Gåtesong

EM18 / 2005

Two prominent young folksingers sings old traditional riddle song in the style of ballads and epical folksongs from the Middle Ages.

The CD features two of our most prominent, young folksingers. Both of them come from Telemark. Ingvill Marit Buen Garnås grew up in a family where folksong was a natural part of daily life. Jon Anders Halvorsen learnt the traditional songs from old singers in Telemark.

Old proverbial songs possess a central position in the CD repertory. They follow the style of ballads, epical folksongs from the Middle Ages. Some of the songs have roots in Old Norse poetry. It is also worth noticing that the oldest songs may have parallels in traditional poetry of distant countries and cultures, like for instance in India.

The proverbial songs are often connected with nature. Answers to riddles come from the sun, the moon or the rainbow. Or they might come from the thunder, the ice, the fire, the river, the grass, – or from leaves, horses, fishes and swans. In some of the songs, old beliefs and customs are clearly discernible, so it is obvious that we are concerned with a remote age. Ingvill Marit and Jon Anders also sing fragments of other folk songs from the Middle Ages – ballads of proverbial or dreamlike character.