger and composer Ludvig Mathias Lindeman: “On her own, [Crøger] began to collect old folk songs and melodies, which first appeared in Samling AF Sange, Folkeviser Og Stev I Norske Almuedialekter, the folklore collection of Jørgen Moe (1840), to which Lindeman had also contributed. However, Moe’s 1840 anthology was not a bona fide ballad collection with the exception of two or three pieces, and by the time Moe met Crøger in 1842, she had already compiled a substantial collection of genuine ballads on her own. The Norwegian texts and tunes she collected from the 1840s onwards were published in Magnus Brostrup Landstad’s Norske folkeviser (1853), and her collection also made up a good part of Lindeman’s later melody collections.”
Source: Beyer, Harald (1988). A History of Norwegian Literature. Ardent Media. pp. 218–219.
On Landstad’s work: “In the preface to Norske Folkeviser, Landstad characterizes the collection as a salvage project – as ‘rescuing an old family jewel out of a burning house’. He points out that it is his thorough knowledge of the people of Øvre Telemark that enables him to undertake the task. He also received encouragement ‘from a lady who takes a lively interest in the story’, i.e. the priest’s daughter Olea Crøger. The historian P.A. Munch and the linguist Ivar Aasen had also been important consultants for the work.”
Source: https://nbl.snl.no/Magnus_Landstad